The American Spectator

br> Falls Church, Virginia /p>

I enjoyed J. Peter Freire’s intelligent take on this non-controversy, particularly because he dragooned examples from both Paradise Lost and A Man for All Seasons into serving his point.

It strikes me that saying, “you are influenced by what you choose to experience, so choose carefully,” while trite, nevertheless dovetails neatly with that Seventies pitch from the USDA as posted in more than one school cafeteria, namely, “you are what you eat.”

I can’t remember who summarized the issue so pithily, but Joseph Ratzinger’s objection to Harry Potter has also been described as highlighting the contrast between “My Will Be Done” and “Thy Will Be Done.”

That the choice in that comparison echoes both scripture and Paradise Lost is no accident, Benedict XVI was a learned man even before he occupied the Chair of Peter.

p>Sure, the pope has been criticized for having reservations about J.K. Rowling’s magnum opus, as though only professors in the Chair of Potter had a right to think about the popularity of this wizard kid. But people who reduce moral guidance and catechesis to the level of Benedict’s fondness for cats or favorite beer can’t be taken too seriously, as Mr. Freire made quite clear. br> — Patrick O’Hannigan /p> p> Oh my, how we have worked ourselves into a lather! Please, please, please. Harry Potter is fiction and I’m sure the author of this hyperventilated piece knows fiction. It will not undermine Christian values or turn my child into a cultist. It will instead provide hours of becoming lost in a wonderfully fantastic place of magic and powers not possessed by mere mortals. Unfortunately, pieces like this article support the kool-aid left’s perception of conservatives. Lighten up, please! br> — John Kramschuster br> Gray, Maine /p>