Customer Reviews

Harry Potter: Innocent Entertainment? or Darkness Disguised?

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As the daughter of a pentecostal preacher, My children, family members, and friends love the Harry Potter series. It actually is a wonderful story of good versus evil, as most of our children's classic fairy tales are. For some reason, stories such as Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty, aren't labeled as "Darkminded" , "Satanic", or "Cult". They include magic and fantasy. If this series encourages one to look into the "Darkside", then they didn't have an understanding of faith or Christianity to start with and obviously have more pressing life issues than Harry Potter.
The way the author has told the story of a boy who was mistreated and abused for much of his life finally finding love and a sense of belonging is also a great way to reach out to so many children who feel that very way. It shows children that it is okay to be different and has many other lessons infused throughout the series.
Most of the people I know who won't allow their children to read these books haven't even read them themselves. They just took the word of some other shallow minded idiot.

My answer to those two questions are:
1- Harry Potter is NOT innocent entertainment. You can actually learn from it. What? A few examples. Book One: the value of friendship. Book 2: your race or creed is not important. What really matters is how much you improve your skills and how much you improve the life of the people around you. Book 3: The importance of knowing where you come from. Book 4:Overcoming your fears is vital. Book 5: You have a right to fight peacefully if the government that rules your country does not satisfy you or it tells you big lies. Book 6: Whatever you go through you can find resiliency right into you.
2- Darkness is not disguised. It's quite evident. But why should it not? Darkness is all around us. It does not bear VOldemort's name, but we can easily recognize it. We have it inside ourselves,too,under the names of greed, anger, violence.
Why are all so scared? Church activists are afraid that reader will go on worshipping Darkness. Well, I don't think so. First of all, because Harry Potter fights darkness. Then, because the target age of the books and the movies are well beyond the age when kids can't tell the difference between reality and fiction.
They are also afraid that readers will start practising magic instead of going to CHurch. But if believing in magic is that dangerous, why don't we start saying Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, los reyes magos do not exist?The answer is, because a little poetry - and magic is poetry- makes life better.
So, should we ban this DVD and all if the books similar to it? Of course not. We should, on the contrary, read and watch them, so tho have a better view of everything and hence make a more thought upon choice on where we should stand.
I stand for Harry Potter.

I wonder why it is that now a book series and movies come out that truly engage children and make them want to read and experience something that opens the imagination, people want to ruin it and take it away. I would sugest instead of banning Harry Potter merchandise we ban garbage like this. I pity you for being so cruel to a child's mind when all they are doing is reading finally.... instead of watching all the smut on TV. You should be singing praises for these books and their author. Three cheers for J.K. Rowling, for bringing good books back to our youth.

This DVD reminded me of a colleague who told me she wouldn't let her children watch anything like Star Wars, Star Trek or Lord of the Rings because it didn't fit with 'the reality of our Christian God.'

If you believe in God, then you have to believe that God is the one who gave us brains, gave us imagination, and gave us the power to fantasize.

I know that the tinier the mind, the more a person wishes that everyone would be the same - think the same, dress the same, look the same, and have the same idea about ultimate reality. This DVD was put together by some of the tiniest minds ever...

I was once asked by an in-law why I needed so many books on my shelves when he has only needed one book for his entire life. I have also encountered in middle-school classrooms children who are not allowed by their parents to read Harry Potter, Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series, or any other piece of writing that contains "magic" and is therefore "sinful." This program displays a similar mentality: intellectual, moral, and aesthetic cowardice. As another reviewer has remarked, homogeneity and absolute carbon-copying of Biblical-based "Christian" lifestyle is essential to these poorly- or non-educated individuals (perhaps brainwashed would also describe many of them). For my part, whenever I am forced to speak with such mindless individuals or confront superstitious claptrap of this sort, I'm reminded of Holden Caulfield's observation of the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Show: "If old Jesus could come back and look at this, he'd puke!" The only ones a program like this one reaches are those who are already predisposed to reject everything that doesn't fit in with their inculcated sense of a "Christian" life. (Of course, these are the same people who run out and read poorly-written, mindless trash like the Left Behind Series as if they are Holy Writ and justify the mindless rejection of the expanses and possibilities within an unrestricted and yet still-moral human mind.) For anyone else with even a half-functional mind and intellect, such programs are grist for anger, ridicule, scorn, and ultimate rejection.

Keep in mind that these are the exact same people who give out books by Roy Lessin, Tedd Tripp, and James Dobson in their church foyers as necessary reading material no Christian parent should be without: books that explain in detail the importance of spanking and how to spank children in a manner that will cause them the most intense pain possible. These child-rearing books they are so fond of also contain advice on how to keep the local police and child protection agencies from finding out how they are 'disciplining their children in the name of God' because the majority of society is 'unenlightened' and just 'doesn't understand' that the Bible says children are supposed to be beaten. They actually think the numerous respected University studies which have concluded that hitting children is wrong have been conducted by and released through a conspiricy between vessels of the Antichrist.

