The Bible is a Banned Book too!

Wow. I really had no idea that my little postings would lead to such discussion! (and here I thought no one was even reading this!)

And since the comments offer limited space to respond to all of those very thoughtful comments, I have an excuse to write another note! (and now I realize how much time it will take for all of the thoughts I have on the HP series to get old... yeesh, seems it will never end! *in a good way*)

I totally see the satire in the original letter now, and I think I had the right feeling early on about how the logic in the writing seemed too skewed to be an accurate account. And yet, I know some very logical people who have never read THAT article, but because that account (or similar ones) spread through the Internet so rapidly, it has weaved its way into the chain of reasoning behind removing the Harry Potter series from bookshelves. I think they've probably never read that exact chain e-mail, but as Christians we are sometimes quick to avoid books, movies, people, events or ideas that contain elements that represent something against our beliefs. Without knowing the full story, we condemn it before doing all of our homework, and, as we are human and stubborn, we are slow to change our thinking if someone tries to share the views of the other side of the argument.

The first week of October was Banned Books Week, for those of you who may not have known, and as part of that week, I found it interesting that Harry Potter was brought up in many discussions and articles as one of this decades' most controversial books. For some reason, it was at the same time suddenly becoming as hot of a topic among those who are against the books. And even though I've come across some books that I felt inappropriate to be reading while in school, I've somehow always felt that it was important that those books were out there to be read, that as much as I disliked having to discuss one particular scene from a story - much less read that section - I perhaps did learn something from the story - and surely someone else may learn even more from it than I did. And when I came across the previously mentioned posting where fellow "Christians" were condemning the Harry Potter series, I suddenly felt compelled to share some of my own thoughts - that, as much as we may object to a particular theme or idea, they do have the right to share that idea, and we have the right to either ignore it, or listen to their idea and see if there is anything we can learn from it.

Granted, not everyone is sharing messages that we will find informative and/or uplifting... some of the stuff out there is garbage... but if we only let one person - one human who has flaws just like the rest of us - determine what we will believe without taking the time to do our own research, then we don't learn anything at all (even if all we learn is that it was garbage). As much as I hope I've presented my reasonings to others to encourage them to keep an open mind about other viewpoints, ideas, books, etc., I do think that there will still be many people whose minds will not be changed, no matter how loving and sincere we try to come across to them. But part of me hopes that, at the very least, people will think to do their homework before jumping to condemn a book, person, or idea (though I think it's perfectly fine to have reservations about it, and just avoid the topic if you feel uncomfortable about it).

One thing I've come to appreciate about Harry Potter is how it has brought about so much discussion between family members and old friends and new friends. It seems a little crazy to become so frenzied over a book that we run to the library and movie theatre to hang out with people (mostly strangers) who all share that same energy. Though I'm sure there are worse things that could bring groups of people to gather together. But still I think that it is important that we as Christians don't let ourselves get too swept away in this world that is all in our heads. We can be looking for good in many places outside the Church and what is considered Holy - yet we also have to keep a discerning eye out for those things which may cause us to stumble. We have to remember to separate what is true and what is fake, what is good and what is evil. And in any story, it's important to go over what mistakes the characters made and what they learned from those mistakes (and hopefully, learning to avoid what got them into those tough situations in the first place). Lots of people in the Bible made mistakes (and some phrases and stories in the Bible even seem to touch on risky *or risque* topics...) and yet there are many lessons we can still learn today. It's amazing the sorts of things that a book can do - the marks that they can leave on the world. It's that sort of revolution that I mentioned in that previous post - even the sort that start with a few disciples who wrote about amazing things that happened and caused many to turn away from teachings that were widely accepted as proper and in accordance with being obedient to God to follow the teachings of a carpenter. No wonder it's banned in so many places around the world.