A Harry Potter witch hunt
Mom who hasn't even read the books says they teach witchcraft
KAY MCSPADDEN
Special to the Observer

The suburbs of Atlanta are at the center of a witch hunt. Literally.

Laura Mallory, a former evangelical Christian missionary and mother of
four, has been trying since September 2005 to have the Harry Potter
books by author J.K. Rowling removed from all of the Gwinnett County
public school libraries. Initially she argued that the books were
inappropriate because of "evil themes, witchcraft, demonic activity,
murder, evil blood sacrifice, spells, and teaching children all of
this," but she later added that they promote witchcraft, Wicca, and
the occult.

Mallory's challenge was addressed by the media review committee at
J.C. Magill Elementary, where three of Mallory's children are
enrolled. The committee recommended that the books remain in the
libraries, and the district administration concurred.

In April Mallory appealed to the district school board, which held a
public hearing in May. The school board sided with the school media
review committee and voted unanimously in favor of keeping the books.

Now Mallory has taken her challenge to the state Board of Education.
They met in October and will issue a judgment in December.

In some ways this is a rather predictable book challenge.

Like many book complainants, Mallory objects that the contents of the
books are offensive to her religious beliefs. She claims the books
have an anti-Christian bias.

Also like many complainants, she admits she hasn't read the books.

"They're really very long and I have four kids," Mallory told the
Gwinnett Daily Post. "I think it would be hypocritical of me to read
all of the books, honestly. I don't agree with what's in them."

And also like many of the people who challenge books, Mallory ignores
the role of parents in guiding their children's choices -- unless, of
course, she is the parent making those choices for everyone's children.

The outcry against Mallory's challenge has been predictable as well.
Supporters of the Harry Potter series have countered that the books do
not promote witchcraft but are fantasy stories about gifted children
who discover their own remarkable abilities and go to a special school
in order to learn to use them. The books are intense morality tales
where good triumphs over evil, where friendship and loyalty are
celebrated, where Harry learns from his missteps.

Potter fans also point out that although Mallory charges that the
books try to indoctrinate children into the religion of Wicca, the
only religious reference is to Christianity, when Hogwarts adjourns
each December for the Christmas holidays. Nor do the books teach
occult practices, as Mallory claims. The magic taught at Hogwarts is a
clever counterpart to real life activities -- learning to make the tip
of a wand light up to use as a flashlight, for example, or learning
the proper way to fly a broom. The only teacher who presumes to teach
what might be called occult practices is Sybill Trelawney, the
incompetent fortune teller who is roundly mocked by both her students
and her colleagues.

As predictable as the challenge has been, it has also been surprising
to me. Why are books this universally read and loved also so widely
feared and reviled? Despite their lack of sexual content or offensive
language -- two of the most common reasons for book challenges -- the
Harry Potter books are listed as the American Library Association's
most-challenged books of the 21st century. What's going on?

Laura Mallory told one interviewer that "the books expose and
introduce occult practices to young readers, opening a door to their
minds and hearts to this kind of stuff, the casting of spells. The
occult is dangerous to our children, and we need to get it out of our
schools in all its forms."

For Mallory and other people like her who have a pre-Enlightenment
view of the world as a place where magic is real and supernatural
powers can be accessed through spells, the books might seem
frightening. These are the same people who send chain letters and
e-mails which promise great rewards to those who say a prayer and
forward the mail to others -- and which sometimes threaten harm if the
chain is broken.

They are the people who read cosmic significance into coincidence, who
believe without question the cautionary tales they hear, who reject
reason and science as ungodly and substitute religion with superstition.

Ironically, they say that they worry that children cannot tell the
difference between fact and fiction, but their own anxiety about the
books suggests that they are the ones who are having difficulty. It's
too bad that their confusion means the rest of us have to endure yet
another senseless witch hunt.

Kay McSpadden

Observer columnist Kay McSpadden is a high school English teacher in
York, S.C. Write her c/o The Observer, P.O. Box 30308, Charlotte, NC
28230-0308 or by e-mail at kmcspadden@....

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