Harry Potter Blamed For School Shootings ??

Jan 23, 2006
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'Ban Harry Potter or face more school shootings'

4th October 2006

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Laura Mallory says the Harry Potter books promote evil



A woman who maintains that the Harry Potter books are an attempt to teach children witchcraft is pushing for the second time to have them banned from school libraries.



Laura Mallory, a mother of four from the Atlanta suburb of Loganville, told a Georgia Board of Education officer that the books by British author J.K. Rowling, sought to indoctrinate children as Wiccans, or practitioners of religious witchcraft.

Referring to the recent rash of deadly assaults at schools, Mallory said books that promote evil - as she claims the Potter ones do - help foster the kind of culture where school shootings happen.
That would not happen if students instead read the Bible, Mallory said.
She added that the books were harmful to children who are unable to differentiate between reality and fantasy.
The children, she said, try to imitate Harry Potter and cast spells on classmates.

"They're not educationally suitable and have been shown to be harmful to some kids," Mallory said.
She argued that teachers do not assign other religious books like the Bible as student reading.
It was Mallory's second public campaign against the popular fiction series, after trying to get her son's elementary school to ban the books in August 2005.

Victoria Sweeny, an attorney representing the Gwinnett County Board of Education in Atlanta's eastern suburbs, which had ruled against her in May, said that if schools were to remove all books containing reference to witches, they would have to ban mainstays like "Macbeth" and "Cinderella."
"There's a mountain of evidence for keeping Harry Potter," she said, adding that the books don't support any particular religion but present instead universal themes of friendship and overcoming adversity.

Sweeny said parents, teachers and scholars have found them a good tool to stimulate children's imagination and encourage them to read.
The hearing officer presiding over the appeal will make a recommendation to the state board, which will then decide the case at its meeting in December.
Mallory is appealing after the Gwinnett County school board ruled in favour of the books.
Wiccans consider themselves witches, pagans or neo-pagans, and say their religion is based on respect for the earth, nature and the cycle of the seasons.
 
That's ridiculous!

The Catholic / Baptist church is against the Harry Potter books, citing witchcraft. But if anything, the Harry Potter books only enforce what (I hope) these churches teach: friendship, kindness, turning away from evil . . . .

Yes, the Harry Potter books do involve witchcraft. The story is set at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But the book isn't JUST about witchcraft. Good magic is promoted. Bad magic is discouraged.


Like I said, it's about teamwork, resisting evil and temptation, the power of good, friendship and the rejection of evil.


One thing I'd like to say to the people that think the Hary Potter books are evil: Do me a favor. Read books like these before you form an opinion on them. The problem is, sometimes church groups get so up in arms about books and movies without actually reading them or watching them.


Interesting story: My parents had a priest named Father Barry over for dinner one night and we wound up talking about this exact same thing. And he agreed with me.




(I did my senior thesis on Harry Potter, so I can go on all night talking about this).



SIDEBAR: While I respect organized religion and the spiritual fulfillment people get out of it, I cannot support some of the things done in the name of organized religion. This is why I say I'm spiritual more than religious.

Granted, the Harry Potter / Evil not as extreme as some of the other things done, this is an example.
 
When The DaVinci Code was released, there was great controversy with the Catholic church. The movie claims that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were man and wife and had a child, that the Bible is "a product of man. not of God, " and that church leaders made Christ divine by a narrow vote in the fourth century.

Is it true?


If the Catholic church knows what's in the movie isn't true, and followers of the Catholic church know the movie isn't true, then why do they find it so offensive?



When Monty Python's The Life of Brian came out, the Catholic church was quick to label it as blasphemous, even though they had not even seen the movie. (And obviously, there was no Brian born in a manger down the street from where Jesus was born.)



I think The DaVinci Code is a movie with conspiracy theories (key word: "theories.")

Sidebar: Watch Penn & Teller's ********! episode on Conspiracy Theorists. Very informative)

Monty Python's The Life of Brian was one of those "what if?" movies.


Neither of these movies take away from the Catholic church. I think these movies would only be a problem if they took away from the Catholic church somehow.


As I've mentioned before, Harry Potter doesn't take away from the church. The church promotes teamwork, rejection of evil and the importance of good. Last I checked, the Harry Potter books promote the exact same things.
 
And to add: Marilyn Manson and Ozzy Osbourne's music was blamed for the Columbine shooting. First of all, while their music has been controversial in the past and the shooters happened to favor those two artists, I am pretty sure that NOWHERE in their lyrics does it say "Hey, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, get an arsenal of guns and go shoot up your high school. And while you're at it, kill yourselves."

Blaming the music didn't work, so they're looking for something else.

