Harry Potter

[chaoticfirefly]

I love the series! I saw the midnight showing of the last movie ♥.

It's the end of a generation, of an era of actual good literature, especially if this vampire fad keeps up :/

 

[Todd Grace]

AOL named Angel in the Shadows By Lisa Grace as the top alternate to Twilight for 2010.

 

[stufftheme]

i have read the second last part in just 4 days
i am a big fan of harry potter series
the last part of movie i watched it first day first show

 

[IesuGristAmddiffynwr]

I'm not a massive fan - no complaints about the film/book series, I'm just not a follower. It's an entertaining series though.

I watched a documentary not long ago called Jesus Camp, which is about a pentecostal camp for kids in the US. The leader of the camp, at one point in the documentary, had mentioned that

If Harry Potter was in the Old Testament, he would have been put to death.

Can anyone shed some light on why she would say this? And does anyone agree?

 

[Todd Grace]

Witchcraft is a bibical no no.
Since 1990 to present the Wicca group has gone from 8,000 to a million.
What do you think Jesus thinks of these " harmless" stories?

 

[catzetier]

I like Harry Potter, but I liked the original stories more when I was still a child. I've shifted to Harry Potter fanfiction now (honestly, you can find almost anything in there - ranging from absolutely fantastic to scraping the underside of the barrel) and had begun the move even when I was a child - after the fourth book, actually. I think it had much to do with Voldemort not exactly being credible as a genius - we're told he is, but he comes across as a bit of an idiot - and my budding habit of poking curiously at the gaping holes in his nefarious schemes. One of the more obvious ones being why on earth he didn't instruct Barty-as-Moody to do something along the lines of transforming the nearest eraser into a Portkey and saying "Potter, catch!"

*shrug* They are amusing books, but for me, the high point of the series plotwise and stylewise was #3. It is not a coincidence that this is the only book where Voldie is absent.

 

[Todd Grace]

Angel in the Shadows Book 1 is the No.1 downloaded Amazon e-book for the last 90 days.
Angel in the Storm Book 2 is No. 5 and just came out.
AOL's Top 10 most Challenged Book List for 2010.
CBS interview.
Named by AOL as The Christian alternative to the Twilight Series.
5 Star reviews.Amazon.com: kindle books, Last 90 days, Kindle Edition Teen Books
Link for No.1 ranking above
www.lisagracebooks.com
Find out why!

 

[catzetier]

Um... Todd... this is a HARRY POTTER thread, created to "gather fans and hopefully have some fun chats". What on earth have any of your posts - with the exception of the Wicca thing and that's a bit dubious - got to do with Harry Potter?

This isn't a thread to plug non-HP stuff! *irritated*

 

[Todd Grace]

The Wicca post earlier was in response to the question asked by the previous poster about being put to death.
This is a Christian site and Potter is about witchcraft. The series is partially resposible for the growth of the Wicca group which pulls our youth's attention away from Christ.
Wicca's added a million members since the series debuted.
The books I posted are theologically correct and were named by AOL as The Christian alternative to the Twilight Series. If I had a choice I'd pick an exciting Christian Series over one that makes ordinary people boring and sorcery cool.
If I can't make people aware of a good Christian Series on a Christian site that is talking about an "enjoyable" witchcraft movie we are all in trouble. I'm sorry you're irritated.
Here's the good news though:
The Angel in the Shadows Series is the No. 1 and No.5 Best Seller on Amazon e-books in the teen fiction category for the last 90 days. It's selling more than Potter and Twilight. Praise God
Here's the link there are 2 books:http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_ex_n_1?rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Akindle+books%2Cn%3A%211000%2Cn%3A28%2Cp_n_publication_date%3A1250227011%2Cp_n_feature_browse-bin%3A618073011&bbn=28&keywords=kindle+books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312598747

Would you like them as gift copies Catzetier? I'll send them to you. No hard feelings, Todd Grace

 

[catzetier]

Hi Todd​

I was never tempted to abandon Christianity because of Harry Potter and can’t really understand why anyone would. I know the difference between reality and fantasy, and to me, Harry Potter is quite an entertaining fantasy story, full of stuff about friendship and loyalty and the fight between good and evil.

