Harry Potter is unsafe for Christians Pope Opposes Harry Potter Novels Signed Letters from Cardinal Ratzinger Now Online

Harry Potter Fan WebSite Lauds Rowling Stating a Main Character Is Gay

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By Meg Jalsevac, New York, October 22, 2007

J.K. Rowling, author of the already controversial Harry Potter children’s book series, has chosen to stir up more controversy even after the final series of the book has been released.  In answer to a question from a young fan, Rowling announced that the prominent and well-respected character of the ‘good’ wizard headmaster, Dumbledore is, in fact, gay.
Rowling explained her answer to a packed audience, of which one could safely assume was largely made up of young children, saying that Dumbledore would never find true love because he had long been in love with his boyhood friend turned evil wizard, Grindelwald but that his love had been "horribly, horribly let down."  Rowling emphasized that Dumbledore’s love was his "great tragedy." 
From the release of the very first book of the series, the Harry Potter novels have been at the center of controversy concerning the message that the books portray to the many young readers who devour them upon publication.  Fans of the novels have either asserted that the books are simply harmless entertainment or, at best, Christian works similar to the genre of CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien. On the other hand, critics from around the globe and of different religious backgrounds have been vocal about their serious concerns about the message and values portrayed in the novels. They have warned about the subliminal themes that especially present vulnerable young readers in today’s corrupted, even increasingly pagan, western culture with marred distinctions between good and evil.
Many sources have stated Rowling’s newest revelation will give a whole new meaning to the passages that pertain to the "affection" between the two wizards when they were youths.  Fans commenting on various websites expressed different reactions to Rowling’s answer. 
According to a report in the Associated Press, Melissa Anelli, webmaster of a large Potter fan site, lauded the announcement saying, "Jo Rowling calling any Harry Potter character gay would make wonderful strides in tolerance toward homosexuality.  By dubbing someone so respected, so talented and so kind, as someone who just happens to be also homosexual, she’s reinforcing the idea that a person’s gayness is not something of which they should be ashamed."
However, even previous fans of Rowling’s work criticized her announcement implying that it was merely a move to garner more publicity for her novels.  Some supporters of the homosexual agenda criticized the delay in unveiling such a fact until after the book had been published, insinuating that such a move was done to merely avoid controversy upon the book’s release.
Despite Rowling’s recent admission that "To me [the religious parallels have] always been obvious", she shrugged off suggestions that her recent announcement will confirm previous criticism of her books.  She merely said that not all people will like her books and this most recent announcement will merely give them one more reason.
However, according to an interview with MTV, Rowling acknowledges that many Christians, even the current Pope, have criticized or even condemned her books.  She expressed pride that her novels have been placed on "banned books list" saying, "I go to church myself.  I don’t take any responsibility for the lunatic fringes of my own religion."
While Rowling herself may attribute criticism of her works to merely ‘lunatic fringes’, criticism has been far and wide and has come from several prominent leaders in Christian circles. 
As previously reported by LifeSiteNews.com, in March 2003, before being elected Pope, then-Cardinal Ratzinger expressed gratitude to Gabriele Kuby who authored a work explaining the dangers of the Potter story, especially to young children. 
Made available by LifeSiteNews.com, Ratzinger’s letter to Ms. Kuby stated, "It is good, that you enlighten people about Harry Potter, because those are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly." 
Strangely, more than a few prominent Catholic fans of the Potter novels, have been denying that the Pope (then Cardinal Ratzinger) made any comment against them despite the indisputable evidence of scans of his actual signed letters posted on LifeSiteNews. A letter published in the Toronto Archdiocese’s Catholic Register, for example, refuting a recent Register article’s clear misrepresentation of Cardinal Ratzinger’s statements, was edited to remove reference to those crucial scans on LifeSiteNews.com.
Simply reporting the Pope’s statements and other criticisms of the Potter novels, as well as publishing some detailed critical analysis of them by famed author Michael O’Brien, has earned LifeSiteNews unexpected wrath from some otherwise praiseworthy allies in the life and family culture wars. Such intolerance of alternative opinions of Harry Potter appears to validate warnings about the seductive nature of the Potter series.
Father Gabriele Amorth, chief exorcist of the Vatican also condemned the books warning parents, "Behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the devil."  Father Amorth criticized the novels for glorifying magic, which he explicitly refers to as "the satanic art", and for presenting disordered perceptions of morality in the supposedly heroic main characters.

