*
Continuing from
http://charltonteaching.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/how-us-evangelical-christians-threw.html
*
It probably seemed like the safe and sensible thing to do for serious Christians to reject the Harry Potter novels when they first became popular.
After all, what chance was there that something so popular could be Christian? Past experience would say - very little chance.
What was to distinguish this series of books from hundreds, thousands, of others? - why treat them any differently?
What harm could come, after all - they probably thought - from 'playing it safe'? From rejecting and banning and trying to suppress these children's' stories among Christians?
*
And yet many serious Christians were wrong; and a great, perhaps unique, opportunity was lost.
*
There is a great lesson here, for those who are prepared to learn it; the lesson that you cannot 'play it safe' in life: There is no safe.
Safe now may be wrong; a bad decision in the long run.
Formulae are deceptive, They may work most of the time, and then lead us badly astray. If we stick to them despite negative feedback, they may lead into pride and hatred.
There is always the need to listen to the faint but insistent warning bells which sometimes intrude when we are most confidently and unthinkingly 'playing it safe' and sticking to the usual simple rules - but when we are, in actuality, refusing to take responsibility for our own choices.
When we are using 'just obeying orders' as an excuse for shirking the discernment of the heart.
*
Just read this in, appropriately enough, Yudkowsky's Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality:
ReplyDelete"You could call it heroic responsibility, maybe," Harry Potter said. "Not like the usual sort. It means that whatever happens, no matter what, it's always your fault. Even if you tell Professor McGonagall, she's not responsible for what happens, you are. Following the school rules isn't an excuse, someone else being in charge isn't an excuse, even trying your best isn't an excuse. There just aren't any excuses, you've got to get the job done no matter what." Harry's face tightened. "That's why I say you're not thinking responsibly, Hermione. Thinking that your job is done when you tell Professor McGonagall - that isn't heroine thinking. Like Hannah being beat up is okay then, because it isn't your fault anymore. Being a heroine means your job isn't finished until you've done whatever it takes to protect the other girls, permanently." In Harry's voice was a touch of the steel he had acquired since the day Fawkes had been on his shoulder. "You can't think as if just following the rules means you've done your duty."