For this journal, I read: “Harry Potter and the Witch Hunters: A Social Context for the Attacks on Harry Potter” by Amanda Cockrell. An article that makes it a point that this reaction, to “…indoctrinate our children in witchcraft and Satanism…” (Cockrell, page 24) is one that is only found in the incredibly religious American audience. It’s a very interesting phenomenon, as such an absurd reaction is scarcely shared anywhere else in the world, even in other English speaking countries, such as it’s country of origin, England, and in other religious countries, even the ones that share America’s most popular belief, Christianity.

The notion that the Harry Potter series spreads the ideas of genuine witchcraft and that infects the youth with Satanism is one that only seems to exist in the country that takes Christianity seriously, the one that has some of its population under the spell that every word in their book is fact, fundamentalist Christians seem to be the only group of people who have actually managed to fool themselves into believing it could possibly be real, likely because they have not read or paid any attention to it, going off what they want to believe is in it, which strikes me as being painfully ironic. As stated: “This is more or less the image that many fundamentalist Christians also have of witchcraft that, like angels or the voice of Satan, it is out there, unseen but ready to swallow up the hapless child who can be turned toward its seductive allure, and that it actually works.” (Cockrell, page 26)

These American fundamentalist Christians don’t like the threat of them or their children believing in, or really even hearing of, any other popular form of reality than the one they’ve chosen to force upon themselves as the correct one. They have chosen to be closed-minded and take a great deal of personal offence when any other imaginary idea rivals their own, because to them it’s all real, if anything this effect makes an incredible thing to study, as it shows how resilient people are to creativity, especially in the written word, when it challenges their own, it’s a literal battle of imaginary friends where they believe both is real, it’s a remarkable achievement. The even more remarkable aspect is that it only happens when something is popular enough to become a threat, not only that, but when much like with their own beliefs, it starts off with a semi reasonable start that crumbles away from plausibility the moment it goes into detail. By this, of course I mean that they take place on the planet Earth. “Harry lives in our world, making him more of a threat. Rowling has abandoned the realm of high fantasy and laid her story in contemporary England, rather than in the imaginary and medievally flavored otherworld.” (Cockrell, page 25)

I’m astonished that such a reaction to the series could possibly exist in the 21^st or even 20^th century, or to be honest even the 17^th, but I don’t doubt for a single second that if such a thing were to genuinely exist it would only effect the one group that it did, I can’t say I’m surprised, but I do feel genuinely sorry for them, not because they won’t be able to enjoy such a great book series, but that they can’t see anything they don’t want to, that’s magic more dark than Voldemort could ever achieve.