US Christian Groups React Strongly to Harry Potter Books’ Homosexual Character

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By Hilary White, London, October 30, 2007

Conservative Christian groups in the US are reacting strongly to the revelation by British author JK Rowling that one of the main characters in her Harry Potter series is a homosexual.
Roberta Combs, president of the 2.5 million strong Christian Coalition of America, was quoted in the Daily Mail saying she was “disappointed” that Rowling chose to make Dumbledore homosexual.
At Carnegie Hall during her US book tour, in response to a question by a fan, Rowling revealed to huge applause that Dumbledore is a homosexual. Rowling responded to the crowd’s applause saying, “I would have told you all earlier if I knew it would make you so happy.”
“It’s not a good example for our children, who really like the books and the movies. I think it encourages homosexuality,” said Combs who is calling for a ban on the books and films which have brought Rowling an estimated £545 million.
Rebecca Traister, columnist on salon.com called Rowling’s announcement “a neat trick philosophically, but also economically to do it once all the kids that might have been kept away from the material have already read it.”
Tom Barrett, editor of Conservative Truth, reported in a column posted Monday on WEB Commentary that parents and grandparents who had formerly encouraged their children to read the books are “finally starting to see the light.”
“They have repented and have removed the books from their children’s libraries,” said Barrett. “They say they are trying to undo the damage they have done to the children by their exposure to them.”
Jack M. Roper, a Christian broadcaster on Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network responded to the revelation saying, “I would never allow my own children or grandchildren to read the books or watch the movies, and other parents should do so too.”
Roper reminded his viewers that much Christian opposition to the Harry Potter series stems from the books’ basic premise, that the heroes use magic and sorcery to manipulate situations and other people. Calling Harry Potter a hero who has “captured the innocent heart of many children”, Roper said, “When such a hero uses evil as a problem solving tool, we need to be warned. Over time the child can become adapted to the dark world of witchcraft and not even know that it is dangerous.”
“As a cult researcher for many years, I have seen contemporary witchcraft packaged in many seductive forms, and Harry Potter is the best. Potter makes spiritualism and witchcraft look wonderful,” he added.
Roper’s comments, and the reaction of some Christian groups follow comments made two years ago by the former Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, who wrote that the Harry Potter books were a spiritual danger to children. In 2005 LifeSiteNews.com obtained copies of letters, dated March 2003, from the then-Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith thanking Kuby for her "instructive" book “Harry Potter - gut oder böse” (Harry Potter- good or evil?), in which Kuby says the books corrupt the hearts of the young.
“It is good, that you enlighten people about Harry Potter, because those are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly,” wrote Cardinal Ratzinger.
Response to LifeSiteNews.com’s revelation of the Pope’s disapproval resulted in months of backlash from outraged self-described “conservative” Christian parents and fans of the Potter series, some of whom implied LifeSiteNews.com fabricated or misinterpreted the letters.
The seventh and final episode in the series, Harry Potter and the All Hallows, sold over 12 million copies in the US alone. The Harry Potter films have thus far grossed $4.47 billion - £2.3 billion. The Potter series has made J.K. Rowling the second wealthiest female entertainer in the world after Oprah Winfrey.

Potter Author JK Rowling Equates Christians Who Avoid Potter with Islamic Fundamentalists

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By John-Henry Westen, Edinburgh, March 12, 2008

The newly released edition of the Edinburgh University Student newspaper, the oldest student newspaper in the UK, includes an interview with Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.  In the interview Rowling claims to have received death threats from Christians opposed to her novels, calling Christian ‘fundamentalists’ "dangerous" and comparing them by inference to Islamic fundamentalists.

