The Banning of Harry Potter Book Case Study Sample

Why Catholic School Bans ‘Harry Potter’

Literature and religion existed next to each other for a long time. Without writing, the ability of human beings to express themselves in words, religious texts would not be around for people to familiarize themselves with. Since a long time ago, people have been recording their beliefs and the laws/rules that came out of divine teachings. However, the modern world has changed as individuals and the population itself has become rather diverse, so there are instances when religion or personal beliefs are taken to an extreme. This type of situation can be observed in the request to ban Harry Potter books in one of the schools.

One of the parents claims to be a strong believer in God and the Bible, and finds Harry Potter books to be wrong for children as they contain Satanic propaganda and encourage children to follow an evil path. In order to look into the matter, Christianity and Satanism, as well as human rights must be considered and defined. Since the complaint is based on the fact that the parent is a Christian, it would be appropriate to consider the beliefs that Christianity propagates. Even though there is no exact definition, Christian principles rest on three things: The Bible is free of any error, the modern study of the Bible is improper and people, who do not share the same views as fundamentalists, cannot be considered as proper believers (Brummer, 1992).

Your Best Case Study Is Just One Click Away!

Another perspective adds to this definition by claiming that the Bible should be taken as factual recollection of events, which are the exact and truthful definitions of science, history and morality. From one perspective it is understandable where such views would come from. Reason bases itself on a rational thinking of a wise and educated human being. Religion is what is taught by the culture, society, family and possibly friends. In the modern world, there are many people who have analyzed the situation and came to the conclusions. The fact that there are many religions and each of them has its own story shows that people’s beliefs can differ in relation to the divine. In the case of the parent wanting to ban Harry Potter books so that some children would not be able to see things from the different perspective, this parent might as well go as far as to want to ban all other religions because they differ from the teachings of the Bible, which seems preposterous. The close relationship between Christianity, culture, science and psychology is actually the same thing.

In banning any type of the book on religious grounds, the school board must take into account that interpretation of the Bible in the process of reading is what makes it different for each person. Of course it would be unacceptable to expose children to the evil in literature, however strong evidence is needed to prove this fact. As the parent stated, the book describes Satanism, so a definition of the concept would be needed. The specifics of Satanism indicate that to be called “Satanic” a person or a group of people must have a strong belief in the Lucifer, worship him as the ruler of the Earth and the rest of the world, and live only according to the rules provided by Satan. In the Harry Potter books, there is no such thing as Satanism, but the parent insists that children are taught to worship the Devil by this book. The interpretation given to the teachers, principal and the school board is that Rowling’s books are built on magic, which goes against the Bible. Also, the parent notes that having free will and seeing things from a perspective different than that of the Bible is Satanic and evil. This statement goes against all other beliefs and religions, relying heavily only on interpretation of the Divine through Christianity. The modern times have brought about talks about the unity of all kinds of religious texts. With the rationalization period, famous philosophers have questioned some components of the Torah, which was thought to be a unified text of Christianity (Coogan, 2007).

Order-Essays.com Offers Great PowerPoint
Presentation Help!

We will create the best slides for your academic paper or
business project!

Order

It is also noted that several texts describe unique relationship between people and God. Sometimes, it is close and sometimes somewhat distant. There is no denying that Christian laws of “do not kill, respect the neighbor and yourself” are based on the wisdom of the world and all creation. Psychology and other sciences offer essentially concrete laws that determine the life of a human being. If a person is sane and healthy, he/she understands that hurting anything that is alive is wrong and this
Order Now