How and Why I Read “Banned” Books

I have often heard, “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.” Good advice. In order to understand the things that might (or designed to) take me away from God, I want to understand what’s out there – both good and bad. That means that sometimes, I need to read books that many Christians have deemed “demon material”. Many people don’t understand my reason for doing this, in fact, in just the last three years I’ve been scolded by a fellow homeschooling mom because of Harry Potter and told by another that I should burn them.

Are we really there? Burning books? Won’t that just add fuel to Satan’s plan? If we don’t read the books that might be risky, how can we teach our children to identify evil in real life?

I don’t believe that Harry Potter is evil. I don’t believe that J.K. Rowling wrote this series with any intent to expose the world to a level of magic that would cause people to turn away from the Christian faith and embrace witchcraft. I believe her intent was to share a great story with some serious Christian themes. If you’ve read the series, you know what I’m talking about: good vs. evil, resurrection, prodigal son, good Samaritan, evil snakes, dark spirits, and possession. All these elements are found in the bible too.

It all comes down to the intent in which the books are read. If children are allowed to read this series, or Philip Pullman’s Dark Materials trilogy, then a parent should read it along with them and discuss the implications. (Unlike the Harry Potter series, Philip Pullman wrote his books to pull teens away from Christianity.) These characters and their plots have become engrained in our society. As such, I want my children aware of the books, the characters and how they fit (or don’t fit) within the Catholic teachings.

I was teaching Junior High when Philip Pullman’s books were released. One of my students gave me the first book. I loved it. From a writer’s point of view, it was candy. My students read it too, and many of their parents joined us in the discussions after school. It wasn’t until after I read the third book that I realized the problem. In the book, God dies. Ridiculous, I know, but so is Philip Pullman. Shortly after the last book was released, I read an article in which the author declared himself an atheist and confirmed the rumors that the books were written to destroy young adults belief in God.

Yikes!

After a discussion with my students and their parents, the students came to their own conclusion: while the story is fantastic, there was a serious flaw in Pullman’s plot…if God truly is the creator of all, then to destroy Him is to destroy all living things.

Look at that! While given a book with evil intent, students who were encouraged to think for themselves didn’t turn away from God. They defeated the intent of the book and strengthened their own faith.

I do allow my children to read Harry Potter – but they do it with me. We discuss why magic is evil and why the author would use it as a focal point for the series. We discuss the strengths and the weaknesses of the characters. We go back to the bible and to the Catechism to see what the Church has to say about evil, magic, and leadership. We made charts that show comparisons between bible stories and the books.

The benefit? My children will know what the books reveal and know what the church has to say about it. They won’t fall victim to another person’s faulty interpretation because they will already have formed their own conclusions based on the Church’s teachings.

The enemy might lurk among banned books, but in reading them with the Church’s eye, we can acknowledge the good, reveal the bad, and protect ourselves from the intent of the Evil One.

Renewal in Christ – An Inventory of My Life

It’s not easy to maintain that ‘post-retreat’ high. Any time spent away from home, in the company of fellow Catholics, and devoted to prayer and renewal leaves a soul craving more and wanting to find ways to include that level of prayer on a daily basis. After my first retreat, I wondered how I had survived my life thus far. I realized the degree to which I had avoided God and run from His love. My greatest desire since my first retreat has been to know God better, to have an intimate relationship with Him.

And then I came home. There were children and dishes and places to go. The grocery shopping and meal planning devoured my time. I had sentenced myself to the life of a volunteer, hoping that in giving to others I would please God. As a homeschooling parent, I’m responsible for the education of my children in both an academic sense and in their spiritual growth as well. I’m a writer and need that solitary time to craft stories and write for this blog. I’m diabetic and must eat right and exercise to maintain healthy blood-sugar levels. All these things were necessary and good, but I knew I needed to streamline my life. If I truly wanted a closer relationship with God, I needed to spend more time with him.

After venting my frustrations to my husband, he helped me realize that I have bitten off way more than I can chew. It was time to simplify.

Together, we made a “Life Inventory”. It was a list of everything I was involved in and everything I need to do as a mother. And as every mother knows, there is no end to your task list. Motherhood begins the moment the blue line appears on the test and continues on non-stop until God calls you home.

My list was long:
 Faith Growth
 Homeschooling – planning and implementing lessons
 Volunteering with Junior League
 Bible Studies (3 of them)
 Activities at church
 Exercise (30-45 minutes a day)
 Writing (ideally an hour a day, but more is better )
 Time with the family
 Meal planning, shopping, meal preparation
 Household duties
 Communication – phone calls, online time

All of these things felt necessary to me, but at the rate I was going one of two things would happen: 1) I would have to hire a secretary (which is obviously ridiculous) or 2) I would prayerfully ask God’s invention to cut things that were keeping me from him.

In the end (by that I mean more than two years later), I’m still working to keep my life simple. There are several bible studies I can do each season, so I try to pick just one at a time. Sometimes that means that my friends go on without me, and that’s emotionally difficult for me. I resigned from the Junior League – another link to friends lost, I thought, but my good friends understood why I had to do this and have continued to keep in contact with me. I divided the household chores among my older children and they have blossomed! They now understand how long it takes to do the dishes or vacuum the house and are more aware of how the little things they do can contribute to help.

Something that wasn’t on my list that I quickly realized was sucking up a great deal of time was T.V. I’ll write more on this in another post, but when I decided that I would no longer watch any T.V. programming, my schedule opened right up and I found an additional hour a day to write. Bonus!

No matter what I did with my schedule, however, I was not able to grow in my faith unless I started the day in prayer. Nothing else mattered. While I’m forever grateful for my simplified schedule and truly believe that doing less allows me to do more, a morning without prayer is a day without purpose.

Prayer is my mini-retreat, that jazzy, caffeine-like habit that pumps me up to charge through my day with my heart filled with God's love.