This document discusses the negative effects of mass media such as television and social media on moral development and character building in children and society. It provides numerous statistics showing that children now spend much more time engaged with media than in other developmental activities like reading, social interaction, or religious activities. It also cites research showing that excessive media use can physically affect brain development in ways that hurt attention span, empathy, reasoning skills, and can promote addictive or antisocial behaviors. The document advocates for limiting media time and promoting activities like reading that strengthen character.

1. Building Character: One Story at a Time!
&
The Great Awakening:
The Media, Mind, and Moral Imagination
Mark Hamby
To make ready a people prepared for
the Lord.
Lk 1:17
Lamplighter

3. Lot’s soul was
VEXED
by what he
SAW & HEARD

4. I, on my part, here renounce all
acquaintance with you! I will
NEVER sit down at the same
table; enter the same room; or
breathe the same air with you;
never speak to you; listen to you;
or recognize you in any manner,
until my deep wrongs are
avenged!
Behold the days are coming, declares the
LORD God, when I will send a famine upon
the earth; not a famine of bread nor a thirst
for water, but of hearing the
words of the Lord…
they shall run to and fro, to seek the word
of the LORD, but they shall not find it.

5. I, on my part, here renounce all
acquaintance with you! I will
NEVER sit down at the same
table; enter the same room; or
breathe the same air with you;
never speak to you; listen to you;
or recognize you in any manner,
until my deep wrongs are
avenged!
Our youth now love luxury. They have bad
manners, contempt for authority; they show
disrespect for their elders and love chatter
in place of exercise; they no longer rise
when elders enter the room; they
contradict their parents, chatter before
company; gobble up their food and
tyrannize their teachers.
SOCRATES, FIFTH CENTURY B.C.

6. Prior to 1966 Hollywood was run by the church and
heavily screened. There was no room for profanity,
nudity, sex, or unnecessary violence. Respect for
authority and family values was at the highest
level.Two years after the church gave up its seat of
authority, the first X rated movie was produced.

7. I, on my part, here renounce all
acquaintance with you! I will
NEVER sit down at the same
table; enter the same room; or
breathe the same air with you;
never speak to you; listen to you;
or recognize you in any manner,
until my deep wrongs are
avenged!
The average child in the US only receives 21
minutes a day of primary attention with their
parents, but, according to the Motion Picture
Association, spend up to 10 hours per day with
the Internet and TV. (these statistics were
researched 2 years ago, so the stats will be
higher now with the iphone) Therefore, by the
time the average American child is 17 years old,
he or she has watched 63,000 hours of mass
media, spent 11,000 hours in school and gone
to church for only 800 hours (assuming he or
she has gone to church every Sunday for one
hour since birth).

8. I, on my part, here renounce all
acquaintance with you! I will
NEVER sit down at the same
table; enter the same room; or
breathe the same air with you;
never speak to you; listen to you;
or recognize you in any manner,
until my deep wrongs are
avenged!
While the average Briton watches four hours of TV a day,
children aged 11-15 spend seven and a half hours a day
watching TV and computers - an increase of 40% in a decade
-the scientist claims.
More than half of three-year-olds have a TV set in their
bedrooms and the average six-year-old will have already
watched nearly one full year of their lives.
"Television viewing is also now linked with stunting brain
development in the child's frontal lobes leading to reduced
impulse control and increased antisocial behaviour.”

9. I, on my part, here renounce all
acquaintance with you! I will
NEVER sit down at the same
table; enter the same room; or
breathe the same air with you;
never speak to you; listen to you;
or recognize you in any manner,
until my deep wrongs are
avenged!
We live in an image-dominated culture that has
produced monumental consequences: to the
disregard of authority, the rewriting of history, the
lack of interest in science, self and pleasure-
centeredness, and according to G. E. Veith, the
emergence of new values based on instant
gratification and the need to be continually
entertained.
The new media conditions us for time-compressed
experiences, short-term relationships, now-
oriented achievement, easy and instant solutions.

10. Children who are oversaturated by the media
demonstrate a decreased capacity for creative
imagination, concentration and delayed gratification.
The formation of mental pictures and imaginative
play does not come easy as parents find these
children apathetic and unmotivated to participate in
group and outdoor activities. Because of the
decrease in their ability to delay gratification, they
have a weakened attention span as well as an
intolerance to reading a book.

11. I, on my part, here renounce all
acquaintance with you! I will
NEVER sit down at the same
table; enter the same room; or
breathe the same air with you;
never speak to you; listen to you;
or recognize you in any manner,
until my deep wrongs are
avenged!
“Reading demands sustained concentration,
whereas television promotes a very short
attention span. Reading involves (and
teaches) logical reasoning, whereas
television involves (and teaches) purely
emotional responses. Reading promotes
continuity, the gradual accumulation of
knowledge, and sustained exploration of
ideas. Television and film, on the other
hand, fosters fragmentation, anti-
intellectualism, and immediate gratification.”
Gene E. Veith Reading Between the Lines

12. I, on my part, here renounce all
acquaintance with you! I will
NEVER sit down at the same
table; enter the same room; or
breathe the same air with you;
never speak to you; listen to you;
or recognize you in any manner,
until my deep wrongs are
avenged!
Prepackaged Images
When we read, the words create mental
images that awaken our imaginations. TV
and video give us prepackaged images
that appear by the second giving the brain
no rest for reflection. And unless the
imagination is engaged even reading is of
no value.
Reading exercises the imagination
literally. Just as bodily exercise builds
physical strength and endurance, reading
strengthens the mind’s imaginative
powers.

13. I, on my part, here renounce all
acquaintance with you! I will
NEVER sit down at the same
table; enter the same room; or
breathe the same air with you;
never speak to you; listen to you;
or recognize you in any manner,
until my deep wrongs are
avenged!
The 1869 Librarian of Congress’ definition
of a good book:
“The true question to ask respecting
a book is,
‘has it help’d any human soul.’”*
* Wendy Flint, A Call to Action (American Freedom Coalition, 1988), 17.

14. Lawrence Kohlberg in his research states, "By
contributing to cognitive impairment, mass media
of entertainment has a deleterious effect on a
child's moral, social, emotional, and religious
development. Dr. Ted Baehr states in his book,
Culture-Wise Family, "With regard to social and
emotional development, a child needs dramatic
play to develop these areas, but dramatic play…is
inhibited by watching TV or movies. Watching
social interaction on TV is not enough, because a
child must do or act." They must be more than an
observer, or their social, emotional, mental,
physical, and spiritual growth will be impaired.

