Although I am new to the Orthodox faith, as a convert, I also have opinions.
I am in complete agreement with those in the Church that are AGAINST fiction that presents the realm of the supernatural as something harmless and modern myths that create heroes from wizards and witches. What about reading some fiction about the Saints? I guess Christianity bores people but being a witch interests people instead?
I get confused when an Orthodox bishop (who I will leave nameless and this despite the fact that he wrote a farely descent introduction on Orthodoxy--not perfect but again a descent introduction) recommends to the general public as "outside reading," Tolkien and Ursula LeGuin. I also get confused when an Orthodox priest says that Dungeons and Dragons is harmless when there is some demonology in TSR role-playing games. I also believe that there are Satanists in Heavy Metal rock bands.
I know Tolkien is quite popular among many in Orthodoxy, why I don't know? I must admit I used to read his books because, unfortunately for me, I took the Bishop's reading suggestions seriously. It has been said by non-Christian LOTR fans that Tolkien used pagan archetypes in his LOTR myths. This would explain why many pagans are drawn to his myths.
Although I am a convert and new to Orthodoxy, I DON'T follow Tolkien anymore and I try to be VERY careful when it comes to fiction that romantcizes witches and makes them heroes and their craft harmless.
The occult is VERY real. The supernatural is real. Demons are real. Why play with fire?
JB.
OrthodoxyOrDeath wrote:moronikos,
Bishops make mistakes. This bishops first mistake was following the deposed Cyprian.
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In full contrast to this is an unhealthy "black spirituality" of the occult. Here also there is an element of the supernatural and a search for help, but it is sought not from the Creator but from some dubious spirits or from some mysterious demonic forces. If steadfast faith in God enriches man, then an unhealthy attraction to the occult, even for purposes of entertainment, cripples him spiritually. This unhealthy association is directed entirely toward all that is earthly, trivial, and sinful. And the purpose of this preoccupation is strictly utilitarian: to find out secrets, to attain worldly acclaim, to win someone's love, to strengthen one's health, to draw up some demonic energy in order to enhance one's potential, to take revenge on an enemy, or simply to "play" with the mysterious.
It must disappoint God that people would even find it “entertaining” that there are those not seeking help from Him, but from some other forces – the same way it would disappoint a mother whose child reaches for some stranger.
If turning to God awakens our conscience and rouses us to repentance and reform; occult knowledge, in contrast, does not bind us with any virtues, but in fact as with Harry Potter at least, even uses evil to fight evil, as if it might actually be something good. The main attraction to Harry Potter seems to be in the apparent freedom from any moral obligations. Remember athat the demons are anything but unselfish, and sooner or later children will pay for any attention rendered to them. It is only at first that everything seems rewarding and easy.
Now I generally distrust anything not coming from the Church. Is there anything wrong with a child reading a bible and about the powers of God? Or is that to boring? My 8 yr old reads the bible almost every day, and you would not believe some of the really good questions he has - and he is always associating himself with heavenly things, not demonic ones.
Harry Potter and the Culture of Magical Thinking
by Deacon Michael Hallford
http://www.ecclesiagoc.gr/e_index.htm
As a Christian critic of Harry Potter, it would be easy to point to the obvious occult allusions in the book.
These are so many and so blatant that I could easily fill this paper with hundreds of examples, and I will shortly outline some of the most egregious examples.
But the central problem with the books from a Christian perspective is not only their attempts to bring the occult into the mainstream and to expose children to the most pernicious forms of witchcraft in a form which makes them palatable and even entertaining, but the attempt through the books to make a whole culture of magical thinking and the occult practices behind it appear exciting and inviting to children at precisely a time when they are most susceptible to it and when they have the least resistance to its influence upon their developing minds.
Ours is a culture already satiated with magical thinking, where children are taught from the time they begin to speak of Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny, where the entertainment industry creates ad infinitum stories where the impossible happens routinely, and into such an environment,
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They would not realize how ideas from the church of Wicca, or from Satanism, or from the Druids, or from the pagan mystery religions are all blended together into a potpourri of occult symbolism.
That the actual practices of real witches are outlined in the book, that there have in fact been real schools of witchcraft, would not interest them, because they see the book as only fantasy.
It is this view, which provides the impetus, which might lead children to later investigate the real world of the occult, which is not as innocuous as portrayed in the book.
It is precisely to protect children from this possibility that Christians should discourage their children from reading the Harry Potter books.
Yes, they may seem like simple fantasies, but beneath them lay the entire hidden world of the occult.
In Christ,
Deacon Nikolai
Saint Basil of Kineshma Russian Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church in America
DISCLAIMER: Posted articles are not necessarily an endorsement, but may be posted for discussion purposes only.
"When you seek the truth, be prepared to change your mind."
Mwahahaha!