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Source: (consider it) Thread: UM: Harry Potter and Witchcraft--One more time!
Siegfried
Ship's ferret
# 29

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An article in The Australian quotes an MP as stating that "The Harry Potter film and books are being used by witches to recruit young people into witchcraft." The Reverend (surprise!) Fred Nile goes on to say that this is all going to culminate in a witchcraft festival in Brisbane.

[ 10. March 2003, 00:47: Message edited by: Erin ]

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Siegfried
Life is just a bowl of cherries!

Posts: 5592 | From: Tallahassee, FL USA | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Robert Armin

All licens'd fool
# 182

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Sounds like fun! Any other HP devotees want to join in? If we haven't enough broomsticks maybe we could a group discount from Ricjard Branson - he's got a beard so he must be a druid.

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Keeping fit was an obsession with Fr Moity .... He did chin ups in the vestry, calisthenics in the pulpit, and had developed a series of Tai-Chi exercises to correspond with ritual movements of the Mass. The Antipope Robert Rankin

Posts: 8927 | From: In the pack | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Ian Climacus

Liturgical Slattern
# 944

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In case you are not sure of the merits of Mr Revd Fred Nile, Member of the Upper House of the New South Wales Parliament, let me relate a few things I remember:

- he prays for rain on the Mardi Gras (a Gay Pride / Rights march) each year
- he and his wife (who was a Parliamentary members also) came to parliament in pyjamas one night (it was a late sitting, apparently)
- he called Eminem the new Hitler

What annoys me about all the hype that HP is evil / leading people to Satanism etc. is that the same people aren't protesting (or are they?) against "Bewitched" and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" - is there any difference?

Admiral H.


Posts: 7800 | From: On the border | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged
David
Complete Bastard
# 3

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quote:
- he and his wife (who was a Parliamentary members also) came to parliament in pyjamas one night (it was a late sitting, apparently)

It was a late sitting, but that wasn't the reason Nile was in his PJ's.

He'd come from hospital to vote against a bill that would make it illegal for people to be vilified on the basis of their sexual preference.

(Side-anecdote. Some friends of mine resigned form the church they were going to because the church had invited Nile to speak.)


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ChastMastr
Shipmate
# 716

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quote:
Originally posted by Admiral Holder:
is that the same people aren't protesting (or are they?) against "Bewitched"

Don't know about Sabrina, but, um, yes, Chick publications in particular (check this site, ... oh, okay, here is the tract itself.

But don't say I didn't warn you.

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My essays on comics continuity: http://chastmastr.tumblr.com/tagged/continuity


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JoyfulNoise & Parrot OKief

Ship's pirate
# 2049

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Think you've got the wrong bewitched, he was refering to a Kids TV Programme, used to be very popular with my kids.
I think HP is great.
My Brother, in accordance with his Dutch Church renounces it - without reading it!

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Written from my alternative universe.

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Siegfried
Ship's ferret
# 29

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Well, as 'Sabrina the Teen Witch' was mentioned in the same breath, I took it to be a reference to the late 1960s US sitcom "Betwitched" (starring Elizabeth Montgomery), about a 'witch' who married a mortal (in the universe of that show, witches were pretty much supposed to be a separate race, I'd guess.)

Sieg


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JoyfulNoise & Parrot OKief

Ship's pirate
# 2049

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Whoops, did I stick my foot in it? But that wasn't what your link suggested (to me any way). Oh well, will I ever keep up with these boards?
JoyfulNoise \0/

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Written from my alternative universe.

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ChastMastr
Shipmate
# 716

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quote:
Originally posted by Siegfried:
in the universe of that show, witches were pretty much supposed to be a separate race

Yep! Powers were inherited, and the question of whether or not Tabitha would or would not have her mother's powers was an issue. Interestingly, the witches and warlocks refer to normal humans as "mortals," which implies some other nature of being. Samantha would cast her spells by wiggling her nose most of the time.

As a side note, the world of Bewitched, what with the witches' treatment of "mortals" as being a bit dumb and amusing at best, disapproval of "mixed" marriages, longer lifespans, and witches as a separate race with more or less separate lives, rules, government and so on, is probably closer to Harry Potter's world than most other things.

