Accidental Blogger

And in the "news out of Georgia" front, at least one concerned lunatic is trying to save the elementary school children of Gwinnett County from the satanic text of J.K. Rowling’s popular Harry Potter series.  Why, Georgia?  Why are you trying to make me hate you?  I doubt this has made the national news, which means you probably have no idea what I’m talking about, so I’ll just appropriate large pieces of Rubina’s article from the Gwinnett Daily Post:

LAWRENCEVILLE — The next challenge Harry Potter will face has nothing to do with horcruxes, Hogwart’s or the half-blood prince. Instead, it will be a group of concerned parents looking to take the series off the shelves of all Gwinnett County Public Schools.

Laura Mallory of Loganville filed an appeal last week to get the best-selling book series out of the schools’ media centers. She is an evangelical Christian who has three children at J.C. Magill Elementary School.

“I think the anti-Christian bias — it’s just got to stop,” Mallory said. “And if we don’t say something, we’ll just keep getting pushed out of the schools. And I pay taxes, too, and I think that gives me a voice to speak out about this.”

[…]

Mallory wrote on her appeal forms that she was objecting to the books because of their “evil themes, witchcraft, demonic activity, murder, evil blood sacrifice, spells and teaching children all of this.”

I’m not quite sure how non-Christian becomes "anti-Christian" in this concerned mother’s mind.  Is the Tooth Fairy anti-Christian?  Fairies are found in fantastical literature as well; they’re pagan magical creatures just like witches and elves.  I wonder what Mrs Mallory tells her children when they lose teeth, because by her logic the popular answer ("the tooth fairy gave you that quarter under your pillow in exchange for your old tooth last night") is anti-Jesus.

The mother of four said she was opposed to the messages of the books, which describe a young wizard’s adventures in a school of magic. She said she had done much of her research online, reading a variety of Christian message boards and Harry Potter fan sites.

“Their thinking has changed. They’re designed to think that witches and witchcraft and wizards and all this is just normal. And that it’s OK. And that it’s even good. I strongly disagree with that. I don’t think it’s OK, and I don’t think it’s good at all,” Mallory said.

[…]

Jessica Grimes, a 10-year-old student at Duncan Creek Elementary School, faxed a letter to the school system in support of the books series.

“The books never at any time turned me into a wizard or witch,” Grimes said. “I go to church every Sunday, go to Sunday school and never at any time did I think the books are true.”

Hehehe.  Look to the children, right?  A 10-year-old child clearly grasps the concept that these fictional works are not real–as far as I can tell, this is perhaps the key point Mrs Mallory fails to grasp.  By having witches for characters, the meaning of Rowling’s text is not "point your wand at people and turn them into frogs"; yes, you could treat it as a diversity text because Rowling presents good and bad witches but only in a very general manner because Hogwarts isn’t real and magical wizardry doesn’t exist.  And even if it did, it wouldn’t be mutually exclusive with good Christian faith/behavior.

Dacula High School student Jana Davis, 16, said she will probably attend the public hearing with some fellow Harry Potter fans. She said she didn’t see how the books were any worse than other children’s books like Roald Dahl’s “James and the Giant Peach” or Lemony Snicket’s “A Series of Unfortunate Events” series.

Correct; they’re not.

Mallory said she has been contacted by other Christian parents who were concerned about the content of the books. On her complaint form, she suggested they be replaced by C.S. Lewis’s “Chronicles of Narnia” series or Tim LaHaye’s “Left Behind: the Kids” series.

She admitted that she has not read the book series partially because “they’re really very long and I have four kids.”

“I’ve put a lot of work into what I’ve studied and read. I think it would be hypocritical for me to read all the books, honestly. I don’t agree with what’s in them. I don’t have to read an entire pornographic magazine to know it’s obscene,” Mallory said.

I’m actually somewhat sympathetic to that point of view.  I don’t have to watch The O’Reilly Factor to know that I disagree with Bill O’Reilly (although I’m not asking for him to be censored!).  Is it worth pointing out the irony in her offered "replacement," the Narnia books?  There too we see witches and dwarfs and talking mice and blood sacrifices and children having impossible adventures, so I’m not sure how that content makes the Harry Potter books "bad."  Lewis wrote his fairy stories as Christian allegories (albeit flawed, hateful, dangerous, and by my interpretation unChristian stories) for children, which is why the mother is okay with their inclusion.  Is it even worth trying to understand her bizarre classification of the books as "pornographic?"

Well, no.  It’s pretty clear from some parts I’ve omitted that the school board is going to listen to her petition (today, as a matter of fact) and then refuse to remove the books from the library.  And the wrongness of everything Mallory has to say, I’ve pointed at least some of it out, but again, it’s just so obvious you can’t miss it!  Students ages 10 and 16 both have insightful comments about the books!  Honestly, I actually feel sorry for Laura Mallory, because she’s clearly not too bright and she’s making a public spectacle of herself (of course now that I’ve said that, Fox News will probably pick up the story and turn Harry Potter into another "War on Christmas"). 

For further reading, see also an amusing editorial on the matter.