Asked if there were not some Christians who dislike the book ‘intensely’, Rowling replied, "Oh, vehemently and they send death threats." 

Questioned about the ‘death threats’, she added, "Once, yeah.  Well, more than once.  It is comical in retrospect.  I was in America, and there was a threat made against a bookstore that I was appearing at, so we had the police there." 
While she said she could stomach critics, she had little time for Christian criticism.  "But to be honest the Christian Fundamentalist thing was bad," she said.  "I would have been quite happy to sit there and debate with one of the critics who were taking on Harry Potter from a moral perspective."
Many Christians who have opposed the Potter series have done so after reading comments by Christian reviewers pointing out their moral and spiritual dangers.  The opponents, who have been relying on the reviewers’ criticisms, have often avoided reading Rowling’s lengthy Potter narratives, and Rowling uses such cases to paint Christians as if they were insane.
"I’ve tried to be rational about it," she told the paper.  "There’s a woman in North Carolina or Alabama who’s been trying to get the books banned-she’s a mother of four and never read them. And then- I’m not lying, I’m not even making fun, this is the truth of what she said-quite recently she was asked [why] and she said ‘Well I prayed whether or not I should read them, and God told me no.’"
The interviewer notes that at that point "Rowling pauses to reflect on the weight of that statement, and her expression one of utter disbelief."  Rowling then continued, "You see, that is where I absolutely part company with people on that side of the fence, because that is fundamentalism. Fundamentalism is, ‘I will not open my mind to look on your side of the argument at all. I won’t read it, I won’t look at it, I’m too frightened.’"
"That’s what’s dangerous about it, whether it be politically extreme, religiously extreme…In fact, fundamentalists across all the major religions, if you put them in a room, they’d have bags in common! They hate all the same things, it’s such an ironic thing." 

Michael O’Brien, one of the most prominent Potter critics, has carefully read and analyzed the Potter books critiquing the spiritual and moral problems with Rowling’s works.  O’Brien commented to LifeSiteNews.com about Rowling’s mockery of Christians who avoid her works.

"Regrettably, there is a strange new form of self-righteousness at work in the world-a psychological state of mind that is common to post-modernists such as J. K. Rowling," said O’Brien. "One of its symptoms is their inability to discuss on a serious level the truth or untruth of their cultural products. They avoid the real issues and instead take the ‘ad hominem’ approach-personal attacks against those who raise critical objections to the disorders in their books.  From the vacuum of real thought arises the dreary habit of classifying as a ‘fundamentalist’ any critic who bases his arguments on religious or spiritual grounds."
Added O’Brien: "This term is used against bomb-throwing terrorists, sweet grandmothers praying silently before abortuaries, and anyone who preaches the fullness of the Christian faith in church and media. It has become the utmost smear word, a weapon that is proving quite effective in silencing opposition. If you don’t have an argument yourself, you just switch tactics and cry ‘fundamentalist!’ Supposedly all opposition will then collapse."
In previous interviews Rowling has said Christian criticism of her works come from the "lunatic fringe" of the church.

Prior to being elected Pope, then-Cardinal Ratzinger expressed an opinion opposing the Potter books.  He sent a letter of gratitude to Gabriele Kuby who authored a work explaining the dangers of the Potter story, especially to young children.  Made available by LifeSiteNews.com, Ratzinger’s letter to Ms. Kuby stated, "It is good, that you enlighten people about Harry Potter, because those are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly." 

Father Gabriele Amorth, chief exorcist of the Vatican also condemned the books warning parents, "Behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the devil." Father Amorth criticized the novels for glorifying magic, which he explicitly refers to as "the satanic art", and for presenting disordered perceptions of morality in the supposedly heroic main characters.

