Sometimes you win a small skirmish!

"Actor Sam Elliot has blamed the Catholic Church for stopping sequels from being made to the Golden Compass movie based on the first book of Philip Pullman’s atheistic trilogy His Dark Materials...." Read more.

Harry Potter -- Yes or No?

Over the years I've read plenty of commentary on Harry Potter. Some folks think the series was spawned in hell; others love it and think it's filled with great Christian imagery. I read the first few and thought they were okay for a child to read with close adult supervision, but I found some things in the books troubling. I think the series can be a real danger for kids in troubled homes or who have little wise adult guidance. I think they can also be a danger for badly catechized adults, the same type to be taken in by The DaVinci Code. (I was appalled how many ignorant Catholics believed it.) When I got to the fourth Potter book that started with a brutal murder I knew it definitely was not for twelve-year-olds. And yet how many parents pay attention to what their children are reading?

What do you think? Here are a few articles looking at both sides.

Voting YEA --

HARRY POTTER, PAPIST? , a review of The Mystery of Harry Potter: A Catholic Family Guide by Nancy Carpentier Brown

Not the Power of Success but the Humbleness of Giving Himself (This link also pulls up the first article below.)

Voting NAY --

A Wrong Image of the Hero

Harry Potter: An Entry Point into the World of the Occult / New Age Movement

See a list of nays at Steve Wood's website. Wood has experience with the occult so his opinion carries some weight I think.

Wood also goes into Pullman's series, His Dark Materials. Pullman portrays the Catholic Church as the enemy and the demonic as the good. The series is the fulfillment of the prophecy that there will come a time when good is called evil and evil good. We're there big time. Is Harry Potter the "entry drug" into the occult?

Harry Potter: Agent of Conversion by Toni Collins This last article I found particularly interesting because the author came out of the occult and shares her views both yea and nay about the series. This is a defiinite must read for parents.