The book series around Harry Potter and his friends has captivated hundreds of millions of readers worldwide. Not to mention the films. This spell seems to worry those in charge of a school in the state of Tennessee so much that they've banished the series from the school library, well, most recently. Their explanation: The books contained real spells. And that was clearly risky.
Pastor Dan Reehil of the St. Edward Catholic School in Nashville emailed the parents of his students. According to the local newspaper "The Tennessean", he said that he had agreed with numerous exorcists in the USA, but also in Rome. It had come to the conclusion that "the curses and spells in these books are genuine and, if read by a human being, could conjure up evil spirits."
In addition, according to Reehil, magic would be portrayed in the books as evil, but also as good. "That's not true, but a clever deception," it says in the mail.
Religious circles like to work on the books
The private school has now removed the issues of the seven-part series from the school library. Rebecca Hammel of the Catholic Diocese of Nashville told the newspaper that the Catholic Church has no official stance on the encyclopedia of writer JK Rowling.
However, the pastor was free to make the corresponding stipulations for his assigned school. However, she did not want to accept the accusation of censorship: "We just want to make sure that the school libraries provide age-appropriate material for our classes."
It is far from the first time that the "Harry Potter" novels call for religious zealots. It was only in April of this year that Catholic priests in Poland burned numerous editions, allegedly "because of the bad energy". And even Pope Benedict, then Cardinal Ratzinger, had mocked in 2003 about the "subtle seduction" in the books. These are suitable to decompose Christianity "in the soul".