15. Chicago (IL) - According to a recent
study conducted by a neuroscience
group at the University of Southern
California, social networking sites harm
and cripple the moral values of their
users. Why? The study claims that
those sites do not provide the necessary
room to feel compassion or admiration.

16. A British neuroscientist warned the House of Lords about
the damaging neural effects of the internet and social
networking sites.
“I suggest that social networking sites might tap into the
basic brain systems for delivering pleasurable
experience,” said Baroness Susan Greenfield in her
parliamentary remarks on February 12. “As a
consequence, the mid-21st century mind might almost be
infantilized, characterized by short attention spans,
sensationalism, inability to empathize and a shaky sense
of identity.”

17. In the "UCLA Television Violence Monitoring Report," children
imitate modeled behavior as the observational learning theory
suggests. Researchers found that young children who view
violent episodes, store that behavior in their brain. When they
are confronted with a similar situation in real life, there is a
propensity to mimic the behavior that was once stored, but now
activated in the forefront of their memory. An exasperated
mother commented on how her son loved Harry Potter movies
but frustrated that he would no longer obey her. He had learned
from Harry Potter that deception and disregard for authority
brought rewards.

18. 78% of born again Christian teenagers have seen or read
Potter. Only 4% say they have experienced any teaching
that clearly demonstrates that the world view of Harry
Potter is an abomination to God. Here are just a few: God
condemns sorcery; all sorcerers will find themselves in the
lake of fire. Harry Potter and friends, use deception and
unethical behavior to achieve their ends, and there is even
a scene where there is a female ghost in the bathtub with a
naked Potter, making sexual advances.
(Lord of the Rings and Chronicles);

19. One particularly telling statistic is that at 10:00
a.m. on any given Saturday, approximately 60
percent of all American children are watching
television. At the rate Americans watch
television, a child who grows up and lives to be
75 will have spent 9 years of his life in front of the
TV. Though the public does not consider cartoons
to be violent, scientists note that cartoons feature
some of the highest rates of violence found in the
media.

20. From the 1990's we saw an increase in the
number of popular children’s programs with
violent themes, and particularly those in which the
“heroes” use violent, unethical, or immoral means
to solve problems or settle disputes. The majority
(68 percent) of children’s programming with
violent content was presented in a humorous
context. Trotta (2001) explains that this
combination of violence and humor plays a major
role in desensitizing children to violence.

21. Jeffrey G. Johnson of Columbia University found
that teenagers and young adults who watch more
than one hour of TV daily are more likely to commit
acts of violent crime or react aggressively. His study
found a link between violence and viewing any
television, not just violent programming!

22. A report on four decades of entertainment TV found
that there were about 50 crimes, including a dozen
murders, during every hour of prime time television.
This indicates that our children may see from
800,000 to 1.5 million acts of violence and witness
192,000 to 360,000 murders on television by the
time they are 17 years old.

23. Neil Postman's research reveals that we may be entering a
new dark age, where childhood, language development, and
reading are on a parallel course. During the Dark Ages, a
child was considered an adult at seven years of age because
that was the age when both child and adult mastered the
vocabulary. Therefore once a child reached an adult’s
vocabulary level he/she was treated as an adult, though their
physical, mental, and emotional development lagged behind.
Children spoke like adults, dressed like adults, and
participated in adult immoral activities. (see 15th century
Dutch Paintings).

24. Once the printing press was invented, millions had
access to the knowledge of God; the medieval class system
started to crumble and social mobility shot up, as commoners
started their own businesses and in some cases became
wealthier than their feudal masters.
Arthur W. Hunt, in his new book, The Vanishing Word,
shows how Christianity and the written word have prospered
together. He also shows what happens when the habit of
reading is lost and people orient themselves instead to
sensate images. Reading encourages thinking, reflecting, and
the cultivation of truth, but image cultures tend to be driven by
subjectivism, superstition, hedonism, and propaganda.
The great media critic Neil pointed out the ways that
reading encourages certain habits of mind. Reading teaches
us to think in a logically connected thought patterns.

25. • Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, tells about his desire to read
more, and the steps he took to reach that goal. He set up a reading
room and bought the perfect chair for reading, a wonderful reading
lamp, and all the books he wanted to plow through. But when he
came home from work, he’d flop on the couch, flip on the television,
and catch up on the news or the first quarter of Monday Night
Football. Soon he’d be glued to the TV, and the books remained
stacked on the chair in his reading room. Finally he got rid of the TV,
and his reading accomplishments soared. He learned that it’s not
what you add to your life, it’s what you abandon that will make the
difference.
• The Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5 writes:
“Therefore it says, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and
Christ will shine on you. Look carefully then how you walk, not as
unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the
days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the
will of the Lord is.”

26. What fires together wires together
Like child development in general, language
development is interrelated. Children who have
many opportunities to listen and speak tend to
become skilled readers and writers. Children
who can put their ideas in writing become better
readers. Children who are read to often, learn to
love reading and become better listeners,
speakers, and writers.

27. Parents need to understand that tv and
computer programs can harm the intellectual
and character development of their children
during a time when there is only a narrow
window for growth. A baby's brain has over a
100 billion brain cells with over a 1000 trillion
connections! What fires together wires together!
Ages 0-3 motor skills, speech
Ages 4-6 language, math,
Ages 7-10 comprehension, art
Ages 12 and up Synthesis—amygdala &
testosterone – Limbic & estrogen and
progesterone

28. Electronic gadgets, including the tv and
video games change on the screen on an
average, every two to four seconds. A
child's brain that is influenced by such
interaction is being "wired" to be
disorganized. The ADD ADHD
phenomenon, children thinking in illogical
connected thought patters, is not difficult
to understand.

29. Moreover, watching TV generally shifts
brain activity from the left side
(responsible for logical thought and critical
analysis) to the right side. The right side
does not critically analyze incoming
messages, but instead triggers an
emotional response.

30. Right brain activity causes the body to release
chemicals called endorphins, which make it feel
good (endorphins, a natural sedative with similar
properties to heroin), thus resulting in an
addiction.
In one study it was found that TV reduces brain
activity in the pre frontal cortex (higher level
reasoning), promoting activity in lower brain
regions, resulting in less intelligence and the
more animal-like behaviors of sex, violence and
food.

