when The Dancing Lawn had more people participating, we had some grand back-and-forths. For instance, in 2006, a girl called Lost Dreamer started a thread to discuss how far a love of fantasy can be taken before one falls into the wish of the serious occultist to TAKE OVER Gods sovereignty. One of the best entries that ensued came from a young woman calling herself Ephinie: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ There is a huge difference between the practice of real witchcraft, Wicca, occultic practises, Satanism, or whatever else, and magic found in fantasy. I would specifically shy away from things like palm reading, Ouija boards, fortune tellers, horoscopes, Tarot cards, and other stuff that is similar to that... even though a lot of those things are said to be either games or done just for fun. I think it is important to note that even those who engage in these practises make a distinction between what they do and pretend magic, by labelling their activities with a different spelling, magick. My mother, right when I was around eight years old, began to formulate the belief that all magic found in fantasy or anywhere else through any medium is Satanic and is the enemys tool to desensitize children. Consequently, our house went through many magic purges. We were no longer allowed to watch any of the old Disney movies that had magic in them, like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and the like. Anything that even hinted at magic was removed, and we were forbidden to take any part in it. It was very hard. Needless to say, there was no room for Harry Potter when it came out... If she wouldnt allow even hints of magic, of course she would not allow a series about a wizard boy who goes to magic school. Though she has never read Harry Potter for herself, and she refuses to (her belief about this is that even reading something that is so volatile can open one up for attack from the enemy), she holds very strongly to the opinion that it supports outright Satanism and occult. Ive debated this subject with her, but it is not open for debate in her mind; so I just gave up. I started reading them after I came to college, and I love them. Ive also done some catching up so to speak with reading of other fantasy novels and I have all the old Disney movies on DVD now. It wasnt easy at first, because it is hard to break away from such intense indoctrination, even when you believe in your heart that what you have been taught is wrong. But things that I learned in some of my Bible classes helped a lot, and I can hardly believe I missed out on so much for so long! Oddly, my mother has never condemned anything written by J.R.R Tolkien or C.S. Lewis, even though Lord of the Rings and Narnia are clearly of the magical fantasy genre. Her reasons for this, as stated to me, are that they were written by Christian authors who used a fantasy type of magic to get their message across. I just shake my at this. It seems that she just doesnt get it. ALL writers who use magic in their fantasy stories do so as a medium to get their message across. Just because an author is not a Christian does not mean that what they write cannot have value or be useful to a Christian reader. Also, I am somewhat of the opinion that good literature has inherent value in and of itself, even if it does not teach a clearly defined moral.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 23:40:21 +0000
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