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My essays on comics continuity: http://chastmastr.tumblr.com/tagged/continuity


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ChastMastr
Shipmate
# 716

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More

Bewitched

links and info



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My essays on comics continuity: http://chastmastr.tumblr.com/tagged/continuity


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Robert Porter-Miller

Tiocfaidh Separabit
# 1459

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Would you believe a letter written to that venerable publication - "The Portadown Times" - quoted a line about the rise of Satanism thanks to Harry Potter, all courtesy of The Onion!

Pretty impressive stuff that some fundamentalists use to back up their ideas - like satire!

Ho-hum

Rob

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It's a beautiful day - don't let it get away - Bono and the boys

Let's all "Release Some Tension"


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Siegfried
Ship's ferret
# 29

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copied from a closed thread
quote:
Originally posted by Poet_of_Gold:
I agree with those who say that Harry Potter is dangerous. Bewitched also was a dangerous film, and I hated to see Sabrina coming on the television, produced by a company whose founder was the very icon of wholesome family entertainment. I prayed the influence of the show would be stopped. I prayed kids would not take the "candy" of watching fun special effects in exchange for their very minds and souls.

It grieves me that many Christian parents went out and bought the Harry Potter books for their children. I'm afraid we have forgotten to be discriminating in our tastes, and have succumbed to the easy way of raising children, i.e. buy them whatever makes them "happy" and keeps them quiet so we have less work to do in their upbringing. This is in essence giving someone else the control of the child's mind, be it the author of a book, video game, or movie.


[ 29 December 2001: Message edited by: Siegfried ]


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Siegfried
Ship's ferret
# 29

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Copied from a closed thread
quote:
Originally posted by JoyfulNoise and his Parrot, O'Kief:
Dear Poet-of-Gold;
Do you also obect to Narnia? This also has whichcraft etc in it.
L&GB
Dominic

[ 29 December 2001: Message edited by: Siegfried ]


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Siegfried
Ship's ferret
# 29

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As part of an ongoing campaign "to encourage Christians to remove everything from their homes that prevents them from communicating with God", Pastor Jack Brock is planning a good old-fashioned book burning. The featured fuel? Why Harry Potter books, of course. According to Pastor Brock, "These books encourage our youth to learn more about witches, warlocks, and sorcerers, and those things are an abomination to God and to me."

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Siegfried
Life is just a bowl of cherries!

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Nicolemr
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# 28

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just out of curiosity, poet of gold, have you ever actually bothered to read the harry potter books, or are you spouting off entirely from ignorance?

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On pilgrimage in the endless realms of Cyberia, currently traveling by ship. Now with live journal!

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dpeagleca60
Apprentice
# 1161

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Here is where I think the danger in the Harry Potter books lies. While, I am sure they can be read and enjoyed there will probably be those who want to learn more about witchcraft. Here is where the danger lies. There are so many books now in the bookstores on spells and Wicca and on praticing witchcraft. These are serious books and could lead to serious involvement in the occult.
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Reepicheep
BANNED
# 60

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I would say this is only a problem for those that take books too literally, rather than as a metaphor. Kids are always going to be interested in the occult at some point. But the thing with harry potter, is that it is made clear that if you're not at hogwarts or another magical academy, then you don't have the gift, and therefore, there's no point in trying, almost.
magic may exist, may even touch on our lives, but we can't control it, as mere muggles. It's best left to those who have some training. The dire consequences of meddling with things we don't understand, or haven't made certain of is made abundantly clear in each book, with even trained wizards making mistakes.
We may make believe we can control it, and mess around in costume, but we don't, and kids know that.

The danger lies in parents over-reacting to it. If a book is vested with so much power, then it will become powerful. If it is just treated as words on a page, to be taken or left, then fine.

If we're getting worried about reading material, why are we encouraging kids to read a book that encourages slavery, has great kings with many wives, concubines and consorting with witches, has graphic scenes of suffering, children hearing voices, and stories of battles between earth and heaven, and some jumped up little angel trying to get the better of God.

