Google News 09/08: Catholic school bans Harry Potter books

A bespectacled teen in a long black robe wipes away the sweat from his brow as he points his wand across the room. Beside him are his friends and allies, noticeably roughed up but standing triumphantly. With an intense look, he focuses all his remaining energy and yells “expelliarmus!”, disarming his enemy. The day has been won, and the threat of evil has been defeated by the forces of love and friendship.

This is my rather cheesy rendition of a common scene from the Harry Potter franchise, the multi-billion dollar brain child of British author J.K. Rowling. The magical world of Hogwarts has enchanted worldwide readers for the past two decades now, with seven books, eight movies, and multiple spin-off titles now part of the canon.

But if you consider this scene an affront to basic moral decency, you might just be a Catholic school teacher. Today’s Google News story reports on a Tennessee Christian school that banned Harry Potter books from their library on the basis that they constitute a harmful deviation from religious virtues. These charges and their ramifications will be explored in this article.

The accusation

There appear to be two separate charges made by Reverend Dan Reehil, a pastor at Saint Edwards Catholic School parish in Nashville, Tennessee. The…