Harry Potter Kit

Includes 12 page Newsletter, 60 minute audio tape, and Power Point Presentation sheet. All this for only $10.00!! (plus s&h) - Don't wait - order now!!

Audio tape: Parental Concerns & Questions about Harry Potter with Michael O'Brien (author of A Landscape with Dragons); Vivian Dudro and Father Philip Scott (comments on Harry Potter) Note: We have released the copyright on this tape for you to make tapes for your friends.

12 Page Newsletter: "Is Harry Potter Good for Our Kids"? Articles included are by Vivian W. Dudro, John Andrew Murray, Michael O'Brien and Steve Wood.

Power Point Presentation sheet includes notes on: Books aren't Harmful Are They???, Gallup Survey paranormal beliefs of American Catholic Teens, Entrance in to satanic circles, and the kinds of books children need.

Only $10. Purchase Now!

Special Recommendation for All Parents – Especially Parents with Questions about Harry Potter

A Landscape with Dragons by Michael O’Brien, also author of Father Elijah, is must reading for every Catholic parent. There is a war going on for the minds and hearts of our children. So far, we are losing the war. A full seventy-five percent of Catholic teens cease practicing their faith before leaving their teen years. Catholic parents need to equip their children to withstand the multitude of subtle assaults on the Faith coming from television, movies, and books. A Landscape with Dragons will teach you how to raise discerning children. Michael O’Brien teaches you what to avoid and why. In addition, the book concludes with an extensive and invaluable list of books you will want your children to read. On a one-to-ten scale this book is easily a twenty-five! Get it. Read it. Heed it.

Many of you are wondering whether or not you should allow your children to read the Harry Potter series. In fact, there is widespread disagreement over Harry Potter among Catholic parents. When so many people disagree, it is frequently because only pieces of the overall picture are being considered. Reliable conclusions can be achieved only by learning the broader principles of evaluating children’s literature in the context of our contemporary culture. Although A Landscape with Dragons never mentions the Harry Potter series, the principles found in Michael O’Brien’s book will enable you to definitively answer any questions you have about Harry Potter.

© Family Life Center International

For ten measly bucks Michael O'Brien will try to convince you why your kid should read his books instead of JK Rowlings'.

Here is a different perspective on Harry Potter from the Vatican's so-called approval that was reported on a thread yesterday. Fr. Gabriel Amorth knows whereof he speaks since he works with thousands of possession cases day-in and day-out 365 days a year. He has previously reported on the shocking denials of the reality of the devil that have come from some Church sources, and the refusal of most bishops in nearly every diocese of the world even to provide exorcism services to their faithful -- one of the bishop's primary obligations.

Is it only a coincidence that on the same day when the Vatican supposedly "blesses" Harry Potter, Cardinal Egan shut down the exorcism ministry in the Diocese of New York?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/835199/posts

I agree with you. I can't get my wife to though. Maybe I will need to get her an exorcist.LOL!

How does LOTR fit in with all of this?

Interesting. I just told my wife Harry Potter was ok, based on the Vatican document and my own reading of it. But I ordered Father Amorth's book, so we'll do more research. Fortunately the library had the other 2 books scupoli(?) mentioned.

I've read the Harry Potter series trying to come to grips with the dispute. Like any novel, you're asked to suspend belief. It's not Tolkien; but putting it down I didn't feel infected with evil, either; reading the whole series at once and seeing the character development, it's hard to say that Harry is any more evil than any public school kid:-)

In any case, I look forward to reading Amorth's work. thanks.

Shoulda added this on my last post - because LOTR seems to be the of same genre as Harry Potter.

For me, this stuff is real small potatoes... I'm more concerned with the kids engaging in oral sex on the schoolbus, in the gym, the sudden outbreak of lesbianism among a good percentage of the middle school kids, problems like that. This all happens in my neck of the woods, every day.

If my kid has a good grounding in the faith, Harry Potter isn't going to be a threat to his/her faith in God. JMO.