What's the next logical step? The Harry Potter books. They have been a source of controversy. Again, nowhere in the books does it specifically tell the crazy homeless man in Denver and truck driver Charles Carl Roberts IV in Pennsylvania to storm the school and do what they did.

And wouldn't it make more sense to blame Harry Potter for the Columbine shooting? Dylan and Eric were outcasts at their school. They listened to Ozzy and Marilyn Manson. Marilyn Manson was named an honorary minister in the Church of Satan. Ozzy Ozbourne referred to himself as the Prince of Darkness.

There was hardly any information on the unnamed homeless guy who was responsible for the Denver shooting. From what I've read it looks like a random, horrible thing.

The truckdriver responsible for the shooting at an Amish school wrote long, rambling suicide notes. There's evidence that he was taking revenge for something that happened 20 years ago. (Apparently he was sexually abused when he was 12.)

When you read what little information there is about these two killers, there's nothing about what they liked to read or what they liked to listen to.

The fear is that the Harry Potter books promote evil and promote an atmosphere where school shootings happen. Um, the two people responsible for the most recent school shootings were grown men. They were not students. Again, as flawed as that argument is, wouldn't it have made more sense to bring that up just after the Columbine shootings?
 
i saw the movie, i talk to young kids about the movie.. violence was not the main selling point of the movie, so if parents do not want thier kids watching it or even reading it because the wrong messages are learned, then they should accompany their kids and have an intellectual discussion about the merits of the movie/book, then at least, they can be an active participant in their child's learning...
 
Some people just have nothing better to do but complain. If her kids can't tell reality from fantasy then it's her problem. If she's trying to ban this movie, *****ing about it will get more people to watch it. She can make her kids not watch any of the Harry Potter's movies and should not try to take the movie away from the people who enjoys watching them. I love everyone of them and so does my 6-year old and we can't wait for the next one to come out! :P
 
And to add: Marilyn Manson and Ozzy Osbourne's music was blamed for the Columbine shooting. First of all, while their music has been controversial in the past and the shooters happened to favor those two artists, I am pretty sure that NOWHERE in their lyrics does it say "Hey, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, get an arsenal of guns and go shoot up your high school. And while you're at it, kill yourselves."

Blaming the music didn't work, so they're looking for something else.

What's the next logical step? The Harry Potter books. They have been a source of controversy. Again, nowhere in the books does it specifically tell the crazy homeless man in Denver and truck driver Charles Carl Roberts IV in Pennsylvania to storm the school and do what they did.

And wouldn't it make more sense to blame Harry Potter for the Columbine shooting? Dylan and Eric were outcasts at their school. They listened to Ozzy and Marilyn Manson. Marilyn Manson was named an honorary minister in the Church of Satan. Ozzy Ozbourne referred to himself as the Prince of Darkness.

There was hardly any information on the unnamed homeless guy who was responsible for the Denver shooting. From what I've read it looks like a random, horrible thing.

The truckdriver responsible for the shooting at an Amish school wrote long, rambling suicide notes. There's evidence that he was taking revenge for something that happened 20 years ago. (Apparently he was sexually abused when he was 12.)

When you read what little information there is about these two killers, there's nothing about what they liked to read or what they liked to listen to.

The fear is that the Harry Potter books promote evil and promote an atmosphere where school shootings happen. Um, the two people responsible for the most recent school shootings were grown men. They were not students. Again, as flawed as that argument is, wouldn't it have made more sense to bring that up just after the Columbine shootings?

You know, with all the typing I've done, you'd think I would've gotten my facts straight!

I've corrected the paragraph I got wrong:

The truckdriver responsible for the shooting at an Amish school wrote long, rambling suicide notes. There's evidence that he was taking revenge for something that happened 20 years ago. (Apparently he sexually abused two female relatives when he was 12 and was tormented by dreams of doing it again.)
 
I try to avoid most "heated" discussions here but this one I feel pretty strongly about. I am a Christian, a Sunday School teacher at a Baptist Church. I have read all the Harry Potter books & seen the movies (we have them on dvd even!). I have always disagreed with the belief that they promote witchcraft or evil. I see the bigger theme of "good vs evil" in which good prevails. I think they are good stories & will allow my son to read them when he is old enough (he's 5).

So...I don't see how Harry Potter or even Marilyn Manson or Ozzy Osbourne could be to blame for the recent violence. I personally don't care for Marilyn Manson's music but I admit to watching The Osbourne's on mtv (lol).
 
It seems like every day someone else is in the news pointing out how harmful everything THEY disagree with is. There doesn't seem to be a way to please everyone when you consider all of the different political, religous and cultural beliefs.

When I was a kid in the 60s/70s some of those Grimm fairy tales were pretty harsh and I turned out fine. read all of the Harry Potter books and agree that parents just need to talk to their kids and help them understand the context.

OK, back to work casting spells on my co-workers. :lol: