[Lush]

Theron, perhaps you mis-read my post? I was talking about the fact that a number of Tolkien's characters mis-used their Eru-given powers. Mushroom's original statement was taking the opposite viewpoint.

Where do you think these kids might turn when they find out Hogwarts doesn't exist? Where will they go to satisfy their desire to perform magic like Harry and co.? HP has a dangerous potential to draw kids into real-life occultic practices. Christians are against that.

Yes, and Lady Chatterley's Lover was going to lead young girls everywhere straight to hell, with a quick layover in a brothel on the way.

I think the problem with your assessment of the potential dangers of Harry Potter lies within both the supposed nature of children as "innocents" that soak up different ideologies like sponges, rather than young human beings (and, as a Christian, I believe that no human being is innocent) that absorb information through the prism of their own intelligence. The latter view does not neccessarily imply that art introduced at an inappropriate time cannot harm the child (I couldn't imagine, for example, taking my 8-year old brother to a screening of Bertolucci's "The Dreamers" and then expect him not to be scarred for life), but that age-appropriate materials often have curious ways of being incorporated into a child's view of the world.

Furthermore, there is the nature of art to deal with. Eminem famously asked: "They say music can alter moods and talk to you/ Well can it load a gun up for you and c0ck it too?" His answer, while not clearing up any potential ambiguity, points out the obtuse nature of the argument, "Well if it can, next time you assault a dude/Just tell the judge it was my fault, and I'll get sued."

but one is inclined to think they will grow up as normal as the next man, yet with richer imagination and more to remember than the said next man who haven’t got read HP stories (or other stories thought by adults as “endangering”).

And then there's Heren's excellent point to consider. In his critiqe of Harry Potter, Harold Bloom gruffly wrote that "art should enrich us." His argument was that HP did just the oppsosite of that. Leaving Bloom to soak in his own intellectual superiority (for now), I would argue that HP nicely accomplishes just that.