News on that Potter boy...

[Eric McTavish]

Hmm I thought only The Daily Profit ran stories like these... I'm sticking to The Quibbler myself!

Potter Books Promote Witchcraft - Says Pro-Family Campaigner
Friday 22nd July 2005

Derry Pro-family campaigner Mrs. Jennifer Barber last night hit out at the latest Harry Potter book saying it is familiarising children with the art of witchcraft and black magic.

Urging parents to "get rid" of any Harry Potter videos or books they have in their homes Mrs. Barber condemned the series as "carefully marketed instruction manuals for young dabblers in the occult."

Mrs. Barber said that while she was aware by speaking out against Harry Potter she would be labelled as a "religious maniac" or "nut case" she had concerns about a society where young people are exposed to horror films, sexually explicit videos and satanic programmes such as 'Buffy', 'Charmed', 'Angel' or 'Sabrina.'

"Ten million copies printed for world-wide distribution of the latest in the Harry Potter collection only goes to prove that in today's society and even in the Derry, the occult sells," she said. "Derry did not escape the frenzied hype and many children missed out on a good night's sleep in favour of queuing up for hours dressed as a witch, long after midnight, the socalled witching hour, and all with the permission of their parents.


Read the rest of the story here

[Tempest_Gypsy]

Bet she's never read the books herself.

Or any books at all, it sounds like....

[Drea Beth]

Derry Pro-family campaigner Mrs. Jennifer Barber last night hit out at the latest Harry Potter book saying it is familiarising children with the art of witchcraft and black magic.

Urging parents to "get rid" of any Harry Potter videos or books they have in their homes Mrs. Barber condemned the series as "carefully marketed instruction manuals for young dabblers in the occult."

Darn... where was Harry Potter when I was a kid. Maybe I could have fulfilled my dream of becoming a witch. I never did find a good instruction manual. (In all seriousness, when I was 9 or 10 I really wanted to be a cauldron bubbling, broomstick riding, spell casting, black magic using, in league with the devil witch. And my parents were amazingly cool with that. Anyway...)

Huzzah to Mrs. Barber for having an opinion and taking a stand about something she believes in. As long as she's not telling me what I can't read, or worse, telling me what my child can't read, it's all good.

[RichardMacHugely]

Does anyone seriously think that Mrs. Jennifer Barber and people of her ilk have any real affect on readership of the Potter books?


Well, a positive affect maybe, since I bought the first three Potter books just to spite people like Barber, but are people like that really keeping anyone from reading the books?

[erinrai]

Wonder what she would have to say then about a minister using Harry and the rest of his gang as examples in his sermons. My pastor routinely uses HP, LOTR and other such fantasy books as examples. So far no one has tried to burn him at the stake for it either. And we live smack in the buckle of the "Bible Belt".

[RichardMacHugely]

The rector at my church also references the positive messages in HP and LOTR occasionally. What books does he "denounce" from the pulpit? The "Left Behind" series about people on Earth after the Rapture that is so much loved by people like Barber.

[Cyranno DeBoberac]

she was aware by speaking out against Harry Potter she would be labelled as a "religious maniac" or "nut case"

Hey, if it quacks like a duck...

[Ysobelle]

Eric, you have an inexhaustible source for these stories, don't you?

[Eric McTavish]

Eric, you have an inexhaustible source for these stories, don't you?

Who me?? Naa

[aspen]

The rector at my church also references the positive messages in HP and LOTR occasionally. What books does he "denounce" from the pulpit? The "Left Behind" series about people on Earth after the Rapture that is so much loved by people like Barber.

Is he denouncing the plotlines or the really bad writing?

Aspen, who tried to read one once.