What the Devil?

By Devina (The Charmed One)

Yes, I always feel like saying that whenever I read articles on how Harry Potter books teach children the ways of Satan etcetera, etcetera, and etcetera! It really gets boring and it sounds as if someone stuffed one article into a thesaurus generator and out spewed another article with different words and the same meaning.

To avoid any confusion - although how there could be any confusion at this point of time, I have no clue; but stranger things have happened - I am emphatically stating here: I do NOT think Harry Potter books go against any religions, or teach about witchcraft (well, OF COURSE IT DOES, but I'm referring to the voodoo that detractors keep referring to), or tell people to follow the Devil. Yeah right. And I have this whole area in my red room dedicated to how I can use other people's toenails to kill them. Really. *rolls eyes*

The first problem people had was that Harry Potter was about witchcraft. Erm, yes, so? It's like saying, "Shrek is about an ogre! Really, it is! Ooooooh!" I don't see people keeping their kids locked in for the fear that a great big ogre on a flying dragon will come and chomp them down. Everyone, repeat after me, "Harry Potter, regrettably enough, does NOT exist; try as I might, saying Wingardium Leviosa is NOT going to make anything levitate, so I should not worry about hitting anyone on the head, or causing anyone's face to resemble a cat by unnatural means." Come on, how the bloody hell does anyone think that powdered newt, eye of whatever-schwatever actually makes something??? It's just a tribute to JKR that her writings make people believe in things coming to life from the fantastical world she created.

Another oft-repeated line I've read is about "Harry Potter not marking the line between good and evil clearly enough". I don't get this one either. Let's try this one more time.
Voldemort=evil.
Harry=good.
Voldemort=Tom Riddle=Dark Lord=EVIL.
Harry Potter + Hermione Granger + Ronald Weasley = GOOD.
More characters to be added to each equation, but you get my drift, don't you? How MUCH more clearer does this 'line' have to be? As if anyone has thoughts like: "Voldemort poor baby had issues with his difficult childhood which led him to torture others, but it's ok, because maybe he had problems in his developmental stages; besides, killing Muggles isn't that bad is it? Err…what are Muggles anyway?" I think it's pretty clear to anyone that "you kill, you bad".

Going against religions comes next. *sigh* Don't even get me started on this one. No, wait, I will get started on this one; that's why I write articles, I love talking about what I think…what more can I say about my egotism? ;-)
Again, I simply cannot understand how this happens! As far as my knowledge goes, all religions do emphasize the basic values of truth, equality, justice, tolerance, and all that is moral and good, yeah? And I suppose someone will be telling me next Harry dear is a lying prejudicial cruel racist pig? Dear me, when did that happen? Before or after he tried to torture the Asian kid by trying to throw beef down his/her mouth? (Not that I don't eat beef, but there are some people who strictly do follow not eating beef or pork if their religion tells them not to.) So going back to what I was saying, Harry Potter does not ask or teach people to leave their religions; people hold beliefs because of many things, religion is a personal choice, not one that I think can be affected by reading a book. Of course, we had some people actually becoming Jedi's, by making it their religion, but I don't remember them being condemned. (Then again, I wasn't even born then, so yeah, maybe they were condemned, what can I say? That's silly…if anyone wants to be a Jedi, LET THEM!)

Ah yes, the one of the best ones was Harry Potter teaches us about the Devil. I didn't notice him in the books you know, I'm trying to remember how the hell [;-)] I missed the dude. Or is it 'dudette'? Whichever… The point is what exactly does following Satan's teachings mean? Does he/she have a book or code lying around somewhere for our perusal? Hey, wait! Have Satan's teachings hate, anger, betrayal, war etcetera to do anything with it? But aren't we simply forgetting that such crimes, such heinous acts are committed in the name of religion and the God in that particular religion? I know people can be contradictory and confusing and oh-so-vague about their lines between what acts are reserved for 'God' and what for 'the Devil', but forgive these souls; they're acting just like the Harry Potter books, unable to draw a clear line between good and evil.

We have people proclaiming themselves to be champions of good, protectors of their religion and soldiers in its cause…the very same people refuse to give the joy of reading a good book to people, show intolerance where their beliefs tell them to be tolerant, and end up giving us more pain and more suffering than anything else ever could. "Hypocrites" is the word that comes to mind.

You know what I think? Don't proclaim tolerance if you're allergic to it. You'll end up sneezing, and probably breaking out into a rash.