I haven't seen Lord of the Rings,and probably won't, but this article intrigued me cuz so many of you here loved it. I'm very curious to know what your take is on it; what is it that y'all and Christian conservatives who were terrified by Harry Potter have in common do you think? Thanks!

Christian Conservatives Embrace Frodo

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

Answers

I must be missing your point??? Was this really a question??

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

I didn't mean for my previous response to come across as confrontational, I just didn't know anyone on this board that was terrified of Harry Potter, and to the best of my knowledge I am about the only Christian conservative left on here. I read the whole article and didn't find much to comment on. The commonality you are alluding to completely baffles me.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

I haven't seen either movie, and probably wont unless they appear on pay-per-view or I can rent them. I'm cheap :-)!!!

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

Earthmama--I haven't seen LOTR yet, really want to, but haven't had the time. I did not read Harry Potter or see the movie, so of course, I don't know what their concerns are about. However, being that I am Catholic I do know that Tolkien was a devout Catholic and that LOTR is supposed to be rich in Catholic symbolism. Maybe when someone goes looking for evil they find it.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

Let's see, I've been to LOTR three times so far...

What do I have in common with the Christian Conservatives who may (or may not) be embracing the movie? Probably that we sat in the same seats at the theatre at one point or another, and maybe we both ate popcorn. Okay, that was a little snarky, but with reason.

There has been a LONG discussion on just this point from nearly every philosophical and religious viewpoint over on the LOTR board I'm a member on. I read until my eyes were nearly falling out and I couldn't keep track of who was taking what philosophical stance and who was arguing about what phase of Tolkein's career we were discussing, or which of his statements (that LOTR was NOT influenced by Christian mythography/well, maybe it was) was currently in effect, or whether his biographers had reported accurately.

*thunk*

Sound of my head hitting the table as I tried to wade through it all. So I went over to another thread. I just couldn't keep up with it all.

There are already lots of howls from the uninformed/unread and/or homophobic about the homosexual content. (Spoiler warning for those of you who haven't seen or read the books: THERE ISN'T ANY. These people are idiots.) I can't comment on whether the people who made those statements were christian fundamentalists, conservatists, catholics, or possibly ring-tailed lemurs, since the computer screen only works one way and they largely didn't say.

I haven't seen or read Harry Potter. I ran the comments on the various Lusenet posts that were anti-Potter against a friend of mine who has and she thought that they were sincerely looney and kept saying "That never took place!!" (she can quote you movies line by line after one viewing...darn near photographic memory)

I think what Vicki said is close to the truth of the matter -- if you go looking for evil, you will find it.

There was a lot of discussion of the use of Christian iconography in the film, to which my considered opinion was tish-tosh! Being an Arts major in college, I could show you lots of work from other religions and non-religions that predate that supposition. But it was pretty darn nit-picky, at least IMO, let them think what they want (about LOTR), just so long as they don't go around bashing it. If they do, then I'll get cranky.

I can't give a really good review of what was portrayed in Harry Potter, but in LOTR, the struggle between Good and Evil is portrayed pretty flat out, without much in the way of subtlety nor ambiguity. Some of the people arguing about traditional Judeo-Christian themes saw things in it that I didn't agree with at all, other than the fact that it made for a pretty neat special effect.

Hopping off soapbox now.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

Oh for heavens sake! I think the sorcery in Harry Potter has about as much relevance as magicians do at kids' birthday parties.

This is just spin against Harry Potter. I am saddened that Christianity has resorted to this political-style ruse. Apparently, folks are using the publicity generated by these two movies as vehicles to promote their flavors of religion. Very cheap and sleazy. And it should be obvious as to what they are doing.

However....I guess the dumbing down of American has come to this.

Tragic....absolutely idiotic....

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

Gee, I just read my answer above and it sure sounds crabby! Anyway, my response is also based on a lot of what I have been reading in the paper; most of the Harry Potter commentary is directed toward exposing inherent evils of sorcery and how the devil is grabbing the young minds of the world via these supposedly innocent books and films.

(What's next, the Inquisition? )

Oh well...I remember that the L. Frank Baum "Oz" books were controversial, too...

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2002

(singing)

"The Inquisition -- what a show! The Inquisition -- Here we go!!!" (for those of you wondering what new strangeness I've gotten to, it's a song from 'The History of The World, Part I')

Read on another board a discussion of some Christian church holding a big bonfire burning of Harry Potter books that made media circus. Members of the congregation brought copies to burn as being detrimental to their faith, then decided to go through their homes and find other items that they also thought were detrimental to their faith and burn those as well -- other books, magazines, music, movies, etc., including Jehovah's Witness publications.

It put me in mind of Hitler's book burning.

One person who lived near that church ( can't remember the denomination) asked one of the participants WHY they had burned everything, why they hadn't donated it to charity who could get money for it, or to a library.

The reply was that it was against their faith that it existed, and no one else should have it either, so they burned it all.

Then they were asked if they regularly had bonfires as part of their worship ceremonies and were told no, they didn't. This was something new. Then they asked why they had seen fit to call the media to report on it instead of doing this privately --?

Well, no answer was reported to that question. My assessment would be that it was because they WANTED media coverage (the old "Look at ME!" factor) of what they were doing and were likely hoping to spur world wide burning. IMCO.

Can't make a judgement on the quality of the items burned, because in the case of Harry Potter, I've never read it, the music they cited, I've never listened to. I don't know about the magazines and other books they had, but if they were against their faith, why'd they buy them in the first place?

Come to that, if they objected to the paper material, why didn't they recycle it instead of burn it? Once again, because they wanted everyone to look at how important they were.

However, looking at it from a different angle, it puts Harry Potter into really good company of OTHER books that have been burned as being evil -- like, oh, Tom Sawyer, Uncle Tom's Cabin, there's quite a long list.

I'm trying to dredge up a quote --

"The burning is but a prologue -- where books are burned, they will end up burning people." (roughly remembered quote of Heinrich Heine)

People to be very wary of for sure.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2002

Maybe those Christian Conservatives are more respectful of Tolkien than Rowlings?

-- Anonymous, January 14, 2002

That's probably it in a nutshell, Alison. Beyond that, I can scarcely tell you why I like something or why something is acceptable to ME. I certainly can't figure out why someone else approves/disapproves of or likes/dislikes either movie!

I was gonna write a whole long post, but in the end, I guess it comes down to I cannot fathom any of the attitudes remarked upon in the article. The only thing I still want to say is that it is any "old- fashioned" story. There is SOME moral ambiguity, but mostly, evil is evil and good is good.

-- Anonymous, January 14, 2002