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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | On Harry Potter? | Bible general Archive 1 | Morant61 | 21300 | ||
Greetings Ed! I don't doubt that many such books are written with a purpose! My point is simply that I read fiction as fiction. I just don't believe that fiction can influence someone to change the way they live or view the world (with the possible exception of very young children). Take Star Wars for instance! He had a very definite agenda spiritually! I am not as old as some on the forum, but I remember the debates that have raged over the years about movies, books, halloween, Christimas, and music. To clarify, I would have no problem with any parent who didn't want their children to read Harry Potter. I just don't believe that fiction will cause someone to become a witch, committ a murder, or rebel against God. If they do such things, the problem lies within themselves, not a book. If my children believed Harry Potter was real, I'm sure I would take a different approach! :-) Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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2 | On Harry Potter? | Bible general Archive 1 | Hank | 21323 | ||
Tim, the perspective from which I view the power of imaginative literature (fiction) to influence one's thinking regardless of his age differs somewhat from yours, I'm afraid. I began to learn to read and enjoy simple stories and rhymes at the age of six or so and have continued to read for what approaches sixty years. Literature and English were my major fields of study in school. I therefore feel at least mildly qualified to opine about books and writers. Fiction, simply because it is fiction and understood by the reader to be fiction, is not diminished in its ability to influence, and sometimes to influence profoundly, the mind of the reader. In the hands of a skilled author, fiction can, in fact, do a much better job of bending the reader's mind to a certain point of view than other kinds of factual or documentary material can. A highly sensitive writer can, by the art and craft of fiction, rivet the reader's attention so raptly in the story line and capture his sympathy for the characters so completely that the reader's mind is made receptive to virtually any message the writer wishes to convey. Imaginative literature is filled with examples wherein the author had a message to deliver that went far beyond the mere entertainment aspect of his novel or play. Examples are not hard to find, but for the sake of brevity, I'll cite just a few. Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin", while mere fiction, had a profound influence on the way America viewed slavery. Dickens' beloved novels, while being enormously readable and entertaining, do, many of them, lash out harshly at the social ills prevalent in the England of his time; and they helped to effect, in some measure, sweeping national reforms. Melville's "Moby Dick" is far more than a fish story. A young boy may well form his initial ideas of good and evil from "Treasure Island" or "Tom Sawyer." When I think of imaginative works with a message -- a popular term we toss about is "hidden agenda" -- my mind is flooded with names and titles. Faulkner, Goethe, Sarte. Ibsen, Swift, Rabelais. There is indeed an impressive number of fictional works (imaginative literature is the better term) that have served to form and shape the thinking of Western civilization and that have done much to mold our own worldview, whether we realize it or not...... Accordingly, I could not urge Christian parents enough to be keenly aware of, and supervise the kinds of, literature their children are exposed to. It is during these formative years, when the child's mind is so malleable, his appetite for new ideas so voracious, and his ability to exercise discernment between what kinds of reading are good for him and what kinds are not is so limited that the guidance and counsel of a Christian parent is so crucial. There are many, far better, substitues for the popular, but from a Christian perspective, unwholesome and undesirable, Harry Potter series. The Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S.Lewis comes immediately to mind as offering an equal if not even better fare of adventure and fun to the young reader without the possibly adverse side effects. --Hank | ||||||
3 | On Harry Potter? | Bible general Archive 1 | Morant61 | 21328 | ||
Greetings Hank! You definitely put together a list of great literature! Do you think that these books caused the social changes you refered to, or did they simply reflect the mood of society at the time? I ask, because personally, I don't know of any writer who has had that kind of impact of me! And I read alot! I have been known to read 5 to 7 books a week for pleasure, not counting the studying that I do. I have been doing this since I was about six years old. I was tested when I started kindergarten and I was already reading at about an 8th grade level. Because of this, I was the only kid in my town who was given an adult library card. The first book I remember checking out was Isaac Asimov's, "Caves of Steel." I have been hooked on Sci-Fi ever since. I love fantasy series as well. Robert Jordan has an ongoing work called the Wheel of Time that is excellent. The reason I bring these works up is that most of these contain things that don't fit with the Christian worldview. But, I never wanted to go out and summon a demon because some fictional character did it. Having said all of this, I have no problem with parents setting limits for their children. Personally, I would rather my kids read something like Harry Potter so that we can sit down and talk about the things that are not Biblical. I have actually read some of the Potter series. It is a fantasy series, so it does contain magic and monsters. However, it really never goes into any detail about how or why magic works. There are good guys and bad guys. There are some basic morals. I really never saw anything that was objectionable to me. Well, I've got to get to bed for a couple of hours so I can get up for church. I hate working nights! :-) Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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4 | On Harry Potter? | Bible general Archive 1 | Hank | 21334 | ||
Tim, thanks for your additional input, and it's always refreshing to find another book nut! ..... To your question of whether I think some of these books (my list is horribly incomplete, by the way) had much to do with shaping society or merely were relecting it, my answer is that some books do little more than reflect societal conditions; other, more powerful, books both reflect and, in varying degrees, help to mold them. ..... T.S.Eliot, poet and Christian, said, "A book is not harmless merely because no one is consciously offended by it." During all my reading life, I've hardly ever been influenced to high-ball it down to the book store to buy the latest best-seller, heeding instead the advice of British poet Samuel Rogers who wrote some 200 years ago, "When a new book is published, read an old one." To sum up, in regard to parents guiding their children in their first steps of reading, my position is this: The careful supervision by the parent of the child's reading material lays a firm foundation. The young reader, having once been exposed to the supremely good kinds of writing that nourish and enrich both mind and spirit, is, I think, less likely in later years to revert to inferior kinds of writing that do neither. --Hank | ||||||
5 | On Harry Potter? | Bible general Archive 1 | Morant61 | 21342 | ||
Greetings Hank! Amen! Amen! I try to mix my reading. I read somethings just for fun. They are not always great literature, but they are entertaining (King, Star Wars, ect...). But, I also try to read some of the classics. I have read most of the better known works. In fact, years ago, my wife and I found some hard back children's books. They were very cheap and included some of the great old books, so we bought everyone of them. We have also purchased the Chronicles of Narnia for the kids. I definitely love to read! Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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