I was looking for this great article I read last year on Harry Potter and couldn't find it. But I stubbled across this ... and here's a little excerpt:

This brings us to the third difference. The HP books are filled with much more explicit, appalling evil. There is a huge difference between what went on in Lewis or Tolkien and what kids are reading about in Harry Potter.

Just as a small sample, imagine a ten-year-old reading about:

1) The animal sacrifice of a cat[19]

2) Non-magicians like you and I (Muggles) are portrayed as dull, boring, cruel or useless;[20]

3) Power is the ultimate moral choice, irrespective of good or evil;[21]

4) Blood sacrifices;[22]

5) Cutting off the hand of a living person for a ritual;[23]

6) Boiling what seems to be a baby or fetus alive in a cauldron;[24]

7) Possible demon possession;[25]

8) Werewolves [26] & vampires [27]

9) Bringing a evil wizard back from the dead through the shedding of blood [28]

10) Astral project or travel [29]

11) Casting spells and levitation [30]

12) Being able to shape-shift into an animal [31]

13) Crystal gazing or divination [32]

14) A hero (Harry) who tells lies, [33] steals, [34] breaks the rules,[35] and cheats by copying another student’s homework,[36] (cheating is OK in wizard ethics[37]).

15) Approval of astrology[38]

16) Being taught that people can exist without their souls[39]

17) Communion with the dead, dead souls living within us[40]

18) Harry takes mood-altering drugs (which are REAL herbs that are used by witches and shamans)[41]

19) Use of the "Hand of Glory,"[42] a grisly occult artifact that is the severed hand of a hanged murderer. Its fingers are lit and burned as candles. The hand is placed in a house to make everyone in the house fall into a spell.

20) Use of magic charms[43]

21) Belief that death is just the "next great adventure"[44] (which might be true if you were a Christian, but no one in these books is a professing Christian.) For non-Christians like Harry, death is a one-way ticket to hell!

These are dangerous, false ideas, especially for a younger person. Little attempt is being made to keep these books from the hands of children even younger than ten!

http://www.withoneaccord.org/store/potter.html

I've paged through the Potter books and watched both movies. Rowling is a fluid, talented writer. The general objection that I had was the series (both the movies and the books) teach escapism. But if what you're saying here is true, they're obviously far worse than I imagined...

I was looking for this great article I read last year on Harry Potter and couldn't find it.

Here's a resource of Harry Potter articles:
The Problem of Harry Potter

And this might be the article you are thinking about:
Harry Potter and the Paganization of Children's Culture

And thanks for the great references in the article that you did stumble across.
Colleen, after reading post #8, do you still consider this "small potatoes"?

Many are connecting the dots on this sort of thing with the "approved" literature...it isn't done in an isolation tank but on the slippery slope of our reality:

"For me, this stuff is real small potatoes... I'm more concerned with the kids engaging in oral sex on the
schoolbus, in the gym, the sudden outbreak of lesbianism among a good percentage of the middle school kids,
problems like that. This all happens in my neck of the woods, every day."

Finally, a catholic that gets it/

Amen.

I don't know who this person is, but she found some interesting things and her opinion is that Harry Potter is a parody of the Bible. I don't necessarily think there's a connection between all her "connections" but there are enough to warrant a purview.

http://www.total.net/~pennyo/harry.html

http://www.cuttingedge.org/news/n1568.cfm

I don't know who these people are who put this together, but it shows how throughout Harry Potter he is correctly using Satanism, and there are some scary things here.

I guess what gets me is that I don't understand how so many Christians -- Catholics and non-Catholics alike -- think Harry Potter is innocuous. I can think of two parents in particular, both devout (one Catholic, one Assemblies of God) who think Harry Potter is great because their kids are reading and they're fun and harmless stories. They look at me like I'm a lunatic when I point out the evil themes interwoven in the books.

I admit ... I haven't read them ... but I have read enough articles to know I don't want to. While I'm not worried about my soul being tainted by them because my faith is strong enough to withstand the challenge, I worry very much about my children's faith because they are still growing in Christ.

I am neither for or against Harry Potter because I haven't read any of the volumes. I tried, but found the first one boring and silly and I put it down. Same with the movie (which I did see with my kids) - found it boring and silly.

