“We wish to clarify what this debate is—and is not—about. This is not about access to contraception, which is ubiquitous and inexpensive, even when it is not provided by the Church’s hand and with the Church’s funds. This is not about the religious freedom of Catholics only, but also of those who recognize that their cherished beliefs may be next on the block. This is not about the Bishops’ somehow ‘banning contraception,’ when the U.S. Supreme Court took that issue off the table two generations ago. Indeed, this is not about the Church wanting to force anybody to do anything; it is instead about the federal government forcing the Church—consisting of its faithful and all but a few of its institutions—to act against Church teachings. This is not a matter of opposition to universal healthcare, which has been a concern of the Bishops’ Conference since 1919, virtually at its founding. This is not a fight we want or asked for, but one forced upon us by governments on its own timing. Finally, this is not a Republican or Democratic, a conservative or liberal issue; it is an American issue.”
-A Statement of the Administrative Committee of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops; March 14, 2012
For more information on the rally, click here. Please continue to keep this issue in your prayers.
I was seven years old when the first Harry Potter book came out. My parents didn’t want me to read it.
Being the good girl that I was, I left it pretty much at that. Mom and Dad didn’t want me reading it, so I didn’t read it. …Plus, I’m sure it sounded scary to me at the time (I was kind of a wuss).
What my seven-year-old self could not perceive at that time was that a lot of people saw the “no Harry Potter” rule as absolutely ridiculous—and viewed my parents (and the many parents out there with similar rules) as ridiculous for enforcing it. The Harry Potter books awakened in so many people worldwide a love for fantasy, story, and the written word. And I know many people who claim, to this day, that their lives are better for having read the Harry Potter books (seriously). How could that possibly be a bad thing?
This is the argument most hear (or think they hear): Harry Potter is a wizard, and wizards and witches are evil, so the Church says it’s a sin to read Harry Potter.
To be clear, it’s not a sin to read Harry Potter. The reason my parents didn’t want me reading Harry Potter when I was young was not because they thought it was sinful; it was because they were protecting me. The fact is that magic is real. Spells are real. The occult is real (and creepy). And when you mess with that stuff, bad things can happen (demonic possession, unfortunately, is not just something that happens in the movies).
Now here’s what most say when they hear that: But Harry Potter uses magic for good! He fights evil with it! This is clearly a good vs. evil story.
Suddenly there’s a distinction between good magic and bad magic. And really what matters is how you use it. You can see how this could be confusing for a little kid. If you’re a good person, you use magic for good, and if you’re a bad person you use it for evil. But in reality there is no such distinction. Our faith is clear on this:
CCC 2117 All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one’s service and have a supernatural power over others – even if this were for the sake of restoring their health – are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another’s credulity.
Again, the Church doesn’t make up this rule for fun. Demonic possession is real, and you want no part in it. Ergo, stay away from magic.
But ok. Seriously, Mary. It’s just a story. There’s no such thing as Hogwarts, and Harry and his friends do not exist. Most people who read it don’t try to become wizards afterward, and if they do, there’s probably something else a little off about them in the first place.
Fair enough. But when I was a little kid, I had my share of daydreams in which I married one of the cartoon Disney Princes (and don’t even pretend like you didn’t do the same, ladies!), or got to travel to The Land Before Time and hang out with friendly, talking dinosaurs. Of course, I knew it was all make-believe…but man…how excited would I have been if had found out there was actually a way to be part of those stories! With Harry Potter, there sort of is (Tarot Cards, spell books, etc).
I know I’m going to get tons of comments about how incredible the character growth is and what a powerful story it is, magic aside. And that’s great. I’m all for good story. But I support those parents who choose to not allow their children to read Harry Potter. There are plenty of other great books out there that don’t blur the lines between good and evil. And for all of the virtue that Harry Potter practices, there is just no getting around the fact that he uses magic to accomplish it, and in doing so, cooperates with evil.
Not exactly a role model I want my seven-year-old to have.
[Please, if you would, take a moment right now to pray for a special intention of mine today. Thank you so much!]