Under Influence of Harry Potter, Kids are Being Drawn into the “Language and Mechanics” of Occult

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By Hilary White, July 24, 2008

A book that gives instructions to teenage girls on witchcraft sells 150,000 copies. Films and television shows about teenagers and young people involved in witchcraft and the occult begin to proliferate. Bookshops begin to carry large sections on "esoterica" next to the religion and philosophy sections. And then Harry Potter bursts on the scene and becomes the best-selling children’s book of all time.

This progression is described by Linda P. Harvey a Christian and publisher of Mission: America, a quarterly Christian newsletter and Internet web site, who claims that in the last number of years there has been an unprecedented explosion of occult material aimed directly at children and teenagers. However, anyone who objects that Potter and other witchcraft and magic-oriented children’s fare draws kids into the world of the occult, she says, are dismissed as giving in to "pure hysteria".

As of June 2008, the seven book Potter series has sold more than 400 million copies and the books have been translated into 67 languages. The phenomenal success of the books has made their British author, J.K. Rowling, the highest-earning novelist in history. Three years after Harry Potter, Harvey writes, a review of television programs, major children’s book publishers, and popular youth websites, "should more than confirm our initial warnings."

"Sorcery and witchcraft have become the hottest themes in youth culture and education for the first time in modern Western civilization."

Harvey is the author of an influential article, "Heresy in the Hood: Teen Witchcraft in America" published in 1999. Since the publication of that article, she says, the number of self-professed young witches and occult practitioners has grown markedly.

The kids are taking a cue from the homosexual activist handbook, equating any criticism of their interests as "hate." Similarly, such rhetoric is pushing the adult publishing and bookselling world to proliferate books and materials on the occult. "Without protectors, the profit-driven media is both responding to interest in witchcraft and creating it in a rapid feedback loop," Harvey writes.

Harvey cites plenty of television and film infiltration as well. Mentioning the wildly successful Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, Harvey warns that "all but the most discerning" parents can be beguiled by the tongue-in-cheek nature of the shows on offer. Following in the footsteps of Buffy, which featured a lesbian witch as a main character, is Charmed and Sabrina the Teenage Witch - all featuring hip, well-dressed teens with special powers that set them apart, and above, their peers.

Despite the usual criticisms of the media-savvy left, Christian concerns over the proliferation of occult offerings for young people, are not the objections of "unenlightened dullards," she says.

"Children are being lovingly primed to embrace paganism by movies, games, TV, the internet and countless sorcery-friendly books."

Even a brief internet search will reveal an entire book publishing sub-industry of occult materials aimed at teens. They abound on bookshop shelves and are being published not only by small independents but by large mainstream publishing houses. Large chain bookshops like Indigo in Canada and Borders in the US, and W. H. Smith and Blackwell’s in the UK, routinely feature large sections on the occult with plenty of practical how-to manuals.

"Spell Craft for Teens; a Magickal Guide to Writing and Casting Spells," published in 2002, offers "fifty-five chants and incantations for young adults, a twelve-step guide to casting a magick circle, an in-depth look at the moon phases, along with the magical properties of colors, herbs, and charms. It also addresses how to tell parents about your interest in Wicca and how to deal with gossiping classmates." It can be bought at any major book outlet in the UK including Blackwell’s, Waterstone’s, W. H. Smith and at Amazon.co.uk.

With titles like "Be a Teen Goddess! Magical Charms, Spells, and Wiccan Wisdom for the Wild Ride of Life," the books address the psychological needs of teenagers to find an identity independent of their families.

Others play upon the rootlessness of post-modern society by offering a connection to an imaginary ancient pre-Christian European cultural heritage. The Teen Spell Book; Magick for Young Witches," says, "Teens who desire personal empowerment, a connection to old traditions, or an alternative spirituality will be enchanted with this definitive volume of spells and Wiccan lore written especially for teenagers."

They appeal directly to specific teen issues. The Teen Spell Book offers to teach spells to "get on the team," "deal with teasing," "free yourself from depression," "attain a perfect complexion" and "make colleges beg for you."