31. "Son of man, have you seen what the elders
of the house of Israel are doing in the dark,
each in his room of pictures?”
Ezekiel 8:12a
"Behold, the days are coming," declares the
Lord GOD, "when I will send a famine on the
land-- not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for
water, but of hearing the words of the LORD.
Amos 8:11

32. Drama, as we know it, was invented by the
church in the Middle Ages to help the illiterate
populace understand the gospel. It is now used
to keep the populace from the gospel. In the last
50 years Bible knowledge among youth has
decreased from 74% to just 4%. And it is not
coincidence that Bible believing adults rarely
bring their Bibles to church any more because
they can now view it on a screen.

33. "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind
is stayed on thee."
Isaiah 26:3
He who meditates upon the Word day and
night, everything he does will prosper.
Joshua 1, Psalm 1

34. As I travel from coast to coast, I find the electronic
voice and image to be the predominant influence in
most homes. Its constant drone of so many
meaningless pictures and words sedate us. In one of
my favorite books, Sir Knight of the Splendid Way, Sir
Constant, finds a city in which everyone walks around
in a dull consciousness. No one wants to disrupt the
establishment since mediocrity and complacency are
acceptable to all. Tolerance and entertainment are
the quintessential values of this city. But Sir Constant,
having not been anesthetized from the amusements
of the city tries to awaken everyone from their stupor.
No one will listen, no one cares, and no one is
wearing their armor.

35. Sir Constant pleads to his comrades but they cannot see
what he sees. He sees the enemy looming over the city
holding its citizens captive-readily accepting and
conforming to a life of leisurely indolence. Armor is strewn
across the countryside and no one believes that the
knight’s concerns are valid. In desperation, he drags one
of his comrades to the edge of the city and dresses him
with his now rusty armor. Once outside the city his
comrade begins to awaken out of his drugged state of
amusement and as his eyes readjust to the new light, he
begins to see the wondrous things—and the enemy.
Before the first attack, he senses a new strength from
within; his stiff armor begins to loosen as it melds to a
body of renewed form. As he unsheathes his sword he
remembers his long forgotten vow—“With my whole heart
I seek you!”

36. I, on my part, here renounce all
acquaintance with you! I will
NEVER sit down at the same
table; enter the same room; or
breathe the same air with you;
never speak to you; listen to you;
or recognize you in any manner,
until my deep wrongs are
avenged!
For the weapons of our warfare are not
carnal, but mighty through God to the
pulling down of strongholds; Casting down
imaginations, and every high thing that
exalts itself against the knowledge of God
and bringing into captivity every thought
to the obedience of Christ

37. Ps. 117 Praise the Lord (v 1, first)
Praise the Lord (v 2, last)
Ps. 118 Oh give thanks to the LORD, for his is good;
for his loyal love endures forever! (v 1, first)
Oh give thanks to the LORD, for his is good;
for his loyal love endures forever! (v 29, last)
Ps. 119
Ps. 120 -134
Ps. 135 Praise the Lord (v 1, first)
Praise the Lord (v 2, last)
Ps. 136 Oh give thanks to the LORD, for his is good;
for his loyal love endures forever! (v 1, first)
Oh give thanks to the God of heaven,
for his loyal love endures forever! (v 26, last)

40. The Hidden Hand reveals every emotion
known to mankind. The reader follows
anxiously after the adventures of Capitola
to see what lies ahead. The saddest part
of this book is when you discover there
are no more pages to read!
Mark, I can’t see how a movie based on
this book would not be a big success! Go
for it!!
JR

41. Dear Mark,
My wife and I read The Hidden Hand to each other over a
two-week period, and we both agree that it is one of the finest
books we have ever read. As a follower of Jesus Christ, I
was especially encouraged by the providence of God that is
"seen" throughout the book, thus the title. The divine
appointments of the Spirit-led life make me smile and give
me great joy. What a treat it was to watch the amazing
events of Capitola's life unfold through the skillful writing of
Mrs. Southworth and know that, although fictional, The
Hidden Hand reflects the reality of our transcendent God's
imminence and activity in the affairs of man.
God bless you, Mark, and your ministry. Thank you for the
treasure of The Hidden Hand!
In Christ, Bill Ketts (Jeremiah 10:23)

42. Dear Mr. Hamby,
I've been wanting to take a moment and tell you how blessed I've been. First, your books
are wonderful! Good, edifying books are such a rare find anymore. We've read aloud as
a family The Giant Killer, and are currently reading Stranger at Home. I've also read The
Basket of Flowers, Amy and Her Brothers, Ishmael, and am currently working on Self-
Raised. Ishmael and Self-Raised are amongst my very favorites ever read! It's so
refreshing to read an "on the edge of your seat" book that is also edifying and
encouraging in the Christian walk. Nowadays, anything that has to do with
love/romance/feelings is way too watered down with all the modern day, ungodly junk.
Also, thank you so much for your seminars! I've heard all of volume two, and a couple
from volume one. If You're a Christian: DON"T TELL ANYONE has literally changed my
life. Thank you so much! In fact, God's done so much in the past 5 weeks since I listened
to it, that I can't contain it. I've written an article about how God used your CD to change
and "rejuvenate" my life, for a small, Christian magazine, written mostly for
homeschooled young people. Over the past couple of years, I've been working on mask-
wearing, but this CD so strongly convicted me that I began crying out to God begging
Him to take my mask off....because it's my strongest desire to be used by Him. I've really
appreciated your complete honesty with your many trials and struggles.
Yes, we certainly serve an awesome God! I've been amazed because, as God's used you
to change my life, He's now using my life/testimony to change and revive others' lives.
May the Lord bless you!
In Christ,
~Brianna

43. Fund Development Counsel
TESTIMONY: BOOKS
Dear Mr. Hamby,
I don’t know if it was you or one of your workers at ACSI in
Dayton, but I just wanted to express my gratitude. Teddy’s
Button has captivated my class of 4th graders like no other
book I’ve ever read. I’ve prayed with two of them that WERE
Christians to “become true soldiers” and it does such a clear
job of expressing the true war we are in. Thank you for
finding and restoring this treasure!!
God Bless you, Betsy Linnell

44. Dear Mr. Hamby,
I am 15 years old and I am developing my classical
book collection. You aided me in choosing several
books (Ishmael, Self-Raised, The Hidden Hand, to
name a few) which I might enjoy and that would be a
fabulous addition to my library. Well, I started
reading Ishmael on my way home from the
convention and I never stopped reading it until it
was completed! Not only did this book hold my
attention (like few books of this century do for teens
my age), but I gleaned SO many godly principles
from Ishmael’s life and was able to put them into
practice in my daily life. Ishmael and Self-Raised
are no doubt two of my favorite books now. All of
the advertisements concerning these books were
true. These books were some of the greatest books
I have ever heard of, concerning vocabulary
building, morals, suspense, etc. The author wove
together all of these great qualities into a
masterpiece of literature.

45. Dear Mark:
I will tell you that my children love the lamplighter
books. Thursday, I had a day off from work and
we read most of The Little Lamb together on the
couch. I think I had intended to read a couple
chapters, but the children kept saying “another
chapter, please!”, so we kept reading. It was a
wonderful relationship building day. So, I see the
immense value these books hold. Anything that
can keep a 5 year old daughter snuggled by her
daddy on the couch is a wonderful thing!
Jason Southerland

46. I, on my part, here renounce all
acquaintance with you! I will
NEVER sit down at the same
table; enter the same room; or
breathe the same air with you;
never speak to you; listen to you;
or recognize you in any manner,
until my deep wrongs are
avenged!
A man is known by the company he keeps. It is also true that a person's
character is to a large extent developed by the books he reads.”
"Many times the reading of a book has made the future of a man."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Abraham Lincoln commented: "The things I want to know are in books;
my best friend is the man who will get me a book I have not read.“
"If we encounter a man of rare intellect we should ask him what books he
reads." Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings so that
you shall come easily by what others have laboured hard for." Socrates.
"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man
who cannot read them." Mark Twain
"Next to the Holy Scriptures, the greatest aide to the life of faith may be
Christian biographies." A.W. Tozer.

47. Psalm 1 & Psalm 2
Blessed is the man who walks not in the
counsel of the wicked…
but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
on his law he meditates day and night.
In all that he does, he prospers.
----------------------------------------------
They take counsel against God’s Anointed
Your are My Son;
Kiss the King, lest He be angry…
Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.

48. I, on my part, here renounce all
acquaintance with you! I will
NEVER sit down at the same
table; enter the same room; or
breathe the same air with you;
never speak to you; listen to you;
or recognize you in any manner,
until my deep wrongs are
avenged!
YOU ARE WHAT YOU READ
George and Alec Gallup conducted exhaustive
research that provided evidence that that the
most “successful people read.”

49. Annually advertisers spend approximately $150 billion to
sponsor TV and radio programs, in the hopes of making
two to three times as much in return from media
consumers who buy their products and services.
Channel One has been broadcast directly into American
school classrooms. The main purpose of Channel One,
as with all television, is selling. As the president of
Channel One told an audience of youth marketers in
1994, “The biggest selling point to advertisers is that …we
are forcing kids to watch two minutes of commercials.
The advertiser gets a group of kids who cannot go to the
bathroom, cannot change the station, who cannot listen to
their mother yell in the background”.

50. Violent and immoral programming has steadily increased
over the past 30 years. Research reports published in the
early 1970s indicated that by age 14, the average child
had witnessed more than 11,000 murders on television.
This figure has dramatically increased, with more recent
reports indicating that the average American child now
witnesses more than 10,000 violent crimes each year on
television – about 200,000 total violent crimes by the time
they are in their teens. Moreover, the authors of the
NTVS (1998) reported that 61 percent of television
programs contain violence. Violent acts occur 5 times per
hour in prime time programs and 20 times per hour in
children’s programs. Fully two-thirds of children’s
programming contains violence. (2001)

51. Dr. Victor Cline reports that the more intelligent
and imaginative a child is, the more susceptible
they are to become addicted and mimic viewed
behavior. Cline reveals that the vast majority of
criminals in prison for sexual crimes are
intelligent. Children will either become
anesthetized, desensitized, or see violent immoral
viewed behavior on the screen as normal and
acceptable.

52. William Bennett, former US Secretary of Education, notes
that between 1960's and 1990's there was:
A 966 % increase in the rate of cohabitation
A 523 % increase in out-of-wedlock births
A 370 % increase in violent crime
A 270 % increase in children on welfare
A 215 % increase in single parent families
A 210 % increase in teenage suicide
A 200 % increase in the crime rate
A 130 % increase in divorce rate (costing 31 billion dollars
per year)
A 75 point decrease in the average SAT score

53. Media consumption is the primary free-time activity of
most Americans. Why? Kubey and Csikszentmihalyi
(2002) say that we are psychologically addicted to the
electronic screen. They explain that TV repeatedly
triggers our orienting response – the instinctive
reaction to pay attention to any sudden or novel
stimulus. Orienting responses help us guard against
danger. Producers of media use features such as
edits, cuts, zooms, pans, and sudden noises to
continually trigger our orienting response. In short,
they exploit basic psychological and biological
mechanisms to get and keep our attention.

54. Jolts are devices used by the media that are
designed to engage our emotions. The most
common emotional jolts are appeals to sex,
violence, humor, and belonging needs. Tricks
are technical features designed to grab our
attention and include special effects, edits,
pacing, music, camera angles, graphics, color,
volume, lighting, makeup, and animation. It is
not only the content of programs that attracts
attention, but also the way in which that content
is presented. Media producers know that when
an audience’s emotions are engaged, that
audience is more vulnerable to suggestion.

55. Across experiments, participants who saw the violent film
clips consistently showed poorer memory for commercials
than those exposed to the nonviolent film clips. Moreover,
Bushman reported that violent film clips made participants
angry, and that level of anger served to impair memory (i.e.,
anger was a mediating variable). These findings were
confirmed by those of a recent meta-analysis, showing that all
types of TV viewers (children, adults, those who do and do
not like to watch violent TV) are less likely to remember the
content of advertisements during shows that contain
violence. Other recent findings indicate that sexual content
produces similar impairment of memory for ads.

56. Television generally increases passivity among
viewers, leading to less exercise, increased food
intake (generally of high-calorie snack foods), and
ultimately a less healthy populace. The link
between television viewing, decreased physical
activity, and obesity (particularly in children) is well
documented. Furthermore, a recent study showed
that children who were randomly assigned to watch
less television showed less weight gain over seven
months than children whose television viewing was
not altered.

