I saw something I consider falls into the category of “great news” yesterday: in 2016 the new Harry Potter prequel is coming out. I love the Harry Potter books and movies and I’ve been looking forward to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them for a while. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by the fictional Newt Scamander is, you may remember a text book at the equally fictional Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The book (actually by JK Rowling of course) was published for real back in 2001 along with Quidditch Through the Ages ostensibly by Kennilworthy Whisp, supposedly a Hogwarts School library book. All the royalties from the two book were donated to Comic Relief. Now the title of that book is being used for for the new movie.
Here’s the just-released trailer:
It’s only 1:56 long, but it’s prompted a 15:38 response from someone who calls himself “The Vigilant Christian.” You won’t believe what he’s managed to “deduce” from this trailer. The Vigilant Christian tells us, “This is a movie that no Christian should be watching,” and, “… you just need to look at the title to know this.” Apparently, “This is part of the agenda to bring about the anti-Christ kingdom.”
Anyway, you can check out his bizarre analysis for yourself:
https://youtu.be/b5L42wqYNJU
I had to break up my viewing into a couple of parts – I couldn’t cope with it all in one go! The mind of a conspiracy theorist is a very strange thing.
He starts off with the title. “Obviously ‘Beasts’,” he says, “is something that references the Bible.” Calling beasts, which he informs us are really devils/fallen angels and are “real entities”, fantastic is just too much for the poor man to bear. And it gets worse! The first “s” in “Beasts” is in the shape of a snake, or dragon, a symbol for Satan from the Bible. “It’s not [a] coincidence that we see the devil hiding in plain sight in ‘Fantastic Beasts’,” he warns.
He goes on, “They want to teach us about the fantastic demons that come from Satan and where to find them in a movie that is pure satanic witchcraft?” The poor bloke is horrified. He spends some time on a few verses from Deuteronomy (where else!) that have the words “wizard” and “abomination” near one another to make his point about how evil wizards are.
He then moves onto the symbolism he sees in the trailer’s images, drawing his bow longer and longer. The sight of a pentagram he seems to find particularly shocking, and dismisses the idea that the one in the trailer is the original meaning of the symbol. (It was initially a sign of good.) “They believe that by standing in this [pentagram] they can receive power from the entities that reside on the other side – the ‘Fantastic Beasts’!”
Even one of the characters opening a suitcase is significant – it’s a symbol of “them” looking for demons so they can break through into “the third dimensional reality.” We warned to keep the picture of the character sitting on a bed in mind as “… this is literally a sign of spiritual darkness breaking through.” And The Vigilant Christian knows – he was into contacting these evil entities “just like JK Rowling … before he knew the Lord Jesus Christ.” Well, that settles it! Now I’m convinced! :-/
According to The Vigilant Christian, this is all about depraved man “in opposition to the Lord” and in league with Satan trying to bring about an evil kingdom. We’ve already got children into this via the Harry Potter books, and now we’re doing it again.
And he’s especially concerned about the children: “This is what they’re showing our kids – how to practice occultism and Satanism in the form of a movie.” He goes on, “Some Christians will knowingly and ignorantly go and be entertained by it.” Seriously? “… knowingly and ignorantly ….”
He predicts that because of this movie brainwashing children with “occultism and this type of propaganda” we’re going to see “a surge, an uprising of demons that are now going to be summoned to our realm.” This, he believes, “… is going to create the atmosphere necessary for the End Times.”
He finishes with:
Brothers and sisters in Christ, join me in prayer in these End Times against this spirit of anti-Christ that is now manifesting in the world today. We speak not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers. It is not JK Rowling that is the enemy; it is spiritual entities. She is the seed. Satan deceives all of his minions. He is the father of lies, and is completely incapable of telling the truth to those who decide to follow him.
Those who have decided to follow them are being deceived by the father of lies, the greatest deceiver and liar that has ever existed. That serpent, the Devil, who leads the whole world astray with his well-crafted, subtle deceptions. So we need to have a heart of compassion and seek to pray for those that are in this deception, as I once was deceived by the fantastic beasts who reside on the other realm. But the Bible says not to contact, not to summon, not to dabble in occultist stuff and somehow in our End Times generation this is going to be one of the biggest movies I bet.
