Well, no matter what they say, Harry Potter has sure got a lot of kids reading instead of veging out in front of the TV. Personally, I think that's a good thing. After seeing some of the promos, I definitely plan to see the movie. Gonna read the books, too. And I'm rereading Tolkien in preparation for The Fellowship of the Ring.

Mark, I think we might just luck out with Lord of the Rings. Just a few minutes ago on my magic electric radio, I heard an interview with a movie reviewer who said he hasn't seen the movie yet, but will be seeing a preview in a day or two. He reminded the fellow who was interviewing him that this movie is not the entire LotR, it's The Fellowship of the Ring, the first of the trilogy. And that it's three hours long. The other two, he said, will be equally long. He also mentioned that he understood that the Tolkien estate had a measure of creative control and was watching all phases of the production to make certain that it stayed true to the concept. Sounds promising.

But one thing no movie could ever duplicate is Tolkien's glowingly beautiful writing. Lord, that man could write!

And Murray, "Christianity is Christianity is (etc., etc., etc.)" just ain't the way it really is. You have undoubtedly noted that there are a lot of very noisy people out there who call themselves "Christians." Most of them haven't a clue as to what it's really all about. And many of them have TV shows. My theological beliefs are composed of a mix of open-mindedness, lots of questions, a sense of history, a large dollop of skepticism, and a firm grip on Joseph Campbell's admonition, "Don't confuse metaphor with fact." I go to a Lutheran church with some regularity. I know a lot of Christians, but not just the ones in the church I go to. Not very many buy into your list (I don't know much of anybody who believes in "Original Sin" anymore — and the rest is metaphor). In the church I go to, one "witnesses" not by running off at the mouth and bending someone's ear, but by deeds. It's a pretty socially active church. Most people there seem to believe that the core of the religion is to be found in Matthew 25:35-40. Look it up (click). But — enough! This dead horse has already been flogged into a pile of bloody hash in other threads.

Back to Art's original question: a few years ago, in the small town northeast of Seattle, a group of flamin' Fundies demanded that several books be removed from local libraries (a common spasm among these folks). One of the books was Huxley's Brave New World. A local reporter asked a couple of spokesman for the group if they had actually read Brave New World. One of them said, "No! I don't read trash like that!" The other said, "I read the book, but I couldn't figure out what Huxley was talking about." Typical. Other than taking individual Bible verses out of context and examining them with a microscope, these folks don't read very deeply. Nevertheless, Harry Potter is in deep doo-doo with them. Wizardry, witchcraft, and all that. But since Tolkien is well known to have been one of a group Christian writers (which included Charles Williams, C. S. Lewis, and others — they called themselves "The Inklings."), on that basis they'll probably leave him alone. Maybe.

One of our former pastors (now retired) used to include long quotations from Lord of the Rings in his sermons. Our current pastor was first in line when the Harry Potter movie opened here (she loved it), and she's eagerly looking forward to seeing The Fellowship of the Ring.

Don Firth