57. The public becomes concerned about the level of violence in
the media only when they are shocked or offended by what
they see. Over years of exposure to violent media, the
process of desensitization changes what shocks or offends,
and indeed changes people’s very definitions of what is
violent. This process leads to a kind of induced complacency,
whereby violence may seem more commonplace and
appropriate, aggressive thoughts and feelings may come to
mind more easily, and aggressive responses (including
verbal, gestural, and physical responses) in interpersonal
situations may become more likely. It is therefore
understandable why most people believe they are not harmed
by media violence, despite scientific evidence to the contrary.

58. The argument that programs are violent in
response to public demand appears to be
unfounded. For example, Gerbner (1994a)
notes, “the most highly rated programs are
seldom violent."
Ironically, while audiences long for reality in their
media, their own lives are becoming less real.

59. Turning off the TV after a viewing session is
associated with more stress and with dysphoric
rumination. However, this is not because
turning off the TV is stressful, but because the
initial relaxation response has faded with
prolonged exposure. Thus, people end up
watching television for longer than they say they
want to, under the incorrect assumption that
more television will increase relaxation.

60. Parents, teachers, and others who closely
observe children have long recognized the
importance of the early years. They know that
talking with and responding to babies is the best
way to promote security and encourage healthy
development. By taking advantage of new
technologies--including brain scans--scientists
can now see how and when the brain works.
Recent research provides proof that a child's
interactions and experiences in the first few
years of life have a large impact on social,
emotional, intellectual, and language
development.

61. Interactions and Experiences That Stimulate Brain
Development
Brain development occurs around the clock, when
babies are with their parents and when they are cared
for by others. Every important caregiver--relative,
neighbor, child care provider--has an impact on the
baby's brain development. As babies respond to these
actions, their brains develop connections. Touch is
particularly important to babies' development. Holding
and stroking a baby stimulates the brain to release the
hormones that allow for growth. Each time the baby
experiences new things to look at, hear, taste, smell,
touch, and feel, new connections are formed.

62. I, on my part, here renounce all
acquaintance with you! I will
NEVER sit down at the same
table; enter the same room; or
breathe the same air with you;
never speak to you; listen to you;
or recognize you in any manner,
until my deep wrongs are
avenged!
I have never been much of a reader, but those books opened
my eyes to the joy of reading and the peace of God when I
read them. I thank Lamplighter publishing for your dedication
and love for God's word and desire to spread His message
through theses incredible stories. I will continue to tell people
about these books, and share my enthusiasm for your
ministry. I hope that my children will continue the legacy of
reading these books together as a family with their children
one day.
Blessings, Lori

63. Suffering produces
endurance, and endurance
produces character, and
character produces hope,
and hope makes us not
ashamed.
(doesn’t disappoint)
Romans 5
The rest of the story!

64. What would we think of a series of books that glorify secret societies, where
witchcraft is the core subject, where diabolical possession is
presented/mentioned twenty-seven times in all, where black magic is
everywhere and practiced by the “good” characters as well as the bad;
where five blood rituals seal dark alliances; where torture is shown in class;
where spectral vampires suck up the souls of their victims through the
mouth; where hatred is more present than love; where “cheating is a
tradition” (volume four), where most adults are mean; where authentic
values are trampled underfoot; where mind manipulations are commonplace
and practiced by both sides; where the Dark Lord is so obsessed with
immortality that he divides his soul into seven parts that he places in
magical objects, and the hero of the stories must destroy these, effectively
destroying the soul of his enemy; where there is an unending procession of
monsters, biting objects, strangling and venomous plants, cursing and
deforming others, carnivorous animals (not a single herbivorous); ghosts,
demons and wandering souls that haunt the old castle; and all of this
saturated in the sensations of romance, and at times implied sexual activity;
and most of all where the meaning of good and evil are gravely distorted?

65. But the charming details are mixed with the not so charming at every
turn. Repulsive details abound: for example, one of the “good”
characters seeks to cast a spell on another student that backfires on
himself, making him vomit slimy slugs; students eat candy that
comes in a variety of odious flavors; urination is no longer an off-
limits subject; the ghost of a little girl lives in a toilet (“It’s awful trying
to have a pee with her wailing at you,” says Hermione); excremental
references are not uncommon (“Eat dung, Malfoy!” says Harry’s
friend Ron.); rudeness between students is routine behavior. As the
series progresses and the central characters move from childhood
to adolescence, there is an increase in the spice of sexuality
inferred in references such as “private parts” and students pairing
off and “going into the bushes.” While sexuality is not really an overt
part of the novels, romance surely is. Romance, when handled
respectfully, is certainly a worthy subject in young adult literature,
but when combined with magic and violence it makes a volatile
mixture.

66. In Potions class they make brews that can
be used to control others. In Herbology
they grow plants that are used in the
potions—the roots of the mandrake plant,
for example, are small human-like
“babies” who scream when they are
uprooted for transplanting, and are grown
for the purpose of being cut into pieces
and boiled in a magical potion.

67. Volume five, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, renews the themes of the
oppressiveness of authority systems and the primacy of individualistic battle against
evil. The drama in the story unfolds through two main developments in the plot. First,
Voldemort is becoming more active again after his defeat in volume four. Harry and
his mentor Dumbledore are aware of the danger, but many deny that Voldemort is
back, and even accuse Harry of imagining the threat. Dumbledore, however, re-
activates the Order of the Phoenix, a “secret society” (Hermione’s term for it) that
works to protect Voldemort’s intended victims, Harry being the foremost object of the
Dark Lord’s malice. The Order includes a few of the adults Harry more or less trusts,
including Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, and Ron Weasley’s parents, but also a few
unexpected members. Again, Rowling plays with impressions, surface judgments, our
presumptions about who is good and who is bad. The headquarters of the Order of
the Phoenix is a house owned by Harry’s “godfather,” Sirius Black—once the family
home of the Blacks. There, Harry notices that the chandelier and the candelabra are
“shaped like serpents.” This decor is a reference to the family’s long association with
Slytherin, Hogwarts’ darkest house, to which all Blacks belonged, with the exception
of Sirius, the “white sheep” of the family. Is this no more than “atmosphere” or is there
also a subliminal message? Serpents as a source of light?

68. In the final battle between Harry and the Dark Lord,
Voldemort possesses the Elder Wand, which supposedly
cannot be beaten in a duel. He uses the wand to strike
Harry with a killing curse. But the wand’s allegiance is
now with Harry, who, because he has died and returned
to life, has become a master over death. The curse
rebounds on Voldemort, killing him. The sun rises over
Hogwarts where mingled mourning and jubilation erupt.
The survivors press close to Harry, all of them
determined to touch the Boy Who Lived, “their leader
and symbol, their saviour and their guide.”