And then they have the gall to say that HARRY POTTER is harmful to kids??? This would be more than laughable if it wasn't such a tragedy how their poor children are abused every single day.

Every single person who writes or makes a movie about Harry Potter having some deep, dark meaning needs to get a life. This product is obviously the result of jealousy because of the money J.K. Rowling has made from Harry Potter. Harry Potter is popular, because it's well-written in the books and well-produced in the movies. It's harmless entertainment. People, don't waste your money on buying a piece of junk that isn't even worth the disc it was formatted onto. Trust me on this one, this person wants attention and is jealous that they didn't think up the concept of Harry Potter and his adventures in their scrawny little brain. Harry Potter rocks. Buy Harry Potter movies and books, not this worthless, idiotic JUNK.

I find it incredibly sad that people should feel the need to make things like this. It is not a documentary, it is not even a critique, it is a highly biased, reactionary piece of rhetoric that does not entertain or inform.

I have heard and read many proponents and opponents of the Harry Potter phenomenon and some of them interesting and worthwhile whether one believes them or not.

I was raised to make my own decisions as to what is good and what is not, what constitutes 'evil' and to make a distinction between fact and fiction, truth and mythology. Children of today should also have that opportunity. We can only guide them into reading all aspects of the spectrum and then deciding for themselves what mythologies they are comfortable with be it Harry Potter, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings or the Bible.

I am a saved, sanctified, filled with the Holy Ghost member of the "Church of God" denomination. I have personally read all the Harry Potter books, and have seen all the movies. Now, I was once one of these very people that criticized the Harry Potter books, and accused them of being "strait from the devil." I have since had to change my oppinion. Now, according to the DVD's editorial description, children are being "mezmerized" by these books and the occult. And the book description also goes so far as to quote the books as having the "Mark of the Beast (666)" in them. This is as outright lie. I have read every book several times through, and nowhere does it make any mention of any such reference. The archenemy of the Harry Potter books "Voldemort" seeks immortality through splitting his soul into parts. Yes, it is a little strange at the first glance, but this is a FANTASY book. Now, nowhere in my Bible do I find anything like unto this. The only thing of "eternal life" I find in my Bible is that you must be saved through Jesus Christ, and that you either spend eternity in Heaven or Hell. Yes, Harry Potter is a wizard, and yes, the book contains a school of magic. But, my question is what is the difference in one wizard/witch and another? We criticize Harry Potter, but sing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" with Dorothy in the WIZARD of Oz. What's the difference in Harry Potter and the Wicked Witch of the West? What causes one to be so wrong, but one to be a "family classic?" We have to remember that this is a FANTASY book. I have seen so many people jump to a wrong conclusion about these books, when they know nothing TRUTHFUL about them. As for me, Harry Potter, takes me away to a place in my mind that has not been explored since childhood. I am an adult, and have tried to read these books from an adult perspective. If parents would raise their children to know the difference between God and Satan, good and evil, then there would be no worry about what they discover in any book or television. I don't care what the Wiccan community thinks of these books, and I'm not trying to support witchcraft. I have simply enjoyed a wonderfully-written children's book that has resparked my imagination. Have I developed an emphatuation with witchcraft or Satanic worship? No. As I said, I am a member of a Pentacostal denomination church. I do not support witchcraft IN THE REAL WORLD, but this is not the real world. The author should "get their tales strait," before they go making accusations. With the editorial description provided, I find it hard to believe that the author has actually read any of the Harry Potter books. To me telling only half the truth is as wrong as telling a complete lie. I wouldn't recommend this DVD to anyone. At least, not until they can tell the REAL truth about these books. There is a REAL Satan out there, and he is much worse than anything these books can bring to your mind. This is just what he wants. He would like nothing more than to cause us ( us being Christians) so much confusion over a simple children's book, that we forget our true goal!

I have read HP and watched this "documentary". All I can say is "wow". Are we to believe that children and adults around the world are THAT stupid that they can tell the difference between fantasy and reality?

Wizard of Oz features good witches and bad witches. I didn't hear of children in the 1930s and 1940s running to their local occult shop and learning how to float in magic bubbles after watching Wizard of Oz.
What about Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Sorcerer's Apprentice (Fantasia), Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, ALL of these features characters who preform magic and yet are the GOOD guys! So parents, please, if you hate HP because of the magic in it, take 90% of your Disney books, videos, and dvds and burn them now before the devil gets your children!

I have opened many an occult book, particularly Wicca/Witchcraft. I can tell you that from reading Harry Potter and comparing it to witchcraft if a child is inspired to try their hand at witchcraft they will be bored to tears. No magical sparks, or transformations, not even a Patronous. Just sitting in a circle with candles lit, praying to Goddess somewhere. Children will be DISENCHANTED to pick up a real witchcraft book.