Father Thomas J. Euteneuer, the Catholic priest who heads Human Life International, told an audience in 2007 he had been involved in exorcism ministry for five years.

He warns that books geared to children and adolescents indoctrinate, or socialize "young souls in the language and mechanics of the occult." Harry Potter in particular, he said, introduces the elements of witchcraft "in a glorified state" so that "our kids’ minds are being introduced to and imbued with occult imagery."

HLI Head Says Harry Potter Indoctrinates Young Souls in Language and Mechanics of Occult

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By Fr. Thomas J. Euteneuer, President, Human Life International, Front Royal, Virginia, November 6, 2007

Many have asked me my opinion about Harry Potter. There is, among good Catholics, a general unease about the series, but the sense of disquiet is very, very difficult to define.
I am at a bit of a disadvantage to comment on any particulars of the books since I have not read any of them or seen the movies, nor do I intend to—I have an aversion to adolescent fads and not enough time to spend on questionable materials when there is so much excellent fare for the soul out there. I do, however, feel it is important to offer some guidance on this issue from a third person point of view because some things can be observed about the books without having read them.
First and foremost, all adolescent obsessions have the capacity to steep the vulnerable souls of these kids in imagery and language that strikes deeper than the sermons they may (or may not) hear on Sunday. Some people give Harry an unqualified “wonderful” rating too quickly because J.K Rowling apparently is a very good writer, but the devotees of a sweeping force like this series tend to pass off the propaganda aspect of these books as harmless because they see it as “innocent” fantasy, and, in my opinion, this is dangerous.
4100 pages of word images about magic and the occult are not harmless, even if they fit the literary genre of “fantasy.” Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy amounts to 1216 pages of beautiful imagery, but relatively few of the pages are about magic, let alone imbued with magic. Indeed, Tolkien’s trilogy is a self-consciously mythical representation of reality in the light of the Christian faith, something Rowling can’t claim. I find the “fantasy” comparisons of Tolkien and Harry Potter to be deeply flawed.
Fundamentally, Harry Potter indoctrinates young souls in the language and mechanics of the occult. The fact that the fake curses and hexes are not able to be reproduced because the “ingredients” are pure fantasy is beside the point. Curses are not pure fantasy. The fact that “curse” as such, and other elements of witchcraft, are presented in a glorified state throughout the Harry Potter series means that our kids’ minds are being introduced to and imbued with occult imagery.
Is indoctrination too strong a term? How about socialization? Should it not concern parents that Rowling only now, ten years after the introduction of the character Dumbledore, admitted that she intended this character to be “gay”? For goodness sake, this character is a father figure and a mentor in the books, and he falls in love with his evil arch-enemy! Rowling has said that her books were a “prolonged argument for tolerance” (Time, 10/20/07). Okay, so no indoctrination going on there, right?
The second dilemma for every Christian parent should be the perennial Halloween fest of negative imagination that these books generate. If Harry Potter is innocent fun, its literary spawn certainly are not.
One trip to the Harry Potter section of a Borders bookstore (way before Halloween) gave me pause. Surrounding the Harry Potter rack in the children’s section of the store and in the front display were other titles that should raise the hair on the back of any parent’s neck. I recount just a few titles here: Dark Possession, The Wheel of Darkness, The Care and Feeding of Spirites [sic], The Night of the Soul Stealer, The Thief Queen’s Daughter, Blade of Fire, Secrets of Dripping Fang, My Father’s Dragon, The Dark Hills Divide, Peter and the Shadow Thieves, Soul Eater, Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, Vampirates Tide of Terror, Nightmare Academy, Enter the Portal to Monster and Mayhem, Lyra’s Oxford (authored by vicious anti-Catholic Phillip Pullman of “Golden Compass” and “His Dark Materials” fame)…and others.
337 million copies of occult imagery are being consumed by our youth in the Harry Potter series alone. The books may be good writing, but the writing is about something dark dressed up as something fun. That’s a great way to get kids hooked on the occult.