The new Harry Potter book comes out tomorrow. Of course, CNN was covering it. Generally, I don't watch CNN whenever possible. But I was at a pizza shop and that's what was on the TV when I was waiting. After the hoopla about the new book was finished (film of people waiting in line, history of the author, etc etc), it turned to "Witchcraft debate". Uh, right.
It caught my attention because there was a GIANT stack of books being burned while some pompous idiot commented, "What is this book teaching our children!" Hey buddy, maybe you could be teaching your children something better than book burning. It was surrealistic. Parents standing behind their kids, arms crossed, as their kids looked uncomfortable ripping pages out of books and tossing them into the fire. "Witchcraft is evil, and this book corrupts the mind of children!" On and on.
Ok. Maybe CNN is just trying to be fair. After showing footage of the book burnings, various religious 'leaders' expressing their opinion, they rolled out two speakers. One pro-Harry, one anti-Harry. They BOTH slammed pagan religions, and expressed their scorn on such groups. The anchor lady wasn't exactly showing any lack of bias either.
Liberal media, my rear end! I've seen right wing fanatics treat pagan religions with higher respect.
The book series has virtually nothing to do with modern pagan groups. It's a piece of fiction. It's not pagan-propaganda.
It's a story about a kid screwed over by nearly everyone. For reasons outside his control, a group of people are trying to kill him, the govt is screwing with him, and the adult "good guys" treat him worse than his enemies trying to kill him. The head of his school uses him as a pawn, while flat out torturing the poor kid. Dispite all this, he acts with a large amount of personal honour and manages to overcome.
The book has a very positive view on self-defense, good values, and the value of friendship. And of course, people want to burn it. In my personal view, any book that pisses off that many people and causes many people to burn it deserves a place on my bookshelf.