Ga. Mom Seeks Potter Ban

[fringey]

A suburban Atlanta county that sparked a public outcry when its libraries temporarily eliminated funding for Spanish-language fiction is now being asked to ban Harry Potter books from its schools, the Associated Press reported.

Laura Mallory, a mother of four, told a hearing officer for the Gwinnett County Board of Education that the popular fiction books are an "evil" attempt to indoctrinate children in the Wicca religion.

But Board of Education attorney Victoria Sweeny told the AP that if schools were to remove all books containing reference to witches, they would have to ban Macbeth and Cinderella.

In June, the county's library board eliminated the $3,000 that had been set aside to buy Spanish-language fiction in the coming fiscal year. One board member said the move came after some residents objected to using taxpayer dollars to entertain readers who might be illegal immigrants. Days later, the board reversed its decision amid accusations that the move was anti-Hispanic.

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You know, this kind of thing really torques my jaw out of line. I don't know why so many people feel that only THEIR relgious beliefs should matter in a country made up of so many diverse peoples and beliefs. Banning the book would actually be discriminatory against those practice magic as their belief system. Banning the book on a religious ground would be unconstitutional as it would point towards a government establishment of a "state" relgion.

My brother had actually told me about this story from a TV news report. Not surprisingly, the woman in question has not actually read any of the Potter books. Sheesh!

Patrick
a.k.a. Fringey. The Fringe Element
"A life lived without passion is a life not lived."

[sophie21 (deleted)]

`Guess this is a pretty old post to be replying to but anyway ...
I really agree with everything you've said.

I've read the potter books, unlike the woman in question, and am currently having to write about them for a children's literature essay. The research for the essay is where I first heard about this stupidity.

I noticed though, that they didn't opt to ban C.S.Lewis's Narnia series which are steeped in magic - even having a Christ like lion coming back from the dead, because it featured what they deemed a portrayal of Christian values.

Surely if she'd read the Potter series the woman would see that rather then promoting Wicca the main message of the books is the ultimate sign of good overcoming evil and intolerance. Isn't that in itself a fundamentally Christian message? Integral the Christian principles?