I guess, if there’s data to back it up, then HP may be partially responsible for the move to Wicca... but from the Wicca sites I looked up today out of curiosity to see how similar the magic actually was (for about ten seconds before deciding that Wicca was utterly weird), they’re nothing alike and anyone with half a brain would notice that half a minute after joining up. Anyone with a whole brain would notice it before joining up . Magic in Wicca is like a religion or aligning yourself with the universe or threefold karma or whatever, as I understand it (and I am the first to admit that I am far from an expert). Whether or not you can do magic in the HP universe seems to be more like whether you have the basic musical talent to possibly become the next Tchaikovsky... or are, musically speaking, tone-deaf, possess no sense of rhythm, and only have one hand (and the wrong one, at that) . It’s not exactly something you choose; you either have it or you don’t.​

Anyway.

I’m glad you don’t have any hard feelings. I was trying to be polite but I am a very direct person and struggle with this sometimes.

About your offer... thank you, but no thanks. It was very generous of you – particularly considering what you’d have to pay in postage – but I read the excerpts on Amazon and the style is not my thing. It’s pretty competent, apart from the grammar errors (something that will bug me in just about anything)... but there’s no slant, no stylistic twist in the telling. I always want first-person stories to be slanted, tinted by the narrator’s perception, and Angel in the Shadows isn’t slanted. It’s not like Harry Potter, which manages to convey slants even though it’s in third-person (an obvious one being that Professor Snape=eeevil), has an enjoyable wryly-humorous style, and which due to the slants often managed to utterly blindside me although it was playing with plot points in plain sight (Professor Quirrell, for example). And it’s nowhere near as good as my preferred books now. To be fair, my current preferred books play with language to the extent of making me laugh and cry at the same time because the telling is so hauntingly, evocatively beautiful; always slant a first-person tale through the narrator’s perception; and are so lyrical in places that they read almost like poetry, or music.

That is why I’m not interested, and please believe me when I say that I do not mean to cause offence. I hope that many other people like the Angel books.​

catzetier

PS. I'm not trying to hijack the thread - I posted this rather than PMing it because there is relevant Harry Potter stuff in here.

 

[Todd Grace]

I'm sure H.P. is entertaining. It's not my thing though.
Sorcery is not of Christ and children and teens don't have the discernment an adult has. I'm of the opinion that if you wouldn't take Jesus with you, you probably shouldn't be doing it.


The Angel Series books are fun quick reads with the plan of salvation woven in the stories. They are meant to appeal to teens and introduce them to the plan of salvation. The formula is working but adults are the normal readers.
AOL's Top 10 Book List for 2010.
20 city book tour [ mostly Barnes @ Nobles ]
CBS [KOIN} Early Morning Show interview
AOL named " The Christian alternative to The Twilight Series"
No. 1 selling teen fiction Amazon Kindle e-book last 90 days. Book 1
No. 8 for the year but only out for 2 months. Book 1
Book 2 No. 6 after 1 month
5 Star reviews

 

[BleedingHeart]

Harry Potter is awesome. End of story. I grew kinda flaky on the second book for some reason, putting it down and picking it back up after a month had passed or something. While I am an atheist now, I was a Christian when I started reading it, and it absolutely was NOT the reason for my loss of faith now.

 

[keith99]

I'm sure H.P. is entertaining. It's not my thing though.
Sorcery is not of Christ and children and teens don't have the discernment an adult has. I'm of the opinion that if you wouldn't take Jesus with you, you probably shouldn't be doing it.


The Angel Series books are fun quick reads with the plan of salvation woven in the stories. They are meant to appeal to teens and introduce them to the plan of salvation. The formula is working but adults are the normal readers.
AOL's Top 10 Book List for 2010.
20 city book tour [ mostly Barnes @ Nobles ]
CBS [KOIN} Early Morning Show interview
AOL named " The Christian alternative to The Twilight Series"
No. 1 selling teen fiction Amazon Kindle e-book last 90 days. Book 1
No. 8 for the year but only out for 2 months. Book 1
Book 2 No. 6 after 1 month
5 Star reviews

Bolding mine

Do you ever use the bathroom? Are you planning on getting married and having sex with your spouse?

