{"id":13641,"date":"2011-07-18T21:49:23","date_gmt":"2011-07-19T01:49:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/?p=13641"},"modified":"2011-07-18T21:49:23","modified_gmt":"2011-07-19T01:49:23","slug":"harry-potter-is-not-a-catholic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/harry-potter-is-not-a-catholic\/","title":{"rendered":"Harry Potter is not a Catholic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>And he has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lifesitenews.com\/news\/harry-potter-expert-criticizes-vatican-newspapers-glowing-review-of-deathly\" target=\"_blank\">upset some<\/a> who are:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThe positive review of the latest Harry Potter film in L\u2019Osservatore Romano is symptomatic of serious problems in the condition of many modern Catholics,\u201d Michael D. O\u2019Brien, author of \u201cHarry Potter and the Paganization of Culture,\u201d told LifeSiteNews last week.<\/p>\n<p>[\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.]<\/p>\n<p>Cardinal Ratzinger\u2019s was not the only Vatican voice to express grave concern over Potter.\u00a0 The Vatican\u2019s chief exorcist, Rev. Gabriele Amorth, has repeatedly condemned the Harry Potter novels.\u00a0 In 2006 he said, \u201cYou start off with Harry Potter, who comes across as a likeable wizard, but you end up with the Devil \u2026 By reading Harry Potter a young child will be drawn into magic and from there it is a simple step to Satanism and the Devil.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I haven\u2019t seen the final film yet, but I have read all the books. I could be wrong \u2013 time will tell \u2013 but I am reasonably convinced that Messrs Ratzinger, Amorth et al are tilting at the wrong windmill.<\/p>\n<p>For all its magic, wizards, wands and silly quidditch, Harry Potter remains a classic tale of good against evil. I don\u2019t think it is as good as Lord of the Rings or Narnia, and obviously it is lacking the more explicitly Christian parallels \u2013 particularly in Narnia.<\/p>\n<p>Tolkien was criticised for the apparent lack of the Christian God in Lord of the Rings: his response was that obviously he is there \u2013 it is up to the reader to notice him. C. S. Lewis was criticised for allusions to the occult in his science fiction trilogy, particularly in That Hideous Strength. So Christian Potter pooping is to be expected.<\/p>\n<p>Flawed though they may be from a Christian point of view, at least the books use God given imagination to revitalise the truth that we dwell in a universe where cosmic forces of good and evil do battle \u2013 we are the soldiers and good eventually triumphs.<\/p>\n<p>Not a bad story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>And he has upset some who are: \u201cThe positive review of the latest Harry Potter film in L\u2019Osservatore Romano is symptomatic of serious problems in the condition of many modern Catholics,\u201d Michael D. O\u2019Brien, author of \u201cHarry Potter and the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/harry-potter-is-not-a-catholic\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[259],"tags":[572,845],"class_list":["post-13641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pop-culture","tag-catholicism","tag-harry-potter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13641\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}