Trash Talk Tuesday: Hypocrisy

We like Harry Potter at our house. Allie actually was listening to the CD's in the car with us and decided she wanted to watch them.(We put her on a temporary pause between 2 and 3 because we're a little unsure of how she will handle the dementors.) I had read news articles about people boycotting Harry Potter books and movies because they dealt in "witchcraft" which was basically bad. Okay, well, since it was just "news," it didn't really affect me, although I did think they sure were missing out.

Now that we are living in a part of "The Bible Belt," I actually had to respond to someone chastising me for taking my kids to "Race To Witch Mountain." Seriously. We went with a friend from church (her kids, my kids, out for Spring Break). It was opening week and usually the theaters are more full, but this showing was maybe 1/3 full. No big deal. When we got back though, another man, who also goes to church with us but had converted a few years back, was dropping something off and was sure to tell us that "it's a good thing Sunday's coming soon, now that you got our sinning for the week out of the way." He tried to sound good-natured about it, but he meant every word. He followed up by reminding us that he hadn't read the Harry Potter books and he isn't going to.

I laughed and blew it off as "crazy old man." But, continuing the conversation with my kids revealed that his response is pretty much standard around here.

Alex and Aimee (middle school) always tell me about the really awful things that everyone watches, says, does, goes...etc. They have seen gratuitous violence, sex, nudity, NC17, stuff...unrated horror...all with the approval of their parents. They have also watched their parents' more questionable tapes, obviously without their knowledge. So, when Alex and Aimee confirmed that most of these kids haven't watched or read Harry Potter because their parents think it's evil, I really was speechless.

I'm gonna go ahead and say that's slightly hypocritical...although they are probably all saying the same thing about me monitoring what my kids watch and then letting them engage in withcraft...whatever.

**Side note...the public library here and also the middle school library have the Twilight books in the Horror section, rather than Young Adult.**