Angel


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Nicolemr
Shipmate
# 28

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*sigh*

ok, dpeagleca60, i'll ask you, then.

have you actually read the harry potter books, do you have any idea what your talking about, or are you shooting off in total ignorance?

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On pilgrimage in the endless realms of Cyberia, currently traveling by ship. Now with live journal!


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Arrietty

Ship's borrower
# 45

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There was an item on the radio news about someone burning HP books.

It gave me an opportunity to explain to my sons the resonances that book burning has for me & why I think burning books is far more dangerous to society than anything that might be published in them.

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i-church

Online Mission and Ministry


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Schroedinger's cat

Ship's cool cat
# 64

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Arriety - I think you are right, that burning books ( i.e. attempting to destroy free speech ) is more dangerous than the things written. Banning things tends to make them more popular, as most of history shows.

The danger, to me, of Christians arguing that HP is dangerous and mistaken, is that it sounds like the Durseleys, who insisted that nothing magical should be mentioned. Not only does this cause problems for them all, but it fails to keep Harry from the truth. The reality is, IMNSHO, that a supernatural world exists, and is not entirely safe. But we need to acknowledge it, and learn to handle it, not deny its existance.

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Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.


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Eldo
Shipmate
# 1861

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The idea that HP leads on to more serious study of the occult seems to be similar to the idea of a gateway drug.

Summarising - a soft drug will lead to a harder drug in a dangerous cycle of descent. Or a 'soft' occult book (HP) will lead to a 'hard' occult book.

Yep, quite possible. But its dependant on the actions of the people reading these books, and in the case of children, parental supervision should be able to control it?

However in the same way we are wary of drinking too much (well sometimes!), smoking a lot etc anything in excess can be dangerous. In the same way me in my fantasy world of books can become dangerous if you fail to able to tell the difference between a story and reality.

Well that's my twopence worth...


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Wood
The Milkman of Human Kindness
# 7

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Fiction is fiction is fiction.

Period. We do untold harm to ourselves and our children (and literature in general) by trying to make fiction agree with our idea of 'fact'. The whole point of fiction is that it didn't happen, and, in the case of HP, can't happen. Good fiction (and despite my own lack of interest, I've found no evidence to suggest that HP is anything else) is there to present and represent the narratives of the human condition.

And it's fun too.

You get idiots like the recent wave of British writers who seemed to think that everything that happened in a fiction had to be completely 'realist' - or, worse, you get hamfisted morons like Frank Peretti or the two guys who wrote the Left Behind books who impose their own (well dodgy) doctrine on their fiction because they don't see fiction as symbolic narrative. They see it as polemic.

Fiction is not, should never be a sermon in disguise. It can, of course, be used to teach, and can conceal a moral - but ultimately, its purpose is not to represent what is, but rather to reflect it, hence the use of fiction to describe the impossible.

Did I say impossible? Yup.

Impossible perfectly describes HP in every respect - magic wands, dragons, three headed dogs, enchanted chess sets, boarding schools which are nice places to attend - all these things are the stuff of fantasy (especially the last one )*.

And let's face it, the magic in HP, or in Sabrina the Teenage Witch for that matter (a talking cat!) doesn't bear any resemblance whatsoever to real magic in any way whatsoever.

Christ himself was certainly not above using fictions, including impossible fictions, to get across a point - see the story of the rich man and Lazarus the beggar, for example. Everybody there would have been well aware that Lazarus and the rich man's afterlife scene was wholly made up - but they got the point.

What are we afraid of? That our children will question their faith?
__________________________________
*In fact, even the 'real world' scenes in HP are set in a mythical, fairytale middle England which does not and has never existed outside of Enid Blyton's books (by the way, Enid Blyton, although an evangelical, recognised the difference and filled many of her stories with fairies wizards, gnomes and goblins - while still banging you over the head with her old-fashioned English schoolmarm morality).

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Narcissism.


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Nicolemr
Shipmate
# 28

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wood, after that last post, i think i'm in love. you interested in a 39-year old, overweight librarian?

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On pilgrimage in the endless realms of Cyberia, currently traveling by ship. Now with live journal!

