Children are impressionable and try all sorts of things for all sorts of reasons.  And there is a wide variety of media to mis/direct them.  I can point to numerous things that are malignant influences: Bravo TV, Bratz, Britney Spears, Olsen twins (yeah, them!) and parents need to be cautious even with Disney.  Gulp!

So put Potter on the list, if you wish.  I'm probably more enlightened than most parents in helping children with the good and the hazards in Potter.  We've talked about CS and other false/dangerous religions considerably in my household, and they're well grounded in Scripture.  Perhaps I'm sanguine about this, but I just don't see what the fuss is, RisingSun!  Many kids have experimented with the occult, either frivolously (pretend seances?) or seriously (ouji boards?).  The tragedy of our secularized culture is that we protect our children from injury with car seats and bike helmets, but not from spiritual evil with sound Scripture and prayer.

I'm becoming persuaded that the Elect will be a frighteningly small remnant of the human population.  I'm not comfortable with that, but, well, what may be God's arithmatic may be frightening to human understanding.

Do-Go-Be-Man, ah...the lobster or, as the case may be, the frog in the boiling water.  "Prove all things," Peter tells us.  Ever hear the old story that "bank tellers and people who work with currency aren't given counterfeit to study.   They handle bonafide currency at great length.  Then, when they come across a counterfeit bill, they recognize it immediately!" This little analogy is used to tell people they don't need to study false religions--if they just study the Bible, they'll recognize falsehood when they see it.

So I spoke with Secret Service agents, and also Federal Reserve workers, about training vis. counterfeit currency.  They all told me, "We examine all sorts of fakes!"

I'm bringing this up because of the old analogy about the frog in the boiling water:  "Put him in hot water, and he'll jump out of the pot; put him in cold water, and bring it slowly to a boil, and he'll get so comfortable he'll boil to death!"  This is used to explain our acclamation to sin and evil.  It's a great analogy.  But animal-rights enthusiats be darned, one of these days I'm going to get two frogs and test the hypothesis!

As a newspaper reporter, we used to have a saying, "Never let the truth stand in the way of a good story." I see the lobster/frog and currency stories valuable as thought experiments whether empiracally provable or not.

I have seen my tolerance and that of our culture for sinful, anti-Biblical behavior become increasingly greater over a relatively short period. Some of it probably isn't dangerous or doesn't represent anything worse than tepid water that will never boil. Much of it, however, does represent an advancing level of tolerence for the intolerable.

Do Go Be Man
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But as we consider internet porn, the advocacy of gay marriage, free needles for junkies, the high divorce rate (even among nominal Christians), I sometimes challenge people with the question, "What do you think it will take to shock and disgust us in another ten or twenty years?"

Getting back to Potter:  Although you may be right, RisingSun, that this encourages kids to experiment with magic, I hope (based on no empirical knowledge, admittedly) that this would be a form a fantasy and play, and that once they tire of it, the lessons of Harry & Co's heroic comraderie will be lasting.  These virtues are part of what theologians call "Common Grace," *  admirable things that we wish all, believer and non-believers alike, would share, practice, and be blessed by.  Other facets of "Common Grace" are courtesy, ethics, economy & prosperity, health, etc.

BTW, I have started to read the Potter books for myself.  And Rowling is awfully good!

*Then there is "Prevening Grace," where persons and circumstances combine to lead an individual to "Saving Grace,"--which means, of course,  faith both correct and sufficient for salvation.

You just don't understand!

Seriously, I copied this over to this thread because a thought congealed as a result of fH's post. If there is Malicious Animal Magnetism (MAM), that implies the existence of Benevolent Animal Magnetism (BAM). We've discussed elsewhere CSists' terror of MAM as real while affirming its unreality.

Would BAM be the force by which CS demonstrates positive results while MAM is the counterpart? Would there then be a Good Witch of the North vs. Bad Witch of the West thing happening with CSists guarding against MAM and using BAM for good? (Please remember that I've already been thinking about the implications of BAM "kicking it up a notch").

Do Go Be Man
<><

It is when this ontological *  concept is rendered into Western (and hence moralistic) terms and structures that we make a distinction.  Harry and Dumbledore are good, Voldemort is evil.  Anakin Skywalker forsakes the Light Side of the Force and embraces the Dark. **  He is redeemed when he returns to the Light at the end of his life.  MBE ranted and raved (literally) about CS'ists (including many she herself taught)  who had abandoned her and were "malpracticing" against her.

But the fact of the matter is, there is no good or evil, right or wrong,***  when you enter pure metaphysics Do-Go.  The Wicked Witch is just as valid (and necessary) as the White Witch. Palpatine is only the flip side of the same coin with Yoda's face on it.  And there is no difference between CS "prayer" (affirmation of the Good) and M.A.M. (Involvement with the Dark).

Metaphysical/Occultic practice can be used either way. Whether it is "good" or "evil" depends upon your agenda.  If some of Eddy's rebellious practioners were, indeed, malpracticing against her, they might have thought, "I want to stop this megamaniacal woman before she monopolizes, corrupts, and ruins the blessings of New Thought!"

* ontology: the branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being  (Reader's Digest Oxford Wordfinder).

**I An idea I would have liked to share with George Lucas was that rather than have Anakin fall into the Dark side because of a character flaw (impetuosity and anger), he should rather have been seduced by Palpatine:  "Come to the Dark side--there is too much of the Force with the Light, and your presence with the Dark will balance it out and restore harmony and peace."

*** Let's not forget where the first page of S&H, where Eddy quotes the ambiguous/sly/mad Hamlet, "Nothing is either right or wrong, but thinking makes it so."