69. • Mona Mikaël has undertaken extensive research into the symbolism of witchcraft, sorcery, and other occult movements, as well as the
problem of manipulation of human consciousness in the modern era. In her voluminous study of the use of symbols in the Harry Potter
series, Harry Potter et L’Ordre des Ténèbres (Harry Potter and the Order of Darkness), she states that the underlying narrative, which is
nearly invisible to most readers, is a largely subliminal indoctrination in diabolic consciousness. She is not so much referring to the
obvious level, the witches and wizards and flying broomsticks, but focusing on the deeper levels of narrative, the unveiling of symbols,
and the spiritual meanings behind the symbols, which she believes conveys a parallel and highly esoteric message that “gravely disfigures
eternal values.” This disfigurement is not only the distortion of “values” in young minds, she emphasizes, but a more profound
disfigurement in the subconscious, and the soul. [1] It is impossible for me to recite her copious research into this subject, but a sample
may suffice. Regarding just one out of a plethora of examples, Mikaël writes:
• “The Deathday Party”
• On a Halloween night, Harry and his friends are invited to the Deathday party of Nearly-Headless Nick, the nearly decapitated ghost. At
one end of the room, ghostly guests play ball with their own skulls. At the other end is laid a table covered in black velvet.
• [from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets:]
• Large rotten fish were laid on handsome silver platters, cakes burned charcoal black, were heaped on salvers; there was a green
maggoty haggis, a slab of cheese covered in furry green mould and, in pride of place, an enormous grey cake in the shape of a
tombstone, with the tar-like icing forming the words, Sir Nicholas de Minsey-Porpington died 31st October, 1492.
• Harry watched, amazed, as a portly ghost approached the table, crouched low and walked through it, his mouth held wide so that it
passed through one of the stinking salmons.
• ‘Can you taste it if you walk through it?’ Harry asked him.
• ‘Almost,’ said the ghost sadly, and he drifted away.
• ‘I expect they’ve let it rot to give it a stronger flavour,’ said Hermione knowledgably, pinching her nose and leaning closer to look at the
putrid haggis.
• Knowing that ghosts do not eat, one may ask, what is the purpose of this disgusting table? And why is the table covered in velvet when a
worn-out rag would be more consistent with such a meal? The logic of symbols answers these questions by shedding light (partially at
least) on the veiled meaning of this “feast.” In the context of the spirit of Halloween, which is the pagan Celtic solemnity of Samhain and
the “Devil’s New Year’s Day” as some call it, this table is an altar, offering a sacrifice to the Prince of the day (Satan), and the sacrifice is
the decomposing flesh of fish, symbol of Christ in the early Church.
•
[1] Mikaël, Mona, Harry Potter et L’Ordre des Ténèbres, Editions Saint-Remi, France, 2007; abridged edition 2008; Editio Sanctus
Martinus, Combermere, Canada, 2009. The abridged edition republished 2009, and original unabridged republished by Editio Sanctus
Martinus, autumn 2009. These editions are currently available in French language only, with translation into English in progress.

70. Throughout the series, Harry’s violent temper erupts
through his mouth and sometimes with destructive
spells. There is also a constant stream of lying and
deception, hatred of others, brooding on revenge, and
actual vengeance (when provoked, of course), the
swearing of solemn oaths, rudeness to parents, and
other activities, simmered in the pervasive “cool” style of
contempt, smirking, sarcasm, crude language,
obnoxious banter, and sexual innuendo—and all of the
foregoing accomplished by the “good” characters, the
heroes and heroines of Potter-world. It is surely a
wonder that readers are so fond of Harry, when in real
life such a character would not be trusted by anyone.

71. • The author’s characterization and plot continually reinforce the message
that if a person is “nice”, if he means well, is brave and loyal to his friends,
he can pretty much do as he sees fit to combat horrific evil—magic powers
being the ideal weapon. This is consistent with the author’s ambivalent
notions of authority. In reality, magic is an attempt to bypass the limitations
of human nature and the authority of God, in order to obtain power over
material creation and the will of others through manipulation of the
supernatural.
• Magic is about taking control in areas of life where man has no right to take
control. It is a rejection of the divine order in creation. In numerous
passages of the Old and New Testaments, the warnings remain
unwavering, unnuanced. Deuteronomy 18: 9-12, for example:
• “When you come into the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall
not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not
be found among you . . . any one who practices divination, a soothsayer, or
an auger, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For
whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord.”

72. • Why has Rowling so captured our imaginations? Harry Potter books are a
direct window into a preternatural middle school society governed by control
and manipulation—which is why it is so appealing to us in our topsy-turvy
adolescent culture. To have a map where we can see people moving
around us, to point an effective wand at depression-inducing ghouls, to be
able to disappear under an invisibility cloak are all salves to our fearful
psyches. On the surface, these exercises are a harmless cathartic, but,
unfortunately, in today’s world, they are only blueprints for children to
become further detached from us. …
• Attachment disorder is much talked about these days, the latest in clinical
diagnoses, applied to such horrors as the mass murderers of Columbine.
These are youth who never attached emotionally to a parent, either through
multiple primary care givers, neglect or abuse. These children suffer a core
rage and an inability to develop normal moral scruples. They are children
who often seek out violence and the occult to gain control and to channel
their rage. Is there no truer representation of this than our orphan Harry
when he points his weapon of magic in rage at his aunt, or when he stands
in a dark ‘haunted’ house confused as to who exactly killed his parents and
if he should kill him too?

73. • One of the first critical books to appear in Europe was Harry Potter—Gut Oder Böse (Harry Potter
—Good or Evil), authored by a German sociologist, Gabriele Kuby. Analyzing a number of
negative elements in the first volumes of the series, she notes especially that it psychologically
manipulates the readers:
• The fundamental change of values is brought about by scorning ordinary human beings and
glorifying wizards and witches, which happens in the opening scene of each volume…. The
reader is coerced into strong emotional rejection of a person (the mean Dursleys who unjustly
torment Harry), then this person utters values which are to be made dysfunctional (witchcraft is
evil). Without noticing it, the reader feels that the rejection of witchcraft is evil, because those who
do reject it are evil. This manipulative way of changing values is used throughout the book.
• … The young readers are taken into a world where everything is possible through witchcraft. The
experience of powerlessness in the real world of everyday life is relieved through the fantastic
experience of magical power. The tight rules of human life are deactivated. Every situation can
change at any moment through curse and anti-curse, through magic and anti-magic in any
direction. Everything is allowed which serves one’s own interests, the limit is only the greater
power of the other person. The fact that sometimes Harry and his friends act from selfless
motives does not change the law of lawlessness which governs Hogwarts. [1]
•
[1] Gabriele Kuby, Harry Potter—Gut Oder Böse, Fe-Medienverlag, Kisslegg, Germany, 2003.