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Arrietty

Ship's borrower
# 45

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1) If people want to bang on about dangerous books, why don't they start with Dennis Wheatley? (The Devil Rides Out etc). Far more likely IMO to send people looking for covens etc.

2) Nicole - form an orderly queue.

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i-church

Online Mission and Ministry


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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76

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I would have thought that if the book-burning brigade wanted a bee in their bonnets Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy would be a better target.

I've just got to the bit where God dies of old age. God's the baddy in these books, by the way.

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Might as well ask the bloody cat.


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Wood
The Milkman of Human Kindness
# 7

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quote:
Originally posted by Arietty:
1) If people want to bang on about dangerous books, why don't they start with Dennis Wheatley? (The Devil Rides Out etc). Far more likely IMO to send people looking for covens etc.

2) Nicole - form an orderly queue.


Steady, girls. I'm taken.

Of course, Wheatley's the same as Potter, really - goodies and baddies and stuff.

Oh, and Karl - Pullman won't attract so much ire, despite being better that HP, because 1) it's not as popular, and if the media don't mention it, it ain't worth attacking; and 2) it's subtle. The kind of people who burn HP books don't tend to get subtlety, do they?

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Narcissism.


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Weslian
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# 1900

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I found Pullman's Dark Materials Trilogy powerful and challenging stuff. It makes a strong case against organised religion and the way that belief in God leads people to dependency and exclusive sectarianism. I almost found myself wanting to believe in his Republic of Heaven rather than the Kingdom of Heaven.

But I don't find this dangerous, or want to ban it. If Christians can't ride these challenges, and respond to them without wanting to burn books, and stifle argument, then we just prove to those who want to oppose us, how narrow we are and how weak are our arguments.

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Sex, Shopping, Work, Christian Doctrine, Entertainment, Art, Sport.


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Astro
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# 84

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On an evangelical list I belong to someone got upset because she wanted to buya copy of Lord of the Rings to read and found that all the copies had been bought up for a book burning session - why do people buy books to burn them? Nobody on that list could think of a reason.

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if you look around the world today – whether you're an atheist or a believer – and think that the greatest problem facing us is other people's theologies, you are yourself part of the problem. - Andrew Brown (The Guardian)

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blackbird
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# 1387

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burning books sticks in my craw, too...though i've been known to use a reject under the corner of a bookshelf to make it level.

both my kids had to read Farenheit 451 in high school, and i'm glad they did. i haven't read Potter because i'm not really drawn to the genre, but i'm certainly not afraid of its influence...the 6 o'clock news is probably more harmful to kids.

wood's comments remind me of Nabokov's...(off the top of my head)...literature was not born the day a wolf chased a boy out of the forest yelling "wolf! wolf!" it began when a boy came running from the forest yelling "wolf! wolf!" and there was no wolf behind him.


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Wood
The Milkman of Human Kindness
# 7

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quote:
Originally posted by Weslian:
I found Pullman's Dark Materials Trilogy powerful and challenging stuff...
But I don't find this dangerous, or want to ban it. If Christians can't ride these challenges, and respond to them without wanting to burn books, and stifle argument, then we just prove to those who want to oppose us, how narrow we are and how weak are our arguments.

I agree wholeheartedly.

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Narcissism.


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Cusanus

Ship's Schoolmaster
# 692

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Earlier this year I was at a diocesan Heads of School retreat (not, I might add, in my present diocese). The bishop (evangelical and terribly conservative but nice) was very concerned that Sabrina and Buffywould interest young people in the occult. The school heads were MUCH more worried by things like Ally McBeal and the messages about body image it was delivering to young people (esp. girls)

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"You are qualified," sa fotherington-tomas, "becos you can frankly never pass an exam and have 0 branes. Obviously you will be a skoolmaster - there is no other choice."

Posts: 3120 | From: The Peninsula | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged
Cusanus

Ship's Schoolmaster
# 692

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Damn! Sorry for the double post, but I hit REPLY by mistake.

Anyway... as I was saying, it annoys me a LOT that Christian people purporting to care about the welfare of kids spend so much time on crap like this when the real problems facing young people get ignored.

Do I want to add an angry face? Yes, I think I do

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"You are qualified," sa fotherington-tomas, "becos you can frankly never pass an exam and have 0 branes. Obviously you will be a skoolmaster - there is no other choice."


