spect.”The main reason that the Harry Potter series is objectionable to the religious right groups is that it poses the idea of situational ethics. There is no room for this newfound idea of situation ethics in Christian society. The Harry Potter series has, “roots in a devilish invention called situational ethics, the idea that values can be relative. The religious right, firmly believing in absolutes, does not want anyone discovering alternatives. Situational ethics has hit the schools like an epidemic, they feel it must be wiped out” (Cain 601). The group’s literal interpretation of that Bible calls for the idea that anything related to wizards, devils, and demons is real and dangerous, and they should have nothing to do with them. Although the censors think that their efforts are benefiting children, in the long run it is destroying them. Plato makes the point that, “The beginning, as you know, is always the most important part, especially in dealing with anything young and tender” (Plato 587). Although Plato’s views are the same as the religious right groups, this quote does make sense (although I am not taking the quote the way Pluto had intended). Though it is important how a young child is brought up, I think that to place them in a utopian society is even more harmful. If all children’s books had to be “approved,” each child would be a mindless character. There would be no unique qualities to distinguish one from another, all children being of the same mold. Each child would only know what was “approved,” and nothing else, not allowing them to flourish into individuals. Why should the idea’s of few, restrict the rights of so many? Although the Harry Potter series is fantasy, “It’s the very real forces of self-appointed censors who want to tell other people’s children what they can read” (USA Today “Harry P...