74. • With hundreds of millions of readers, it is playing a significant role in a massive shift of consciousness, a lowering
of spiritual guard. In Rowling’s wizard world, children are taught to manipulate undefined forces, and to submit
themselves to no higher law than the wizard authorities who will help them exercise their powers “wisely.”
However, the authorities themselves are divided, imparting to the impressionable reader the certainty that the
best person to decide what is or is not a “proper use of magic” is the young witch or magician himself, guided only
by the occasional intervention of a Professor Dumbledore or some similar guru figure. The Ministry of Magic
attempts to regulate the use of magic, but it is as bumbling and riddled with compromise as ordinary human
governments. The author repeatedly sets up the straw man of legalism and knocks it down with unsubtle blows.
The Dursleys are a parody of staid conservatism, “touchy about anything even slightly out of the ordinary.” Ron’s
brother Percy, the most unattractive member of his family, is a caricature of the fastidious clerk, “fussy about rule-
breaking.” Nasty Professor Snape mouths the platitudes of the hypocritical legalist. In Hogwarts, although it is
organized along a system of rules pretty much like an ordinary boarding school, Harry’s disobedience is frequently
overlooked and even rewarded by the school authorities. After all, he is a special boy, gifted, hated by evil
incarnate, and destined for greatness. Moreover, his daring and resourcefulness (combined with a sense of fair
play toward “good” fellow students) are always pitted against “bad” characters.
• But is Harry really all that good? He blackmails his uncle, blows up his aunt, uses trickery and deception, and
“breaks a hundred rules” (to quote the mildly censorious but ultimately approving Dumbledore). He frequently tells
lies to get himself out of trouble, and lets himself be provoked into revenge against his student enemies. To quote
Harry himself, he “hates” his enemies. The reader soon finds himself sympathetic to this because his tormentors
are vindictive and mocking. In a consistent display of authorial overkill Rowling depicts such “bad” characters as
ugly in appearance. She does a good deal of sneering at the Dursleys for being fat, and ridicules the oafish
bodies of the Hogwarts students who oppress Harry. In these details and a plethora of others throughout the
series, the child reader is encouraged in his baser instincts while lip service is paid to morality. Nowhere in the
series is there any reference to a system of moral absolutes against which actions can be measured. There are
“ethics” and “values” aplenty in the tales but in the end they are little more than an ethos, a materialist morality
subsumed in the glamour of materialist magic.

75. • The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis’s wittily insightful book on the strategies of devils,
is a collection of fictional letters from a senior devil tutoring a junior one on the best
ways to seduce human souls. In Letter VII, Screwtape writes:
• Our policy, for the moment, is to conceal ourselves. Of course this has not always
been so. We are really faced with a cruel dilemma. When the humans disbelieve in
our existence we lose all the pleasing results of direct terrorism and we make no
magicians. On the other hand, when they believe in us, we cannot make them
materialists and sceptics. At least, not yet. I have great hopes that we shall learn in
due time how to emotionalise and mythologise their science to such an extent that
what is, in effect, belief in us, (though not under that name) will creep in while the
human mind remains closed to belief in the Enemy [the devil’s name for God]. The
“Life Force”, the worship of sex, and some aspects of Psychoanalysis, may here
prove useful. If once we can produce our perfect work—the Materialist Magician, the
man, not using, but veritably worshipping, what he vaguely calls “Forces” while
denying the existence of “spirits”—then the end of the war will be in sight. [1]
•
[1] C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, Macmillan, New York, 1982.

76. • In his essay “On Fairy Stories,” J. R. R. Tolkien pointed out that because
man is made in the image and likeness of God he is endowed with faculties
that reflect his Creator. One of these is the gift of “sub-creation”—the human
creator may give form to other worlds populated by imaginary peoples and
beasts, where fabulous environments are the stage for astounding dramas.
The primal desire at the heart of such imagining, he says, is the “realization
of wonder.” If our eyes are opened to see existence as wonder-full, then we
become more capable of reverential awe before the Source of it all. “Fairy
stories may invent monsters that fly the air or dwell in the deep,” he wrote,
“but at least they do not try to escape from heaven or the sea.” However
fantastic the sub-created world may be, if it is a product of the “baptized
imagination” it will be faithful to the moral order of the universe. Tolkien
cautions, however, that because man is fallen the creative faculty is always
at risk of veering away from its true objective. We are all quite capable of
taking God-given gifts back in the direction of idolatry. [1]
•
[1] J. R. R. Tolkien, “On Fairy Stories,” in the anthology Tree and Leaf,
Unwin, London, l975.

77. • The pacification of the mind
• In his book Amusing Ourselves to Death, media theorist and New York University professor Neil
Postman describes how television has reshaped our society. In the past, when Western man
moved from an oral culture to the print-dominated or “typographic” culture, significant changes
resulted in our capacity to absorb experience and abstractions. The volume of information fed to
the mind increased while the mind’s ability to sort and evaluate the influx of data did not always
keep pace. With the advent of television another quantum leap occurred. Flooded with powerful
stimuli that bypassed the mind’s normal faculties for filtering and interpretation, both the rational
and the imaginative aspects of our minds became increasingly passive. As a result, Postman
warns, our ways of perceiving reality itself are becoming fundamentally distorted. We now imbibe
a massive amount of impressions in small bites that demand of us neither sustained attention nor
truly critical thinking, thus rendering us vulnerable to manipulation. We are dangerously close, he
says, to that condition described by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World—no longer conscious of
our bondage we are soothed by endless entertainments.
• For in the end he [Huxley] was trying to tell us that what afflicted the people in Brave New World
was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were
laughing about and why they had stopped thinking. [1]
•
[1] Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Viking Penguin, New York, 1985, p.163.