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Akeldama
Shipmate
# 277

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I know this is a somewhat trivial point but in my experience the only thing watching Sabrina the Teenage Witch is likely to engender is a deep abiding love for Melissa Joan Hart (though it's about time they change the title of the show to Sabrina is Heading Towards Thirty)

As to the serious point of this thread. I had friends in my University CU that almost seemed to be trying to out do each other in their misunderstanding and fear of the modern media. So they would only go and see the most un-challenging PG movies, avoid the news (I'll never forget one saying during coverage of the Balkan's War - "why don't they just build some churches in Sarejevo") and not read anything other than the bible. In the end this led to a lot of ignorance and further gave the impression to none Christians at the Uni that the local God-botheres were insane and completely out of touch.

I remember one of them once commentated negatively on my choice of music when I had the stereo on while reading the bible. Although a little NWOBHM was likely to currupt my mind.

But I could understand where some of them were coming from. Some of them were so sheltered and so nieve that they took everything literally. They were used to reading only christian books and the bible, and listening to christian music. So their idea of art or literature was something that reflected the truth of God. So when going to see see movies they couldn't understand that the events portrayed aren't necesarrily the beliefs of the director, writer or actor. They saw everything as a explanation of its creators beliefs, fiction and imagination was entirely lost on them. I know this might seem like over exageration, but believe me, if you were at Lancaster Uni from 1993-1996 you'd have been shocked by some of the CU grandees.


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Toria
Apprentice
# 2100

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quote:
Originally posted by Akeldama:
I know this might seem like over exageration, but believe me, if you were at Lancaster Uni from 1993-1996 you'd have been shocked by some of the CU grandees.[/QB]

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Robert Armin

All licens'd fool
# 182

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I think Toria is agreeing with you Akeldama, Having observed various CUs over the centuries, nothing would surprise me.

(I know this a pointless post but it means that - just for moment - I fill 4 LAst Post slots. That's a new personal best. )

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Keeping fit was an obsession with Fr Moity .... He did chin ups in the vestry, calisthenics in the pulpit, and had developed a series of Tai-Chi exercises to correspond with ritual movements of the Mass. The Antipope Robert Rankin


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Akeldama
Shipmate
# 277

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It's not that folks didn't want to go watch 15 certicate movies it's just the way they'd discuss the movies afterwards. I remember going to see Heat and a CU friend complainging that it would have been much better if they'd become christians.

Well sure, if they were real people with souls and not just characters in a crime drama. I can see it now.....

Bob DeNiro: So what if you do got me boxed in?
Al Pacino: Well you could come to my church housegroup on wednesday
Bob: That'd be really nice, thankyou


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Umbrella
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# 232

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I appreciate fully the idea that some people seem to get so tied up in being 'christians' that they seem to forget that there is a wrodl around us all where a wide genre of opinion and experience ios held and lived.
it worries me sometimes that we can appear to rpopogate the idea that being a christian is a niec woolly cosy world far removed from the problems which beset humanity as a whole.
I always felt that faith and belief are more to do with living in the 'real' world with God by your side rather than withdrawing from other life and popping at it from the security of a group of like minded people - but maybe my preaching is way off beam (if it is they haven't caught me yet incidentally!)

On top of that - going back briefly to the top of this thread - what ever happened to our idea that children are actually able to discriminate between right and wrong and between fact, fictin and fantasy? I feel that sometimes children have a better grasp on reality and 'real' life than adults ever have because we have somehow lost the ability to free renage our imaginations and expand our boundaries beyond the comfortable, safe (for us) and familiar)

Or is that me just haveing a strop at the end of a rather busy day???



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'It is sad that most ministers have more hours training in how to talk & be with people than how to talk & be with God.' H.J.M.Nouwen.


Posts: 204 | From: Wales | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Akeldama
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# 277

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Yes it does seem that children are not given the opportunity to decide between right and wrong. Many films these days make the decision for the viewer. When I was a kid one of the most prolific writers was Rold Dahl, who's stories always had a sinister dark edge to them that left much to the imagination and moral viewpoint of the reader.

