My daughter, who currently considers herself a Jewish pagan (which is not irreconcilable, by the way), has been hanging out on both a pagan website and a multi-theological one. We have both read all the Harry Potter books, and loved them. She was highly amused to find an article posted by a fundamentalist Christian berating Harry Potter in response to an article from "The Onion", the satirical newsletter. The poster apparently didn't realize that "The Onion" is satire. Computer illiterate that I am, I can't include a link, but searching on The Onion should do it. If anyone is really interested, let me know and I'll hold her down and get the addresses out of her.

I think fundamentalists of any religion who insist that everyone should do it their way are dangerous, and should be guarded against. I remember a pair of Christian mothers in a parent's group I was part of debating Halloween. One said she didn't allow her children to participate in a Satanic holiday, and the other said she allowed hers to dress as secular things like ballerinas and baseball players, but not witches or ghosts.

Meanwhile, at my daughter's Jewish nursery school, we were told not to let the children wear costumes on Halloween, because Halloween is a Christian holiday and a traditional time for pogroms. Most of them did anyway. Try explaining a pogrom to a middle-class American three-year-old who just wants a fun costume and free candy.