These books [Harry Potter] present magic as both good and evil, which is not true, but in fact a clever deception. The curses and spells used in the books are actual curses and spells; which when read by a human being risk conjuring evil spirits into the presence of the person reading the text.
— Dan Reehil, pastor of St. Edward Catholic Church and School in Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville Tennesseean, August 31, 2019
Pastor Reehil removed all of the Harry Potter books from the St. Edward School library.
Nah, that’s rubbish. My car broke down the other day and I uttered the words ‘currus instaurandum‘ but nothing happened. Of course maybe Google Translate didn’t get the words right or perhaps my wand wasn’t up to it?
I grew up in Nashville, and I thought that the dozen or so Catholics there were more less batsh!t crazy than the evangelicals. I see I was mistaken.
My father-in-law was raised Catholic, went to seminary to become a priest but decided he didn’t want to be a priest, didn’t really go to church for 20 years, married an evangelical Christian and got back into that, now is a conservative Christian of some sort and unapologetic Trump supporter went off on Harry Potter as demonic about a decade ago. We gave him the 1st book and told him to actually read it before accepting someone else’s judgment. He liked it, and it was no longer demonic.
If the spells worked someone would have stopped the shooters.
The dudes like the guys above have to approach it that way, because then they can still say prayers work, instead being words aimed at the ceiling,
Well if you believe in talking snakes and donkeys along with easily disproved miracle claims as real from the iron age as the inerrant word of god(awful), then its easy to see how an actual work of fiction by a christian no less can be real and have real life consequences. Plus he is behind the times, isn’t he supposed to be going after good omens or something.
I remember the first time I heard a radio preacher suggest “I Dream of Jeannie” and “Bewitched” were dangerous. Blew my mind. And before that, in high school, some nutty evangelist named Bob Larson was invited to speak in chapel, and he said “The Chronicles of Narnia” was bad because it contained magic. I got really angry, as did some of the faculty. I read the entire series multiple times in my youth.
I’ve always thought opinions like that are what separate fundamentalists from evangelicals.
…you got angry? Too bad…I was next to tears laughing when I read that! Almost wish I was there to hear it myself. This Larson character doesn’t really seem to understand Narnia or its author C.S. Lewis at all, does he? Thank you for the chuckle!
Oh, and by no means do I intend to trivialize the anger you must have felt, Brunetto. It’s just that if I had been there, as the person I am now, I probably would have laughed that man out of the chapel. Or would have to had to excuse myself at the very minimum.
I would probably laugh at it, too, now. That was nearly 40 years ago, though. I remember he also got some of the guys who took karate stirred-up, because he was totally opposed to martial arts. He thought it opened the door to eastern mysticism and demonism.
I looked Bob Larson up on Google. He’s still at it. Sounds like he’s only gotten crazier with time.
Shel Silverstein already said it better than I ever could.
Magic
Sandra’s seen a leprechaun,
Eddie touched a troll,
Laurie danced with witches once,
Charlie found some goblins gold.
Donald heard a mermaid sing,
Susy spied an elf,
But all the magic I have known
I’ve had to make myself.
Shel Silverstein====Where the Sidewalk Ends
I grew up Catholic in New England. My husband grew up Catholic in western New York. When we married he moved to New England because I had a job I loved and didn’t want to live far from the ocean. He was shocked at how conservative the church was here – nothing like the progressive churches and Catholic schools (including a Catholic college) he was used to. I attributed the difference to the long Puritan Protestant history of this region. A friend of mine who was a serious Catholic moved to Alabama. She said she had a miserable time finding a church that hadn’t been heavily influenced by the Evangelical history of the Bible Belt. She eventually found a reasonably progressive church but it took some time. The influence of history and culture is so strong.
Harry Potter spells real??? Why do these numbskulls believe such things? Also, there’s a Harry Potter marathon on tv right now 🙂
Christians, who believe in magic Jesus reserve the exclusive right to be full of illusions/delusions. All others of us who dare suggest such a thing even in fiction, get cursed and treated with disdain.
Preacher Reehil, you are the deception we are in danger of suffering if we attend your church; not a clever deception either, just a dull mockery of reason.
well i have to say i fell into this trap myself. we were taught these books and movies were demonic, so i banned them from my young at the time kids. regret this. they really don’t care they just laugh when they look back. but we caused so much fuss over some toys and books that we now feel foolish. i am old enough to remember preachers railing against cabbage patch dolls as being demonic. and lets not forget the smurfs w/their demonic agenda. preacher at the time screamed about these toys to the point that some families just left and never returned. then he said they were compromised w/the world and were no longer saved. this seems to be how these churches keep the faithful scared and looking to them for guidance.