Harry Potter Banned

You may find this as a controversial topic since Harry Potter is a beloved character to a vast majority of readers in the world, but a significant amount of religious people believe that Harry Potter should’ve never come out due to claims that it supported Satan. However, author J.K Rowling states “I am a practicing Christian.” and in the book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows many readers of the series take note and notice some of the religious notations in this book.

All over the United States, many many places have been called upon the asking of the book to be taken out of schools all over the country and to be taken out of libraries. Often times, these request would lead to huge legal disputes on terms of the book supporting witchcraft (ouija boards, tarot cards, etc.) and not following the right of state churches. Even actual Christian writers have said their opinions against the Harry Potter series. According to Rowling “I’m not mad that they are attacking the book, At least they are attacking it from a theological point and it’s not just one religion, it multiple.”

The book was ranked number seven on the banned books list between 1990 to 2000 and has not re-appeared since 2003. The main reason as the why the book was even considered to be a banned book was because of a mother by the name of Laura Mallory had questioned the book and went against her kids schools and had wanted them to removed from the library because she believed that they were promoting the religion Wicca, which is also known as “The Craft” and is a smaller version of the religion Paganism. This religion does not support just one thing and they primarily focus on syncretic religions which are combining one or more religious traditions together. Mallory stated, “If the public school library were to hold them then that would violate the separation of church and state.”

Eventually, the government had to cave in by saying that if parents have concerns about the subject than they should avoid teaching it. According to The Telegraph, “The Government’s behavioral tsar had said that some parents of the Evangelical Christian and Muslim backgrounds believe that the children’s book “normalizes acts of magic” and that because of that it is exposing their kids to the works of the devil.”

In my opinion, I believe that although some parents and kids may believe it contains references to witchcraft, I do not think that the book should be or should have been considered being banned. The books are just imaginary and do not depict anything from the real world when it came to the use of magic throughout the book. The book is supposed to take place in an imaginary, far away land in an academy for young witches. If the books were supposed to be banned, then why has nobody gone against the movies? If the books showed too much witchcraft then that means that the movies should have been taken down and played at all.

As you have read, you can see it is controversial, with many debates taking place and many people opposing the series. Even though there are plenty of other approaches and others may have a different view to this situation, I fully believe after researching this, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows should never have been placed on the banned books list.

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