Harry Icon Emails of Outrage

The recent flap about the Harry Icon got me thinking about the “good ol’ days” … back when I thought Harry Potter was the bogeyman. Now that the comments on the previous post have made it safer for me to wade in, I must confess:

When I received my first HARRY ICON EMAIL OF OUTRAGE I didn’t even notice the Harry Icon. I mean, I saw it … but proceeded on to skim the accompanying article, found it safe and sane, and went on about clearing out my email box. That’s when I noticed more HARRY ICON EMAILS OF OUTRAGE. So, while it’s all still relevant, before we all head on to some other Orthodox Outrage Outbreak, here’s a note from the past from Matushka Anne Mancuso …

Well, tonight is the night. The final HP book comes out. Rose is at Nell’s house drinking butterbeer and making predictions about the next book. I am so grateful that I was influenced to read these books by someone whose taste I trust. I am grateful that I didn’t dismiss them because I sometimes like listening to Christian radio. I think now that there has been so much talk among the Christian talkers about the fact that the plot of these books might be Christian that they’ve come out with a new tactic: Why read Harry Potter when you can read C.S. Lewis or Tolkien–or the Bible?

I remember talking to my mom about HP a couple books ago. I mentioned the blatant Christian symbolism–the phoenix, the stag, etc (all pointed out by my husband and John Granger–I wouldn’t have gotten much of it on my own). I suggested that she (and no doubt many of the casual readers of modern fiction) will shamelessly read books filled with cuss words, sex scenes, and brutality, but will recoil when a fictional teenager wields a wand and recites a Latin derivation which sounds magical. It seems almost too made-to-order: like the WWJD bracelets and the fish bumper stickers, and all of the other various consumerist evangelical plastic muck that they have to put on their car, refrigerator or wrist to prove to everyone that they are the real Christians …

Read the rest, all the way to the end … priceless.