This video was making the rounds on my Facebook news feed yesterday. You may have seen it:
Now I was a fan of this guy’s last video. And in this video, he does say some things that are right, and I get that his heart is in the right place. Where I take issue is that he is not merely saying that Jesus is greater than Religion (which, by the way, I agree with). He is saying that Jesus hates religion. And while it may be tempting to play the, “yeah, I think religious people are lame, too” card in an attempt to get more people to hear our message, we need to be careful that our message does not fly in the face of the Gospel. I don’t have time to cover everything misleading in the video here, but I will try to hit the main points.
What if I told you Jesus came to abolish religion?
…Then I’d say you probably haven’t read the New Testament very carefully. Jesus is pretty clear in Matthew 5:17 when He says,
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.”
The Law, of course, being the Law of Moses, i.e. The Old Covenant, i.e. RELIGION.
In the Old Testament, God actually calls religious people whores
Yes, God called some religious people whores in the Old Testament—when they were being unfaithful to the Law (in other words: when they were disobeying the laws of their RELIGION—their religion given to them by God, by the way)
In the New Testament, Jesus refers to the scribes and Pharisees as hypocrites an awful lot, but remember the definition of a hypocrite: a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings. Jesus actually told the disciples that they should DO what the scribes and Pharisees tell them.
“…practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice” (Matthew 23:3).
“Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven…For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:19-20)
Doesn’t sound like Jesus hates religion to me. In fact it sounds like He takes it pretty seriously.
When individuals use religion as a mask or for personal gain? Yes, Jesus hates that. But only because religion is not (and never was) meant to be a mask. It’s meant to be an aid.
If I’m sick, knowing the doctor is definitely going to be important. I’m going to need a relationship with him in order to let him know what is hurting me so that he can heal me. But the fact of the matter is, if there’s no hospital, I’m not going to be able to find a doctor. If I don’t go in for regular check-ups (even when I don’t feel like I’m sick), I’m not going to remain healthy. If there’s no medicine when I am sick, my relationship with the doctor isn’t going to be enough to make me well again. There’s a reason the doctor prescribes medicine, just like there is a reason God gave us the rules of religion.
As young people, we’re generally not huge fans of rules. We like to make up our own minds using our own reason and we hate being told what to do—especially if we are told to do something for seemingly no reason at all (like making your bed in the morning when you’re just going to sleep in it again at night).
At first, we may just put up with the nonsensical rules out of fear of getting in trouble. When this is no longer enough, we’re faced with two options:
1) We decide that we know better and we figure that the fun we’ll have breaking the rules is worth the consequences or punishments that will most likely befall us.
2) We talk to the boss (usually mom and dad) and figure out what the deal is with the rules. And even if we still don’t quite understand them, we figure that our parents have our best interest at heart, and the love and respect we have for them is enough to get us to obey the rules.
If you paid attention closely, you may have noticed that it all really comes down to some form of love. When we obey rules out of fear of punishment, it’s because we’re smart enough to love ourselves enough to not want to get punished. On the other hand, when we break rules, we’re declaring that we love pleasures or laziness so much that we don’t even care that we’ll eventually be hurt by the punishment our actions bring with them.
This is why our faith cannot be merely a set of rules. Faith, in order to be fruitful, has to be based on the love of a person outside of ourselves—the person of Jesus Christ. We need Jesus to teach us how and why to love. We need Him to teach us why the rules are there, and if we don’t understand some of them, we need to know that, like a father, He only gives us rules for our own happiness and well-being. We can’t know this simply by being told. We have to know it for ourselves; we have to know Him.
“Show me a religion where you always get to do what you want and I’ll show you a pretty shabby, lazy religion. Something not worth living or dying for, or even getting up in the morning for. That might be the kind of world John Lennon wanted, but John Lennon was kind of an idiot.”
Steve Gershom, ladies and gentlemen.
[I'm writing a paper this week so I didn't really have time for a post today. I have always loved that line, though You can check out Steve's blog here.]
