Religious parents in England do not want their children to be exposed to Harry Potter books because they "normalize and trivialize acts of magic." Is it possible to get poisoning from too much irony?

Courtesy of the Independent:  

Teachers are reportedly receiving complaints that teaching the Harry Potter books in classrooms exposes children to "witchcraft and Satanism". 

Tom Bennett, a school behaviourist consulting with the Government, has claimed concerns from parents, particularly of religious backgrounds, that the popular series of novels works to "trivialise acts of magic". Speaking at an event held at London's City Hall, Bennett stated, "Harry Potter deals with the occult. There are many, many parents who are uncomfortable with their children discussing or looking at or reading anything at all do with the occult. 

For many parents, particularly of Evangelical Christian backgrounds, and sometimes of Muslim backgrounds, the occult is not something which exists in fiction and fantasy, the occult is something which is a very living, live part of the faith. Many parents, particularly if they are Jehovah's Witnesses, will ask their children not to be exposed to books which trivialise or normalise acts of magic. It's part of witchcraft and Satanism. 

They say they'd rather their children weren't exposed to literature or fiction which normalised or trivialised or even applauded or encouraged what they would regard as witchcraft."

Uh huh.

Well it makes sense that these parents would not want their children exposed to the magic in Harry Potter books, and the be able to compare it to the pathetic parlor tricks performed by the hero of THEIR favorite book. 

Seriously, walking on water, cloning loaves and fishes, raising somebody from the dead?

I've seen that Criss Angel guy do those first two several times, and I learned that last one in my CPR/First Aid class.

I think these parents are just angry that J.K. Rowling had a more fertile imagination than the old primitive fools who compiled the stories of the Bible.

By the way if you ever want to read an excellent book about the writing of the Bible I suggest you start here.

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling says Donald Trump worse than Voldemort.

How horrible. Voldemort was nowhere near as bad. https://t.co/hFO0XmOpPH

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 8, 2015

Courtesy of The Herald: 

JK Rowling has branded US presidential candidate Donald Trump 'worse than Voldemort' after he called for Muslims to be banned from entering the US. 

The Harry Potter author made the comments after BBC Newsbeat sent her a link to an article entitled 'This is why people are calling American businessman, Donald Trump, Lord Voldemort'.

Hard to argue with her about this.

After all she knows a little something about evil megalomaniacs. 

I was going to say that Trump is worse because Voldemort is a fictional character ,but then I remembered that in many ways so is Trump.

The Republican dream ticket?

Courtesy of US News:  

Jason King, a 36-year-old homeless rights activist who lives in the District of Columbia has come up with the Internet’s 2016 dream ticket: Sarah Palin, the 2008 GOP vice presidential pick, and Lord Voldemort, the snakelike wizard villain from the "Harry Potter" series. His faux political campaign joins an increasingly packed 2016 presidential field. 

You know oddly enough Valdemort is polling better than a number of GOP candidates.

So it seems to me that if this were an actual ticket he might do better if he were the primary candidate and he dumped the Palin dead weight.

Just a suggestion.

Trio of teen exorcists heading to England to battle the forces of Harry Potter.

(Okay one of the young ladies is twenty, but the other two ARE teens.)

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

A trio of Arizona “exorcists” has ventured to England to fight what it describes as the endorsement of satanic elements in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter book series. 

“Harry is using this magic for good,” 18-year-old Brynne Larson explains in video posted by the Daily Mail on Monday. “So here we have the dangerous idea that you can use this magic for good or bad. When in reality, all magic is bad ’cause you’re getting your power from Satan.” 

Larson and friends Tess and Savannah Scherkenback will be profiled in a BBC special on Friday discussing both their longtime friendship and their training by Larson’s father, Rev. Bob Larson, who claims to have performed 15,000 exorcisms. 

The BBC reported that Bob Larson asks for donations of $200 for each exorcism. The three girls claim in the video that the popularity of Rowling’s books marked the culmination of a rise in occult activity in England. 

“The spells and things that you’re reading in the Harry Potter books, those aren’t just something that are made up,” 18-year-old Tess Scherkenback says. “Those are actual spells. Those are things that came from witchcraft books.”

