Expelling Harry Potter from Gwinnett County schools does not help children

This morning I awoke to a news story that just about made me want to upchuck yesterday's lunch in a way that only Linda Blair could envy. I'm talking about this stupid-ass agenda to get Harry Potter thrown out of the schools. According to WSB radio, local mom Laura Mallory thinks the Harry Potter series is "too dark and anti-Christian." What the article means by too dark I'm not quite certain. Are the characters so angst-ridden that even Nietzsche would put down the book crying? And anti-Christian? You'd think little Harry and his buddies were burning televangelists at the stake.

The most disgusting aspect of the news story to me was that they threw up some young girl at the mic who professed that after reading the Harry Potter books she and other friends became fascinated with witchcraft, conducted a seance in PE class and later became suicidal. I won't write the kid's name because I think she's really nothing more than an innocent pawn in a game of here-we-go-'round-the-book-burning-bush, but you can find out here. It's her parents that disgust me. Listen carefully people. If this child truly wants to kill herself and her parents blame this on access to books, not only will that child likely not live to see her next birthday but her blood will be on her parents hands. They and they alone will be to blame. This is like parents who blame McDonald's because their child is fat.

There is not a book on this planet that can cause a child to do something that that child's parents have instilled in him is wrong. Conversely nor is there a book on this planet that can cause a child to do something that that child's parents have instilled in him is right. The book itself has no power whatsoever. A book is an inanimate object. It cannot make you fat, immoral, or evil. It cannot make you exercise. It cannot make you accept me as your Lord and Savior. It cannot make you want to kill yourself. If the written word had as much power as some people give it credit, this blog would be one big solicitation for donations to my checking account.

Now, I'll preface by stating I don't become a parenting expert for another four weeks or so, but I can speak as a former elementary school teacher. Many people when discovering I taught young un's will ask my views on public, private and home schooling. They really are very simple. No teacher, regardless of how evil her intentions, can corrupt your child unless you allow her to. Same goes for other kids in the class. That goes for a public school class or a private school class. Kids do not have the power. Negative peer pressure is a scapegoat for lack of parenting. Home schooling is a topic for another post, but I always want to ask proud home schoolers if they also perform home dentistry or home tonsilectomies. Checking out videos from the local library so your child can spend hours at a time being home schooled while you polish off the last of the White Zin box wine does not protect your child from the evils of this world. It just keeps them from knowing how to respond when they encounter them.

Consider for a moment the spiritual development of a child who has always been kept from whatever his parents deem as contrary to their values. Now consider the spiritual development of the child who has grown up not being sheltered from such devilry but instead has been taught to resist it. Surely the child who eschews that which is forbidden shows greater moral buildup. Temporarily hiding the apple doesn't keep us from biting it once we find it; it just makes it all the more tempting.