Tenn. Catholic school removes Harry Potter books: "risk conjuring evil spirits."

[lindysalsagal]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/09/03/harry-potter-books-catholic-school-ban-conjuring-evil-spirits/

September 3rd, 2019 By Antonia Noori Farzan

Before the new school year began, the Rev. Dan Reehil turned to several exorcists for advice.

Reehil, a pastor at St. Edward Catholic School in Nashville, was worried about the heretical lessons that students could learn from the Harry Potter books, he wrote in a Wednesday email to faculty members that was obtained by WTVF. At the advice of the exorcists he consulted, who shared his concerns, he purged the series from the school’s library.

“These books present magic as both good and evil, which is not true, but in fact a clever deception,” he explained. “The curses and spells used in the books are actual curses and spells; which when read by a human being risk conjuring evil spirits into the presence of the person reading the text."

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(from me)

3rd grader, John Brown told reporters, "I wonder if the principal knows "the Davinci Code" is a novel, too???"

[dem4decades]

1. Do you get expelled if you say Beetlejuice 3 times too?

[dawn5651]

2. harry potter

books got kids of all ages reading. the good reverend needs to learn that fantasy isn't just about looking at children as sexual objects and reading a book that is a member of the fantasy genre.

[logosoco]

3. My grandsons and I are currently on book 6.

It is a good thing i have had a hard time pronouncing the spell words because, according to this pastor,I could be conjuring real evil spirits!

[sakabatou]

4. *facepalm*

[rpannier]

12. This is one of those instances where I'd like to palm his face

[Guilded Lilly]

5. The ignorance deepens. SMH.

[Soxfan58]

6. I have to agree

Harry Potter put a spell over millions of kids. It's called a love for reading. And thats dangerous to a institution built on lies.

[AllyCat]

16. This

[Dorian Gray]

7. If I lived in that community

I'd be quite vocal about this. It's ridiculous. I'm roman catholic. My husband is a high school teacher at a catholic school. We are practicing Roman Catholics.. And we are reading Harry Potter together with our daughter. It's fantasy, fun, inspires reading, and it's ridiculous that a priest would ban the book. If we ban books we don't agree with, then kids will only be exposed to a sanitized version of a world view that won't prepare them for anything. (Including critical thinking.)

Exoricists advising parish priest to remove this series is a joke.

[Scarsdale]

8. Yet I suppose he

has no objection to the red MAGA hats? They are encouraging racial divide. Those smart little dweebs from Covington Catholic School wore them to harass the Native American gentleman. Smirky monkeys would be less objectionable if they READ books instead of stirring up trouble.

[PJMcK]

9. How can anyone be so stupid!

This is America in the 21st century?!

Ah, what the hell. Let's just burn all the books, (except the Bible-- by the way, which version?).

[LittleGirl]

10. About 20 yrs

Ago one of my friends turned into a holy roller. She wouldn’t allow her 3 kids to celebrate Halloween! Because evil, whatever.

[rpannier]

11. Rev Reehill is a moron

If I had a child at that school I'd complain to the Bishop

on edit: The Diocese of Nashville needs to change its policies. From the superintendent
Catholic Diocese of Nashville superintendent Rebecca Hammel said Reehil has the final say at his school.

[sinkingfeeling]

13. Apparently, the principal never learned to identify fiction. Like

believing in demons and angels.

[pnwmom]

14. The pastor -- and the only one in the diocese, apparently. And parents complained,

saying his was a fringe view.

From the link:

According to the Tennessean, which first reported on the edict, Hammel confirmed the authenticity of the email and said that it was sent after a parent asked why the books were gone. Because the Catholic Church has not taken an official position on the Harry Potter series, the school’s pastor has the authority to pull the books from its library shelves, she added. To her knowledge, no other schools in the diocese have done so.

Hammel also told the paper that the diocese doesn’t “get into censorship” beyond making sure that the books in school libraries are age-appropriate. The Catholic Church believes it’s up to parents to determine what’s appropriate for their children and “guide their sons and daughters to understand the content through the lens of our faith,” she said.

[Lonestarblue]

15. What a sad commentary on the common sense of an educator.

I suppose he believes that Sally Fields really was a flying nun who was a miracle. Millions of kids have now read the Harry Potter books, and I know of not one recorded instance where repeating the spells called for evil spirits. I wonder what else they’re teaching in this school—probably intelligent design instead of evolution, climate change does not exist, slavery was voluntary relocation for work, and only white people built this country. We live in a world where global competition is the norm, but some schools are educating students for a century ago.

[Javaman]

17. in other news...

there was a run on orders from Tennessee children wanting Harry Potter books from Amazon.