The spells in Harry Potter books are NOT made up? Well that would certainly be news to J.K Rowling, who worked so hard to invent her own word combinations for her books.

This is clearly yet another bizarre pitch for reality show fame by a gaggle of giggly girls promoted by Rev. Bob Larsen, a well known charlatan.

However the Fundamentalist freakout over the Harry Potter books is all too real.

As I watched the video up above I thought t looked strangely familiar. And indeed it did.

Personally I have always thought that the main irritation by the Christian community when it comes to the Harry Potter books is that children scrambled to read them, and they they supplanted the Bible as the most popular book. And why not? After all they are better written by far, and the allegorical lessons are much easier to understand.

But what they don't teach us is how to perform actual magic. And only an imbecile would think otherwise. Or, a trio of imbeciles.

My daughter tells me that this is the hottest thing trending on the social networks right now. Which is not good news for Romney concerning the youth vote.

Apparently it all started with this article over at Slate on October 23rd:

Sometimes one gets a little tired of the echo-chamber of election anxiety, the fretful watching of the debates, the scrolling through tweets and Facebook postings to see what everyone else is thinking watching the debates, the brilliant little analyses by friends, the bits of cleverness, the instant polls. So it was sort of relaxing and informative to watch the foreign policy debate with my 9-year-old Violet, who is at that phase of life when she views the world entirely through the lens of Harry Potter. 

It started in the last debate when she said of Mitt Romney, after hearing him talk for a few minutes: “He’s Umbridge!” And of course I saw exactly what she meant, the brittle, lacquered, self-satisfied smile of the ambitious Dark Arts professor and passionate ministry bureaucrat, Dolores Umbridge. The saccharine, almost-girlish chuckle. The proclamations she issues at Hogwarts, the self-important talk about “the ministry this” and “the ministry that.” The classes doomed to read out loud instead of learning the spells they desperately need. The moment where she makes Harry write lines into his own skin with a pen that draws real blood, all the while smiling that fake and brittle smile. Then of course there is her interest in Muggle Registration, and protecting “pureblood” wizards from the dilution and compromise of human blood.

And from there it went viral.

My daughter informs me that these images and humorous comments connecting Romney and Umbridge have been flying fast and furious around the inter-tubes.

And you know, now that I think about it, there IS a rather frightening similarity. Don't you think?

Stephen Colbert believes that Harry Potter and Sarah Palin films would make a GREAT double feature. You know that might be the only plausible way to get anybody to watch "The Undefeated."

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
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www.colbertnation.com
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Inside the Palin HQ as the launch of "The Undefeated" fails.

For those of you who sent this to me today, I am sorry it took me so long to post it, but I was a wee busy.

For those who have NOT watched it yet, drop everything and have a seat, because this video is HYSTERICAL!

Inside Palin Campaign HQ - Launch of 'The Undefeated' Fails from Moosehelmet Films on Vimeo.

Now that was very well done!

We can thank Harry Potter for helping to weed out the whackos who are working with our kids.

A British teaching assistant is suing an elementary school in London after being disciplined for refusing to listen to a child read a "Harry Potter" book. Sariya Allen told a tribunal she resigned from her post at Durand Primary School after being suspended for "her obstructive conduct over time," the Daily Mail reported Saturday. Allen claims she was "harassed, humiliated and discriminated" against because of her religious beliefs. Her last alleged act of "obstructive conduct" before resigning in 2006 was refusing to listen to a 7-year-old girl read a "Harry Potter" book because she said it was against her Christian faith. Her employers disciplined her after she told the girl "I don't do witchcraft in any form" and said she would be "cursed" by hearing the novel. She is seeking about $100,000 in damages from her former school for religious discrimination.

Isn't it great how believing in Christianity really enhances your enjoyment of pop culture?

The idea that a child can be turned to witchcraft by reading Harry Potter is pretty far fetched.

The idea that witchcraft has anything to do with being anti-Christian is a creation of Christianity not paganism.

The early Christians attacked all other popular beliefs of the time by linking them to Satanism. And those same primitive prejudices survive to this day.

So this teacher is the victim of an ancient anti-religious hate crime, and she does not even know it.