New Video Aims to Disenchant
Harry Potter Fans
In early August, an associate Baptist pastor was making available to church groups in Brevard County, Florida, a one-hour video that purports to reveal the secret plot behind the publication of the wildly popular Harry Potter series: the conversion of children to Wicca. “These children read these books over and over, and what happens when they go to sleep at night? They dream. They dream about casting spells,” video-maker Robert S. McGee said in the August 4 Melbourne Florida Today in summarizing Harry Potter: Witchcraft Repackaged—Making Evil Look Innocent.
“What worries me is that people who don’t question sources will take this [video] at face value,” Cynthia Ridolf, who as youth services librarian for Central Brevard Library has viewed Harry Potter, told the paper. She added that the McGee video “assumes that kids don’t have a grasp of fantasy vs. reality.”
Recommended in 2000 by Christianity Today magazine as books parents should read with their children, the Harry Potter series topped ALA’s Banned Books list in 1999 and 2000.
Posted August 20, 2001.
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