But it's not just kids. Holyywood is constantly turning out incredibly porked version of history and I'm sad to say far too many people actually believe this stuff. For example we've had Braveheart (no sign of Wallace as the middle-class landowner here), The Messenger - Joan of Arc (which i liked as a movie but it was something of a character assination on poor Joan), The Patriot (why doesn't Mel like us Brits???? ). This week sees the release of Behind Enemy Lines. Europe is still picking up the pieces of the Balkan Wars and already we have a gung-ho videogame of a movie about it. I'm hoping Ridley Scott has at least approached Black Hawk Down sensibly, it was after all, a shocking tragedy and there's no reason to turn it into an excuse for flagwaving.

But I've digressed slightly. I think too many movies these days have too much of a sense of right and wrong. That leaves nothing for viewer, and nothing to really discuss with kids. How can you ask whether the characters made the right decisions or what they would have done, where the whole thing is given on a plate on screen?


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Toria
Apprentice
# 2100

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Hmm. Lots to agree with here.

But first an apology for my incomplete post above. I was about to agree with Akeldama on the terrible state some people, especially at Uni CU's, get themselves into, when I was called away from the PC and clicked the wrong thing. Whoops, sorry.

However, I can now reveal that I was also at Lancaster Uni (between 95 and 97) and can vouch for the behaviour of some it's members. I lasted a mere one and half meetings before giving up whimpering. I did however have a friend who kept going (she felt she had to) and was often surprised by the comments people could come out with.

I have had several long (and now very tediuos) discussions with people about Harry Potter and find that most people have let others make their minds up for them and are very suspicous of anyone with a different veiw. It can be very difficult.

Although on the whole good/bad fiction thing I was recently told that science fiction is generally fine, it's just fantasy (or especially anything that refers to 'magic') is bad. Has anyone else come across this attitude? Can anyone come up with a plausable explanation for it?

Toria


Posts: 18 | From: Hebrides, Scotland | Registered: Jan 2002  |  IP: Logged
Akeldama
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# 277

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Hello Toria, may I ask which college were you at?

Anyway, in reply to your last question. I've experience of people who only read books they take literaly, whether that's the Bible, commentary's, Christian life books, etc.

Now when they see something like JFK they believe everything that happens on screen. Because they are used to believing stuff, whether in books or movies. Now when it comes to fantasy books with magic and witchcraft they may read these things and believe them then worry everyone else is as equelly unable to cope with the concept of fiction.

Why fantasy more than sci-fi. Firstly I think it is a misunderstanding of the genre. For those who haven't read such books there is often the belief these books tend to be full of people summoning demons and casting spells, with the spells written out in longhand for prospective young wizards to try out at home. This is of course not the norm. From the works of Fantasy I've read in the last few years, and certainly the higher quality works such as those by Tad Williams or Robin Hobb, the nature of magic is never fully explained. In fact it is rarely of the eye-of-newt variety at all. I've never read any fantasy where the magic is of a nature similar to spells and rituals you might find in one of Alastair Crowley's books (fyi a famous....erm...wizard, or satanist, magus, or plain nutcake, whatever you fancy ). Magic in fantasy (and in Lord of Rings Certainly - the Hobbits are disappointed to discover) is often about different abilities folks have and of nature, not black masses and cauldrons full of demonic concoctions.

Role playing has often suffered the same criticisms. Some Christian campaigners let it be known that the spells in the first Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying set actually worked, a boon for the game's maker, but of service to no-one except those who thing we are nutters.

While not someone who has read a load of fantasy (more of a sci-fi fan) I would recommend Tad William's Memory, Sorrow & Thorn. This fantasy series is set in a world not unlike our medieval period. There's even a religion, the Aedonites, who worship Usires Aedon, who became man and was executed on a tree. It's a clear Christian parralel and allows for some interesting background, a grounded religion and some thought-provoking what if's. The religion isn't really the point of the story, but it does add an interesting background.


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Siegfried
Ship's ferret
# 29

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Then of course there is the Deryni series by Katherine Kurtz, which actually transplants Catholicism to a fantasy setting.

Sieg

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Siegfried
Life is just a bowl of cherries!


