Few will argue that Harry Potter has thrilled fans worldwide. Fanatics read the books and watch the movies -- some even call the stories literature. Others are just glad kids are reading something.
I personally avoid this bandwagon of brooms and goofy glasses, mainly because it annoys me. But despite the annoyance, I know we've all enjoyed something, so I'd rather live in a world with Harry Potter than without.
However, some people want to burn every Harry Potter book in sight.
According to a Boston Globe report, Rev. Douglas Taylor, a Pentecostal minister in Lewiston, Maine, insists Satan inspired the Harry Potter series, and says the books are nothing more than a children's guide to the occult. (Incidentally, the second Harry Potter film made $28 million in its opening night. Folks, that's a lot of evil.)
Recently, Taylor led a "book cutting" during which J.K. Rowling's bestsellers were not burned, but shredded during a public protest. (He was unable to obtain permission for a fire.)
"It's no secret that I enjoy what I'm doing now," Taylor told the Globe. He later added that he would rather be burning the books.
''Controversy! I love it, and I'm on the cutting edge of it. Amen!'' Taylor said. ''This is a beautiful opportunity that J.K. Rowling has provided for me.''
I don't like Harry Potter, but Rev. Taylor has officially gotten on the fighting side of me.
Let us pause for a history lesson.
In 1910, George W. Hensley, a Pentecostal leader from Tennessee, took a poisonous snake and passed it around his congregation, thus starting the Pentecostal practice of snake handling. Throughout his life, he was bitten dozens of times but always refused treatment. Eventually, snakebites killed him. (http://www.english.vt.edu/~appalach/essaysS/snakes.htm)
In 1968, documentary filmmaker Peter Adair made a film called "The Holy Ghost People," which told the story of a Pentecostal congregation in West Virginia. The film depicts an evening of handling snakes, drinking strychnine, and speaking in tongues.
For some Pentecostals, handling poisonous snakes and drinking strychnine proved purity and faithfulness -- if followers were not harmed. Snakebites and sickness meant the victims were not anointed, or led by God. Often, these people were ostracized and branded as sinners.
In Adair's film, a snake bit the congregation leader.
Let us now return to the present.
Pentecostal beliefs have changed over the years, and few congregations still practice these things. Today, fewer than 2,500 Pentecostals (mostly in southern states) practice snake handling, and many of the rest are tired of the "snake handler" stereotype.
I'm not out to stereotype Taylor and his congregation; I simply worry about Taylor's extremism. This is not an attack on Pentecostals -- just an illustration of how some religious leaders don't know best, and how they influence their followers so easily.
Shredding and burning books isn't the answer and never has been. Why not simply refuse to read the books?
I'd rather be around Harry Potter fans than extremists like Rev. Taylor. His pious reproach for J.K. Rowling is frightening. What's next, burning libraries?
And to think, he is preaching this extremism to children in his congregation. What's worse: letting children read popular fantasy fiction or destroying their books?
Morbid curiosity makes me wonder if Rev. Taylor has ever held a rattlesnake, and what would happen if he ever did.
Write to John at kingseyeland@bsu.edu
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