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Laura Mallory Speaks Out about Harry Potter
by skullaria at 3:00 am EDT, Jun 12, 2007 |
Here's a recent piece by Laura Mallory who seeks to have Harry Potter removed from school libraries. Her belief is firmly rooted in Judeo-Christian literalist thought. That said, her personal website is one that sells supposed exposes by 'occult experts.' (I'm extremely well read on the subject, and have never heard of ANY of these folks.) Hindus are also dismissed as 'evil.' SHe's making quite a business out of marginalizing and demonizing other religions. I've always heard the way to get rich is to capitalize on either potential for gain, or fear of loss. Clearly, she's playing on fear of loss - of children's 'souls.' If it were not for the commercial nature of her quest to outlaw the books of Harry Potter, and coattail on said books's success, I might be more inclined to believe that she really is concerned about children. But it is interesting to read her thoughts, even if I get a kick out of our my child trying to read tarot cards to find out when the next Smash Brother's Mario is coming out. Those same tarot cards gave him quite some mature insight into his own nature sometimes, and help him with problem solving. I won't deny him an intuitive tool that I like myself. Sigh:::: She says the occult sells. Look at her own products! Surely this is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. |
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RE: Laura Mallory Speaks Out about Harry Potter
by Shannon at 12:31 pm EDT, Jun 12, 2007 |
Ironically if she succeeds in banning the books for their "religious influence" she sets a precedent which might make it easier to strip away the Christian influence in our schools as well. Harry Potter is less Wiccan than intelligent design is Christian. Praying isn't so different than uttering spells. Children should be able to pick a religion, but they should be prevented from exposure to them at all costs. |
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RE: Laura Mallory Speaks Out about Harry Potter
by skullaria at 1:33 pm EDT, Jun 12, 2007 |
For my own child, I'm happy with wide and shallow exposure. I think the Bible belongs in school, but so does the Koran and every other holy book. Any book that influences huge numbers of people is worthy of study IMNSHO, but at an age where abstract thinking is developmentally possible, and not before. But if they aren't there, I don't really care that much. It just isn't that important to me. Harry Potter though, is just a work of fiction that doesn't present itself as anything BUT fiction. Ironically, the only religion sticking to my son is the ancient Egyptian one. Perhaps they should ban Tutenstein from schools too. We have a great big Bible at home. It makes a great flower press. That's the only use my son seems to have for it. |
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RE: Laura Mallory Speaks Out about Harry Potter
by Graham at 8:30 am EDT, Jun 14, 2007 |
skullaria wrote:
For my own child, I'm happy with wide and shallow exposure. I think the Bible belongs in school, but so does the Koran and every other holy book. Any book that influences huge numbers of people is worthy of study IMNSHO, but at an age where abstract thinking is developmentally possible, and not before. But if they aren't there, I don't really care that much. It just isn't that important to me.
I'd agree that they belong in schools, but not where they currently are. Having them in the libraries is absolutly fine. Having a set lesson that teaches the different religions from a neutral point of view is also fine, and I'd possibly go so far as to say that it should be the case. Anything more than that though is too much. The school I went to had hymns and prayers in the morning assembly that everybody went to at least twice a week. These were mandatory - you couldn't decide that you didn't want to go, and you couldn't get excused without a very good reason. It also had RE lessons that - from memory as it was many years ago - did a lot more teaching of Christianity than all of the other religions combined. I seem to recall that we covered the fact that there were other religions, and brief details about what they were and so on. That was about a terms worth of study out of nearly 5 years of RE lessons. |
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RE: Laura Mallory Speaks Out about Harry Potter
by Dagmar at 12:11 pm EDT, Jun 13, 2007 |
Ironically if she succeeds in banning the books for their "religious influence" she sets a precedent which might make it easier to strip away the Christian influence in our schools as well. Harry Potter is less Wiccan than intelligent design is Christian. Praying isn't so different than uttering spells. Children should be able to pick a religion, but they should be prevented from exposure to them at all costs. |
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