My bet is most people woul dbe far more comfortable taking Jesus to see a Harry Potter film than either of these. And of course the magic objection hold just as well regarding Narnia and LOTR as it does for Potter and both those are very Christian works.

 

[mgs_pepe]

I've siad it once, I'll say it a thousand time...

Narnia: Allowed and encouraged by Christian schools and churchs because C.S. Lewis siad he was a Christian. Has only one allusion to Christianity that I saw in the reading of the series.

Harry Potter: Discouraged if not outright banned by Christian schools and churches because J.K. Rowlling never made comment on her religious views until well after the series ended. Has a Christ-like character who contains all of what are taught as "Fisher-King" attributes in English literature.

I read The Chronicals of Narnia, just like I read Harry Potter. In all honesty, I see more Christianity in Lord of the Rings than in Narnia. This is coming from the mindset of an English major who has spent several years studying British literature.


That being said, I did read Harry Potter growing up. My parent's church hosted a missionary who came and taught a three hour lecture on the "evils" of Harry Potter while praising Narnia. It was all I could to not laugh at the hypocricy of it all.

From the standpoint of an author and an English major, however, I must say Deathly Hallows was the worst and most expensive piece of overpriced fan fiction I have ever bought.

 

[catzetier]

I disagree about Narnia's Christianity - I always saw it as being Christian. Admittedly the only profoundly obvious thing is Aslan's sacrifice in Wardrobe, but I read a selection of essays about the series which highlighted such things as Reepicheep's relevance and Christian points in the plot structure of Silver Chair. Things I hadn't noticed but which, on realising, heightened my enjoyment of the series.

However, I agree with you about DH (and I am also an English major!). Particularly the epilogue. Honestly, if it was an Important Point that wands were semi-sentient entities which changed their allegiances if their owner was disarmed, surely something should have been mentioned to somebody a LOT earlier in the series. The multiple instances of students learning the Disarming Charm comes to mind as an obvious option! If the words were put in Hermione's mouth (after all, she is bookish, knows random facts, and is a know-it-all in the best possible way), it would have worked. But nooo, we get a major plot point introduced completely at random...

I've read actual Harry Potter fanfiction with a more coherent plotline than DH. At the better end of the scale, admittedly...

 

[mgs_pepe]

I've read Harry Potter CRACK fanfics that had better plots than DH...

...then there was also the Cloak of True Invisiblity that both Dumbledore and Moody could see the person wearing, Ron speaking a language that couldn't be learned, Harry forgiving Ron again (which admittidly only furthers the Harry Potter/Jesus Christ anology), Harry accepting Dumbledore's manipulations (again being Christlike...), and just a whole lot of other plot holes.

 

[stacymay]

I'm a Harry Potter fan. I completely understand where people who disapprove of it are coming from, but I see it as just another fantasy story (albeit extremely well-written compared to some others XD) and it's not making me break out a ouiji board or summon witches... discernment is important and we shouldn't just assume that because of its premise, it's EVIL!

What about beloved Christian author CS Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia? It's full of magical things.

 

[dukeunique]

well thanks for sharing guys i have seen all ur views

 

[soulseeker95]

I love HP, always have always will. It is definitely amazing. I too can see a lot of the things connecting it to Christianity. It is all about how you look at it. It is very well-written, and I must say, I could read it over and over again XD. In fact, I have 13 times over, and still going. I grew up on that book, and in a way, it sort of helped me grow as the Christian I am today

 

[keith99]

It has been decades since I read Narnia. But still I remember the Christian elements are clear, even heavy handed.

The start with the willing sacrfice of Aslan and the end, the very end are enough to make it clear.

If not those how about the reference to Sons of Adam and daughters of Eve?

Of course I could take it a bit farther and say it reflects Dominion theology. Actually it does, but an adult version (being taught to children) where dominion is about responsibility.

Personally I do not see explicitly Christian elements in Harry Potter. But the core seems to be basic decent behaviour towards others, something that is part of Christianity, just not unique to it.

If I chose to I think I could nmake an argument that the magic in Potter is different and I could make it 'evil'. I do not chose to as I think it would be an argument based on a very selective reading of scripture. And while I do not believe I feel that such a reading is an insult to those Christians I have come to respect.