This is a fascinating thread!

Celtic Soul: I must emphatically agree with CarolC that the decision to ignore fundamentalist Christians' protest of an icon of popular culture will not render that protest impotent. Far from it! I was raised by "fundies" (which still gives me nightmares – literally) and, speaking as someone who's been "on the inside", I know that many, many of the methods they use to harass non-fundies are quite subtle and insidious. As Carol says, they can damage and even destroy one's community life, since obviously they feel compelled not to accept a non-fundie as part of their community. The problem is that, at the same time they purport to want to "save" the heathen, they seek at all costs to save themselves from the heathen (and, as Carol notes, to rescue others from the heathen, including the heathen's children!).

The worst damage the fundies do, I think, is to their own children (though perhaps I'm biased, as a damaged adult-child of fundies). Not only must these children experience such shock as watching their parents denouncing and even burning books their peers are reading without retribution, but they are force-fed all the self-contradictory fundamentalist-Christian rhetoric all the time, and compelled to go on to do the same to their own children. The psychological violation is unfathomable; basically, the minds of these children are "made to live in a closet under the stairs" with limited nourishment and hand-me-down platitudes, not permitted to enjoy the freedom of thought taken for granted by their non-fundie "cousins". (I would be very surprised if Rowling didn't intend the Dursleys to be a metaphor for fundies!)

It's true that the Harry Potter books and the film, in and of themselves, are so popular and will be so enduring that book-burning fundies will not eliminate them. However, I agree with those who feel that these works need to be protected in a society that protects the right of free speech and expression. But far more importantly, I feel that the minds of children need to be just as well protected from having hatred and fear and bigotry drummed into them. If for no other reason than to show the fundies' kids that it is possible – and acceptable – for them to think for themselves, practices such as book-burning and other forms of censorship should be denounced with as loud a voice as we can muster.

SharonA