I have no idea who William J. Schnoebelen is, and I have no idea if what he says the books contain is true.

Geez, I read "In Cold Blood" "The Exorcist" found copies of Playboy under my father's mattress, sat through lectures by the PAULIST Fathers, lectures by the Jesuits in Boston, read stuff about Transendental Meditation - all before I entered Catholic High School where I really encountered a lot of weird stuff (Mary isn't really a virgin, etc.) - and I'M OK!

I agree that if someone has a good grounding in their faith that they are not going to be converted to satan worship through the reading of Harry Potter. You and I can handle it. HOWEVER, my children are the age group Harry Potter targets (8-13 years old). These kids ARE NOT grounded in their faith. While they believe and have a child's faith in God, they are also very susceptible to the world around them, their environment, their reading, their parents, etc. There is SO MUCH evil in the Harry Potter books that even if we read them with our children, we would have to explain on every page why Harry was wrong or bad ... and that's no fun, is it?

Why do you think there are so many problems like you described among young people today? Perhaps it is because of books like Harry Potter ... and movies ... glorifying self-worship and denying that there is a Higher Authority to whom all must answer some day. The problems we have today with sex, promiscuity, abortion, out-of-wedlock births, drugs, homosexuality, drug use ... all stems from the radical, free will, anti-Christian, do-it-if-it-feels-good sixties and seventies. We are paying the price with the souls of our children for the hedonism of the past generation.

Harry Potter contributes to the problems we see today. But worse, Harry contributes to the loss of souls for God. That, my friend, is truly scary.

I guess it depends on who you read "Who's OK, Harry or the Hobbits?"

This is just not something I lose sleep over. Then you have the Vatican saying Harry Potter fans, relax. The Vatican says the kid is all right.

All in all, I'd rather kids read "Lives of the Saints."

I respect what you are saying, but I think the reason we have so many problems today -- "sex, promiscuity, abortion, out-of-wedlock births, drugs, homosexuality, drug use ... all stems from the radical, free will, anti-Christian, do-it-if-it-feels-good sixties and seventies" -- are not because of Harry Potter, they are because PARENTS are negligent in their duties as Christian parents. I see it every single day. My daughter goes to school with three girls who are weekly altar girls. Two of them engage in lesbianism. We live in a society where everything is fine and too many parents don't say much of anything regarding faith and morals (right and wrong) to their kids and we who do are NOT generally backed up by our priests, nuns and bishops.

My daughter's faith withstood Harry Potter. It's pretty strong.

I am neither for or against Harry Potter because I haven't read any of the volumes.

To avoid the charge of hypocrisy, let me say that I have read all 4 books and so have my children. And I took some of the kids to the first Harry Potter movie, although not to the second. But I've been under a lot of pressure to take them to the second movie, and I haven't absolutely said no.

How did I get in this situation considering the warnings from Fr. Amorth, etc. that I've posted? Gradually, like all bad situations. My sister sent us the first 2 books and I read them along with the kids. They seemed harmless and amusing. They were obviously fantasy and the witchcraft was in an alternate, fictional plane of existence.

Most of all, they were FUNNY. "A teaspoon of sugar makes the medicine go down." (My main complaint with the 1st movie was that it missed all the humor which was what had made the books so popular.) I had the same struggle as I did with watching re-runs of Seinfeld -- "But it's bad, but it's funny, but it's bad, but it's funny, etc."

Then as the third and fourth books came out, the themes continued to grow darker and darker. The first book had seemed like harmless, humorous fantasy. The second book, which arrived in America at the same time, was slightly darker, but not so much that it really brought you up short. But then the new volumes continued to introduce more and more gruesome and demonic characters, with more and more themes that echoed genuine occult themes rather than fantasy from a different, imaginary world. Meanwhile the humor had almost entirely disappeared.

By this point I was wondering what I had got myself and my children into. But I had slid along the slope gradually, finally ending up with my 3rd-grade son reading all those items that are detailed in post #8. Now it is difficult to back out. Was this the plan of the author and publisher from the beginning -- get them hooked, and then keep giving them more?