78. How does this warning apply to books that promote a pagan view of the
world? Surely, it is argued, their popularity heralds a return to a
more literate culture. Is not their success a positive sign,
demonstrating that the human imagination can never be fully
satisfied by electronic media? At first glance, it would seem so. But
a book is not necessarily always better than a video simply because
it is a book. While it is true that media-technology tends to
overwhelm the viewer, and books usually pay some respect to the
integrity of the reader (sparking the imagination but not displacing its
creative powers), much of contemporary fantasy for the young is
actually closer in style to television than to literature. It overwhelms
by using in print form the visceral stimuli and pace of the electronic
media, flooding the imagination with sensory rewards while leaving it
malnourished at the core. In a word, thrills have swept aside wonder
—the wonder that is the source of both love, philosophy, poetry and
all great literature; the wonder, moreover, which is the traditional
source of the “enchantment” that is to be found in reality itself.

79. • There is no more disturbing consequence of the electronic and
graphic revolution than this: that the world as given to us through
television seems natural, not bizarre. For the loss of the sense of
the strange is a sign of adjustment, and the extent to which we have
adjusted is a measure of the extent to which we have been
changed. Our culture’s adjustment to the epistemology of television
is by now all but complete; we have so thoroughly absorbed its
definitions of truth, knowledge and reality that irrelevance seems
filled with import, and incoherence seems eminently sane. And if
some of our institutions seem not to fit the template of the times,
why it is they, and not the template, that seem to us disordered and
strange. [1]
•
[1] Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, pp.79-80.

80. Evil seeks to attract us to evil behavior by first offering us
evil thoughts disguised as good. In opposition to these,
they set up great evils from which we naturally recoil,
and offer the lesser evils as the antidote. If the lesser evil
is presented with a little window-dressing of virtue or
morality (or the modern term “values”), we can turn to it
assuming we are making a choice for a good. This
dynamic can be observed in the way film classification
has gradually altered our judgments and consequent
viewing habits. We have come to assume that a film
classified as PG is better than a NC-17 (the old X rating),
forgetting that what is now called PG would have been
completely objectionable a generation ago. This is
Postman’s “adjustment.” This is reality-shift. This is, to
put it simply, loss of discernment.

81. • This is a deep and serious lie, the ancient Gnostic temptation to unite salvation and
the truth with secret knowledge. … Harry Potter is nevertheless rich in Christian
values, but they are detached from the real source that makes them be, the true order
of things.
• Rialti concludes that the Potter series is far from a continuation and development of
the heroes of traditional fantasy, myth and fairy tales. It is a radical departure:
• Harry Potter proposes a wrong and morally harmful image of a hero, an areligious
image that is even worse than an anti-religious proposal: the devil in Holy Scripture
does not ever say, “There is no God,” but offers the much more subtle seduction of
“You shall be like God.” …
• It is no coincidence that Rowling’s books do not teach true transcendence, but vague
new-age spirituality. This is true escapism; of escape from reality, since they lead you
to think that we would be happy “if”: if we had certain powers, if we had some
technique unknown to others, instead of finding out that we are loved and respected
for what we are by someone who is better, wiser and greater than we are, and who
guides our lives and our journey.
• Here we have the “morbid illusion” that Tolkien warned us against: the illusion of a
power that appeals to the desire for hidden and magic formulas that Lewis sharply
defined as “spiritual lust.”

82. If magic is presented as a good, or as morally
neutral, is there not an increased likelihood that
when a young person encounters opportunities
to explore the world of real magic he will be less
able to resist its attractions? Of course, children
are not so naïve as to think they can have
Harry’s powers and adventures; they know full
well the story is make-believe. But on the
subconscious level they have absorbed it as
experience, and this experience tells them that
the mysterious forbidden is highly rewarding.

83. Wendell Berry, who is among the very best of America’s
living fiction writers and one of the West’s most
sagacious essayists, has argued forcefully for honest
evaluation of the present state of our culture. In his
essay, “Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community,” he
says that the loss of the sense of human community is
connected to loss of the moral sense. “A public is
shockable or offendable only to the extent that it is
already uncomplacent and uncorrupt—to the extent, in
other words, that it is a community or remembers being
one. What happens after the audience becomes used to
being shocked and is therefore no longer shockable—as
is apparently the case with the television audience?

84. • To argue that works of art are “only” fictions or self-expressions and therefore cannot
cause bad behaviour is to argue also that they cannot cause good behaviour. It is,
moreover, to make an absolute division between art and life, experience and life,
mind and body—division that is intolerable to anyone who is at all serious about being
a human or a member of a community or even a citizen. … Of course art moves us!
To assume otherwise not only contradicts the common assumption of teachers and
writers from the earliest times almost until now; it contradicts everybody’s experience.
A cathedral, to mention only one of the most obvious examples, is a work of art made
to cause a movement toward God, and this is in part a physical movement required
by the building’s structure and symbolism. But all works of any power move us, in
both body and mind, from the most exalted music or poetry to the simplest dance
tune. In fact, a dance tune is as good an example as a cathedral. An influence is cast
over us, and we are moved. If we see that the influence is bad, we may be moved to
reject it, but that is a second movement; it occurs only after we have felt the power of
the influence.” [1]
•
[1] Wendell Berry, Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community, Pantheon, Random
House, 1993.

85. • Spiritual pornography
• Sexual pornography is easy enough to discern, due to its immediate
power to move the eye, the emotions, the flesh; also its addictive
nature and, as numerous studies have demonstrated, its power to
prompt depraved and criminal activities. Berry’s insight begs
another question: Is it not a healthy thing to extend a certain caution
toward what might be called spiritual pornography? [1] If by
pornography we mean the graphic portrayal of evil activities that
excite intense attraction to those activities, then sexuality is but one
of many kinds. Indeed, sexual impulses are of the lower appetites of
man’s nature. It is the higher appetites, those of the mind and,
above all, spiritual pride that are the worst forms, for unbeknownst to
those who are seduced on those levels it is closest to the diabolic.
•
[1] The word derives from the Greek pornographos, literally, writing
about prostitutes. In a broader sense, it can be applied to writing
that glamorizes any form of evil.

86. The Times report also neglected to mention
that the movie version had cleaned up
Harry’s image, making the film less
controversial than the books. This is
significant for more than one reason:
Some well-known Christian commentators
(including prominent pastors) have
recommended the books after seeing one
or more of the Potter films, without reading
the books themselves.