Thanks for taking the time. This is The Vigilant Christian saying God Bless each and every one of you. And when we can so clearly see the spirit of anti-Christ manifesting in the world, turning things that are an abomination to the Lord into entertainment for the masses, to de-sensitize them to the occult, and also to create a desire to dabble in these things, we need to stay one hundred percent vigilant and fear no evil.
I kept thinking he was finished, but he had to make sure we know Satan is a liar. At least he’s not calling for JK Rowling to be killed as other extremist religions do in the same situations. After the above, you still have to get through a few Bible verses to get through accompanied by music before the video is finished.
This would all be a joke, except these people have control over the minds of children.
The Landover Baptist Church website has a section called:
Focus on Family – Christian Parenting: A place where parents can get good Godly advice on how to raise a family: how to properly administer corporal punishment, which movies to avoid, and more!
On there is a post called 12 Reasons Harry Potter Should be Banned. New Zealanders will be interested to know that our own (self-proclaimed) Bishop Brian Tamaki is a forum member on the website. At the end of the post, which mainly focuses on the supposed occultist and Satinist elements of Harry Potter, a commenter called Pastor Ezekiel (who describes himself as “putting the ‘stud’ back into Bible study”) adds:
I’ll add one more to your list, Brother Jeb. In addition to their promotion of witchcraft, the Harry Potter books also promote HOMERSEXURALITY! It’s true! The old hag who wrote the books even admitted it HERE!
Now I ask you; if the headmaster of their witch school is an old queer, why shouldn’t everyone else be a queer too?
Won’t someone please think of the children!?
To which “JennyD, Honorary True Christian™, Sweet Placid Sister” replies:
I bet Dumbledore thought of the children!
Eww, I think I just grossed myself out.
Enough said really. As so often with religious extremists, they’re obsessed with the sex lives of others and seem to be abnormally psychologically developed in regards to sexuality.
They then re-post an article called Harry Potter Books Spark Rise In Satanism Among Children! This article, which they appear to be taking seriously, comes from The Onion!
The website also announces:
Proud supporter of Anyone But Obama For President/Exorcist-in-chief 2016!
I’d think this was all a joke, except I know that Focus on the Family is a real organization, with a branch in New Zealand.
This organisation has tried, sometimes successfully, to get the Harry Potter books banned from libraries, especially in Britain and the United States. Personally, I think telling children a book or movie is harmful is more likely to make them want to read/see it and more likely to make them see harm in it that isn’t there.
I obviously don’t agree with what these people believe about the Harry Potter franchise. In fact, not only do I think they’re wrong, I think this part of their beliefs is really stupid. However, they are, of course, entitled to them and (unfortunately) to pass them on to their children.
But I think a far better approach would be to let their children read the books and see the movies if they want to, and explain why they’re in contradiction with their beliefs. They should do that calmly and openly and especially without scaring them with tales of demons and evil entities.
If you enjoyed reading this, please consider donating a dollar or two to help keep the website going. Thank you.
Uh, at the risk of getting sucked into a black hole of irony — but you do recognize it’s all a very wan and sophomoric attempt at satire, right?
I got punked! 😀
As I read through the Landover site, I thought “This can’t be real, it must be a parody,” but then I saw one of NZ’s main extremist preachers chiming in in support, so I thought it must be real.
The Vigilant Christian is genuine though. He really believes the stuff he’s saying.
At least in the US, Landover Baptist is a well-known parody site: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landover_Baptist_Church
Of course these days the fundies are so wacky they’re essentially impossible to parody. 🙂
Lol! Yeah, I got done. I actually thought it was a parody until I saw NZ’s resident nutter Bishop Tamaki there – that convinced me it was real.
Oh well, good on them, I can handle being laughed at, and have a good laugh at myself. 😀
It says a lot when it’s so hard to tell the difference between the mockers and some of the real ones.
