Church's Harry Potter Halloween

More at http://umc.org/videos/ Each October, a Massachusetts church transforms into Hogwarts School for a day. Staff members at Quincy Community United Methodist Church dress as favorite characters, including Hagrid, Mad-Eye Moody and Professors Trelawney and Snape. Guests can explore Gringott's Wizard Bank, Diagon Alley and the Great Hall. Members say it's all in good fun and the pastor says it draws people to their church for the first time. "In this day and age there are lots and lots of people who have never ever set foot in a church. We feel that the Harry Potter Extravaganza is a way to welcome people into our church."

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[manderbos]

@13fanboi

I'm not "holier than thou", only Christ in me is holy. I only responded to your comment blaming Christian teens for your going into the occult. And was challenging you to not use others as an excuse, since your older. So you've accepted Christ. AWESOME!!! I'm sure Harry Potter is entertaining, I never said otherwise. But what either of us say doesn't change the statistics of "children" toying with witchcraft and practicing sorcery from the information they recieve online now.

[13fanboi]

@manderbos I accepted Christ as my Savior and no longer have anything to do with the occult and I can tell you the judgemental,holier and better than you crowd frequenting many churches are far more of a threat to people's souls than Harry Potter ever can be.

[we4dempseys]

If you want to take things literally, do not open your next fortune Cookie, or medicine, do not listen to a weather forecast, or take your temperature. These things are Fortune Telling, Alchemy, Brewing of potions, prediction and other forbidden things. Even taking a bicarbonate of soda is dealing in potions and magic. OH, and you can stop using your dandruff shampoo and deodorant too.

[we4dempseys]

And because it is on the internet, it must be true? However, I will admit that I do not even like the words Ouija Board and suffered a very bad experience with one and I was not even using the thing. And I did not say I did not believe in the occult. I knew a Witch and was friends long ago with a couple Wicca, and the magic of Harry Potter is fiction and fantasy. What the Bible warns of is magic which relies on or calls on the power of spirits & demons. And that is because it is not of GOD.

[manderbos]

@we4dempseys I quoted her correctly and if I can find it on the internet, so can you. Just because you don't believe in the occult does not change the facts. I'm sure some spells were just Latin words but she said she did us some real incantations and spells that real people in the occult do use. When I was little we didn't know about such things either, but I was tormented by demons at night and I did play a game that no longer exists. It was similar to the Ouija board.

[we4dempseys]

@13fanboy and so you prove my point. People are leaving the Church because the church has ostracized them, If the Church would realize that Jesus wants us to open our hearts to people, then we would be in a better world. I am sorry you were a victim of hypocrisy. Know that God is love free for all people to partake of. If you cannot find an open minded Church, find like Minded people and worship on your own.

[we4dempseys]

Both my kids are healthy and well adjusted. Both have read, or been read, all of the Potter books, Narnia Books, etc. Both play D&D, and are healthy and well adjusted. We don't believe in Witchcraft or magic spells. I know of no reliable studies on what you speak of, and I think you are misquoting Rowling. She did research the occult to create good imagery, but uses Latin phrases for the fictitious spells.

[manderbos]

@we4dempseys

The story line is the fictional part but like I said she used actual spell from witchcraft. Do you want your children someday to be reciting actual incantations and summoning up demons? Does anyone here understand the demons are real and will rush through any door that we open in our lives? Do you want your kids tormented, or afflicted? Walking through life with this spirit of darkness over their minds. This stuff is real, God warns us to have "nothing" to do with it.

[manderbos]

@we4dempseys

If you are addressing me, I didn't say people were leaving church to practice witchcraft. My point was that is has no place in the church, first of all. Second, it is a "fact" that because of H.P. children have been researching sorcery, witchcraft and occultic sites. J.K.Rowling herself in an interview, admitted that 1/3rd of what she wrote is based on acual occultism and that she used the actual words to spells and the characteristics of the known demons in the occult..,1999.

[manderbos]

@13fanboi Well maybe it wasn't H.P. because it hadn't come out yet, when you were a teen. Anyway, that just proves my point more. That young people are easily influenced. You're not a teen anymore, so what is your excuse now? Are you going to say that the church is full of hypocrites? That is the usual excuse for anyone not wanting to accept Jesus as Savior. Probably those Christian teens didn't have a clue what they did wrong or how to act. Forgive and move on. This is about u.