Harry Potter? Are witnesses told not to read it???? (page 2)

thebiggestlie

A bethel brother at one convention condemned Chess, Star wars, pokemon (which was hugely popular at the time), risk and battleship, harry potter, and LOTR all in the same breath. It seemed very pharisee-like to me. Since that talk everyone in our circuit got into ultra jw conciense mode and was willing to crucify you for partaking or viewing any of the above items. Now theres the whole myspace controversy. At our last assembly the DO had a stack of printed pages of every JW that he could find that had a myspace! That was creepy to me. I'm suprised they havent tapped our phone lines yet...., sigh

dmouse

Soon after Harry Potter became very famous the Watchtower came out with a thinly veiled attack on the film/book type:

October 15th 2002, page 11.Watchtower:

Another of Satan's snares is disguised occultism. No true Christian would dabble in Satanism or spiritism. Yet, some unwittingly let their guard down when it comes to films, TV series, video games, and even children's books and comics that highlight violence or uncanny practices. Anything that smacks of the occult needs to be kept at a distance. Since Satan is ‘the god of this system of things,’ anything that is very popular could possibly hide one of his traps.

juni

I, too, remembert ET being on the banned list. They discouraged the different fairy tales too. As far as Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings I've been out of the org. so I don't know, but I'm sure they would fall into the banned category.

As Blondie said, anymore they don't come out in print w/the banning, but you'll get the "warning" from COs and DOs.

Isn't it crazy????

Juni

lfcviking

Yes i've heard about this, because its theme is one of magic, sorcery & spirits the JW's are warned not to read/watch.

Its a book/film for kids for heavens sake, its not meant to be taken seriously is it you DUMB ASS Watchtower.

Gill

My cousin withdrew her children from English lessons because they were reading Harry Potter!

My father nearly had a fit when he saw I had all of the Harry Potter books, films, oh and did I mention Royal Doulton figurines. He didn't realise that I was falling on my knees and doing obeisance to the little statuettes each full moon! When I explained that to him, I thought I might have to dial 999! He wanting a nasty shade of grey!

Mysterious

My mom actually picked them out for me to read saying they were really popular..she had no idea what they were about though. I remember my first mistake was reading her a quote "my dad didn't know my mom was a witch until after he married her, turned out to be a little bit of a shock"..I'll never forget the look on her face. I never got to read the last two books until after I had left home. They were condemned at an assembly after that, I think the real condemnation came with how demonic the movies looked. It seems like reading fantasy was looked on as more or less harmless until that happened.

CordyC

The dumbest one I heard recently was that we should not read are some of Shakespeare's works. Shakespeare! As a student, I learned to appreciate Shakespeare and cannot agree with this stance at all.

This was from one of the elders whose daughter wasn't comfortable reading one of Shakespeare's works-(i'm thinking Hamlet) because of the spiritism in it.

whatever!

CC

ithinkisee

A few years ago all the elders in the surrounding congregations came back from the "Elder's School" repeating ad nauseum how Harry Potter was super bad. That the SOciety did not approve of it at all.

Of course they all went and saw the LOTR movies when they came out.

This is a classic example of how they will never print it in a publication, but they will make known that it is an 'unwritten rule' to people on the inside.

Coincidentally, this is one of the primary traits of cults - groups that have one set of rules they 'portray' to outsiders (i.e. "We can't TELL you what to do. Some Witnesses simply choose not to watch it because they might object to some content.") and another set of rules once you are on the inside (i.e. "Don't watch it. It's demonized and you will lose privileges.")

Harry Potter? Are witnesses told not to read it????

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