On Sunday, January 8, 2006, I had a choice between Justice Sunday III and "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." Perhaps this was a choice faced by other parents seeking to find something educational for their children to experience. My son is grown up now, but I thought about the lessons to be learned from both events.
Let me tell you what I learned when my wife and I attended the Harry Potter film.
• Certain actions are evil, but evil is not based on heredity or nationality.
• Sometimes we are called on to do things that we do not want to do (and even makes us unpopular), but that we should shoulder these responsibilities with good grace.
• Real heroes sometimes set aside their personal quest to help others in danger.
• We should welcome people from different cultures and nations into our midst.
• Friendship includes taking risks to support our friends and standing up for them in a crisis.
We also saw that young teenage boys are clueless about young teenage girls, but as parents, we already knew that was true.
Salient quotes:
Professor McGonagall: Is that a student?
Professor Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody: Technically, it's a ferret.
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Hermione: Everything's going to change now isn't it?
Harry: Yes.
Cites
I think these are important moral lessons for young adults to learn.
Some on the Christian Right have denounced the Harry Potter series--books and films--as anti-Christian and perhaps even Satanic due to the flagrant use of magic.
From news reports and a transcript of the Justice Sunday III event posted by the sponsoring Family Research Council, we can see the alternative lessons presented by some of the Christian Right.
• The moral struggle is not between ideas that support goodness and ideas that spawn evil, but between "secular supremacists" and Godly Christians.
• God is against gay men and lesbians signifying their commitment of love through marriage.
• God is against abortion.
• God wants us to put judge Samuel Alito on the Supreme court.
We also learn that liberals and non-Christians threaten America and that we should pray that "not secularism or unbelief or a hostile supreme court [should] prevail against" God's word.
Salient quotes:
Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pennsylvania): [liberal judges are] ''destroying traditional morality, creating a new moral code and prohibiting any dissent.'' Cite
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Rev. Herbert Hoover Lusk II: "Don't fool with the church because the church has buried many a critic, and all the critics that we have not buried, we're making funeral arrangements for them!" Cite
As a parent, ask yourself to which event would you take your child for moral guidance?
As a citizen, ask yourself which set of principles seem best for moral guidance in running our country?
As a visitor, ask yourself which lessons would build a country that would welcome you as an immigrant or guest?
If you are a non-Christian or secularist or gay or support reproductive rights or are liberal or progressive, the choice should be even clearer.
Ported from Talk to Action
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