Posts: 5592 | From: Tallahassee, FL USA | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Karl: Liberal Backslider
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# 76

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quote:
Some Christian campaigners let it be known that the spells in the first Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying set actually worked

I wish they did. Casting Locate Item has to be better than turning the house over making snipping motions with the fingers trying to find a pair of scissors.

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Might as well ask the bloody cat.


Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Hope
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# 81

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You could always get someone to pray for you to receive the gift of finding things.

(I know someone who claimed her brother had this. Seriously.)

Hope

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"Why does the water glow like that?"
-"The dream magic of the sea."
-"Phosphorescent algae."


Posts: 174 | From: Caithness (northern Scotland) | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Robert Armin

All licens'd fool
# 182

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Interesting how things change - or maybe they don't. When I was a teenager I was very in to Sci Fi, and there was little fantasy around, except Tolkien himself. (I am several centuries older than I look - it's righteous living wot does it.) I was often "challenged" by older Christians about giving up this "addiction" as it would draw me away from God. This worried me a lot, as I took their views seriously (GOLE - good, obedient, little evangelical) but couldn't actually see that Sci Fi was doing me any harm. Only slowly did the truth dawn on me - they didn't like the stuff......

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Keeping fit was an obsession with Fr Moity .... He did chin ups in the vestry, calisthenics in the pulpit, and had developed a series of Tai-Chi exercises to correspond with ritual movements of the Mass. The Antipope Robert Rankin

Posts: 8927 | From: In the pack | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Karl: Liberal Backslider
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# 76

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I was always amazed at how it was that someone who spent hours each week playing RPGs was 'addicted', but no concerns were raised over people who spent that much time playing sports.

It's all about perception.

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Might as well ask the bloody cat.


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Hope
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# 81

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Huw said:
quote:
Only slowly did the truth dawn on me - they didn't like the stuff......

It always amazes me that so many people dislike SF and Fantasy so vehemently. There's obviously something about the very concept that really rubs some people up the wrong way (my mother!), and conversely really enthuses other (sane ) people. Which is strange but OK by me.

What gets me is when some Christians justify their own problem with SF&F by deciding that God doesn't like it.

But then, that's nothing new.

Excuse me while I go and deal with this plank I seem to have discovered... *sigh*

Hope

--------------------
"Why does the water glow like that?"
-"The dream magic of the sea."
-"Phosphorescent algae."


Posts: 174 | From: Caithness (northern Scotland) | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Wood
The Milkman of Human Kindness
# 7

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quote:
Originally posted by Karl:
I was always amazed at how it was that someone who spent hours each week playing RPGs was 'addicted', but no concerns were raised over people who spent that much time playing sports.

It's all about perception.


Perception, my arse.

Sport is good for you, makes you healthier, better looking, and generally more fun to be around.

If you roleplay too much, you end up listening to crap old rock music, growing your hair out and growing a beard.

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Narcissism.


Posts: 7842 | From: Wood Towers | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Akeldama
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# 277

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Wood, that is just so much nonsense.

I listen to crap old rock music, have grown my hair out and have a beard and I've never been into role-playing.

However, I do own several guitars, that perhaps is the other cause of this premature hippiness in twenty-somethings.


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Toria
Apprentice
# 2100

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Grow a beard? Glad I stopped when I did. Although I did only role-play to keep my boyfriend-at-the-time happy....

I find it odd that roleplaying is always portrayed as a very male thing. Many of the people I know who still play are women. Or perhaps thats just my friends.

Toria

BTW, since you asked Akeldama, I was in Bowland colege and spent an unhealthy amount of time in the bar.


Posts: 18 | From: Hebrides, Scotland | Registered: Jan 2002  |  IP: Logged
Nicolemr
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# 28

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well i have just finished re-reading all the harry potter books, and after getting through the goblet of fire again, all i can say is that anyone who has actually read the books and still can claim they in any way encourage evil, is a flaming idiot. those last few chapters... wowsa!

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On pilgrimage in the endless realms of Cyberia, currently traveling by ship. Now with live journal!

Posts: 11803 | From: New York City "The City Carries On" | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged



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