The Harry Potter series has been deemed a spiritual hazard by a Catholic school in Tennessee, so much so that the books are no longer permitted in the school library. That’s right, students — who almost universally adore these stories — will no longer find these classics on the shelves, at least inside this school. This is the case despite the Catholic church not taking an official stance on J.K. Rowling’s works of fiction, which spawned a multi-billion-dollar movie franchise, although it could be argued that Johnny Depp scoring a role in the followup Crimes of Grindlewald could be the true evil? I kid.
Sadly, there’s absolutely no mention of Depp in this report from The Tennessean, which details how Rev. Dan Reehil decided that the books carry the potential to unleash “evil spirits” if readers decide to chant the “actual” spells that were completely made up by Rowling:
“These books present magic as both good and evil, which is not true, but in fact a clever deception. The curses and spells used in the books are actual curses and spells; which when read by a human being risk conjuring evil spirits into the presence of the person reading the text.”
According to Reehil, this all began after a concerned parent broached the subject, so he consulted actual Rome and U.S.-based exorcists who told him that it’d be a good idea to toss the novels into the trash. So, and despite the series’ themes of love, friendship, humility, courage, and the fight between good and evil, the teenage wizard and his sidekicks (Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley) are simply too hot to handle. To quote Sirius Black, “We’ve all got both light and darkness inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.” And that’s only a tiny bit of the wisdom that these Catholic school students will need to find at home, hopefully.
(Via The Tennessean)