Dear Mark,

Have enjoyed your blog for some time. Keep up the good work!

The Potter phenomenon is fascinating the way it divides otherwise unified orthodox Catholics. I agree with just about everything you have ever written... until Harry Potter came along!

I read the first two books in the series before allowing my children to read them, and I was surprised at how much they disturbed me. They seem to me obviously seriously morally disordered. Potter regularly uses evil means to defend the good, defies authority and is rewarded for it, and the most base motivations are treated in a cheeful and positive manner (revenge, for instance, in the last paragraph of the Sorcerer's Stone).

But beyond all that, there are at least two passages that would seem to put the books beyond the pale for Catholics. The first is a perversion of the Eucharist in the Sorcerer's Stone:

"Only one who has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, would commit such a crime. The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price. You have slain something pure and defenseless to save yourself, and you will have but a half-life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips."

I don't want my kids thinking of Rowling's twisted imagery during the consecration at Mass!

The second passage is from the Chamber of Secrets, where the Potter kids dig up plants that have screaming babies for roots. The babies will eventually be ground up for a potion, but right now the kids just need to re-pot them. Our cheerful kids find it a little difficult:

"They squirmed, kicked, flailed their sharp little fists, and gnashed their fists: Harry spent ten whole minutes trying to squash a particularly fat one into a pot."

Those darn babies! If Harry and his friends don't make it in magic, they have a future in the abortion industry.

What is it about these books that they fly under everyone's moral radar?

Sincerely,
David Tye


David Tye | 11.26.02 - 5:40 pm | #