Trouble with Harry continues
Posted in WorldJanuary 19, 2007 at 1:10 pm (UTC)
A Loganville mother of four who has fought to ban the Harry Potter series from Gwinnett County classrooms is appealing the state’s decision to let the best-selling series stay.
The file in Gwinnett County Superior Court consists of a stack of papers that rivals the length of the novels in J.K. Rowling’s series about an orphaned boy who attends a school of witchcraft and wizardry.
Laura Mallory said her one-sentence appeal, dated Jan. 9, was filed after “a lot of prayer … (and) a very, very specific answer to prayer.”
“I didn’t want to do it if the Lord didn’t want me to,” said Mallory, who has two children in elementary school this year. “It’s not easy, the criticism, but I’m trying to do what’s right.”
Mallory has sought to get the books out of classrooms since 2006, after finding out that the books were being used in her son’s classroom. She has said the books are inappropriate for children because they contain violent themes and promote the Wicca religion. Furthermore, she said, the Bible says witchcraft is an abomination to God.
School board members argued the books are good tools to encourage children to read and spark creativity and imagination. In May, the board decided to deny Mallory’s request to remove the series.
The state Board of Education backed Gwinnett’s stance in December, voting without discussion to uphold the county’s decision.
The school board attorney has been notified of the appeal, said Sloan Roach, the school system’s spokeswoman.
Roach said Mallory “certainly has a right” to appeal, but the school system believes the appeal will affirm the decisions of the local and state boards.
Mallory, however, says the power of God will ultimately win.
She said she has received support from people all over the United States, some of whom have made “significant donations” to help her in her legal battle.
Mallory and some of her supporters have created a Web site, www.hisvoicetoday.org, which lists some of the research that supports her claims about the series.
The Harry Potter books, published by London-based Bloomsbury Publishing LLC, have been challenged 115 times since 2000, making them the most challenged texts of the 21st century, according to the American Library Association.
The challenges most often claim that the series encourages children to question adult authority and promotes witchcraft, said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the deputy director for the association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.
Source: Gwinnett Daily Post
January 21st, 2007 at 7:26 am
I find it preposterous for anyone to claim they know exactly what the Divine wants us to do as regards any kind of subject matter contained in books, whether non-fiction or fiction.
The Divine Essence is Love and Peace. When you are in doubt of yourself (and many mainstream religions encourage people NOT to think for themselves anyway), you cling to what you *think* the Divine wants, and because our emotional filters are often clogged with lies, negative programming and all that, it is very difficult to know anything about the Beyond. And that does not make much room for the Love and Peace that comes with being in touch with your Real Self.
She says she got a definite response from the Divine. Who is this woman trying to fool? The Universe does not really work in definite answers, according to my experience. The only definite answer she got was from the dogmatic programming in her mind.
This lady seriously needs to unplug. But I suppose she’s too dependent on the system to want to be free of it.
January 25th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
This is absolutely disgusting. Yet again we waste our time with the arrogance and ignorance of another christian fanatic. Should’t that court room be used to sentence people for crime and give peace to the innocent? Well it is supposed to but here it is clogged up with her’s and others like her’s desperate attempt to redeem their failing religion and trying to peg their short commings on another. Pretty soon it will be another Holocaust. Remember, nazis did the same thing. We and no book is at fault for their lack in teaching their kids morals!
January 26th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
It is not surprising that an intolerant religion would struggle to force their beliefs on others. She clearly wants her children to be ignorant, and, unfortunately, that is her choice. She cannot make decisions for my children or the other bright minds in America who love the Harry Potter series. I am pleasantly surprised to see the schools and counties upholding our liberty, I say well done!