“Proud supporter of anybody but Obama for President/Exorcist-in-chief 2016.”
Well, I don’t think these ‘proud supporters’ have anything to worry about since Obama won’t even be on the ballot. And isn’t calling him the exorcist-in-chief a great compliment…after all, it implies he is the chief of freeing possessed people from demons and beasts.
I lol’d at the American flag draped Jesus. That has to be one of the most ridiculous depictions I’ve ever seen. The sacrificial lamb adorned in the stars and stripes. Sooooo dumb! If anyone has been sacrificed in America, it would be the Native Americans and the African slaves…all done in the name of Jesus of course.
I worked at a place where a fundy and his wife adopted two children from Nicaragua. He made them learn bible verses daily, wouldn’t allow them to see movies like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, and wouldn’t allow them to participate in Halloween. I felt bad for the kids, though figured it was better than them being orphans in one of the poorest countries in the world. It was telling because when the man described his kids’ sanctions, he almost seemed to be gloating. Many christians worked there, and he was obviously implying that he was ‘holier than thou’. He would have loved the Vigilant Idiot…er, I mean Christian.
Oh, dear. Looks like you got punked, Heather! But this reminded me of a fav Sam Harris quote:
“The God that our neighbors believe in is essentially an invisible person. He’s a creator deity, who created the universe to have a relationship with one species of primates – lucky us. And he’s got galaxy upon galaxy to attend to, but he’s especially concerned with what we do, and he’s especially concerned with what we do while naked. He almost certainly disapproves of homosexuality. And he’s created this cosmos as a vast laboratory in which to test our powers of credulity, and the test is this: can you believe in this God on bad evidence, which is to say, on faith? And if you can, you will win an eternity of happiness after you die.”
Yeah! 😀
I thought it all looked like a satire site, except they were linking to things that Family First etc have actually done, and Bishop Tamaki was there supporting them. So he got sucked in too, which is an even better story!
“The Vigilant Christian” is a genuine nutter though, and the stuff on the Landover site is exactly what many genuine churches are actually saying.
It’s a bit scary when it’s so hard to tell the difference, but I got done good! 😀
No worries, it happens to the best of us! The scary thing is that probably very few of those actually being parodied recognize that themselves!
Cheers Diane. It’s one of those occasions where I wish I was the type of person who could just delete that part of the post, and all the comments pointing out how I screwed up! 🙂
It’s also a time to be pleased my readership isn’t bigger! 🙂
This is just an example of what a good sport you are, and how non-devious (regarding post-facto editing), unlike, ahem, some other bloggers. I recall Jerry posting at least once about something that turned out to be a farce, so you’re in good company. (And he, like you, comes right out and acknowledges his mistakes.)
Landover Baptist’s probably much better known in the US, anyway. I think it probably Poes everyone at first encounter.
It’s been my impression that your readership’s been growing, as well it should!
Thanks Diane. That means a lot to me. 🙂
The Vigilant Christian sounds a bit zany but then they all do. It is like a Turing Test for computers.
Can you tell if someone is pulling your leg? Nope – as with any irrational bit of baffle gab, without any objective evidence there is no way to check it. the whole thing exists as a figment.
The best I can do is salm the door on ther foot. Or head.
As with creationist Poes, the indistinguishability of satire from reality speaks to their gormlessness, not yours.
Honestly, this business with Harry Potter being evil is disgusting. The fact that the’ Vigilant Christian’ thinks the pentagram is evil is false propoganda. And wizards, witches, and fantastic beasts are just fine. You’ve got to remember, or figure out, that magick is neutral. Not good nor bad. Witches are real and good.
Hi Heather,
I just read your article on the film… I can understand your response to ‘moral panic’ on the Harry Potter series but you may be interested in ge fact that many people have noted the parallels between the message of HP and Rosicrucian thought (even those who are all for that philosophy. You sound like an adult with well formed views so I’ll just leave you the link and let you make your mind up if you agree with the observations and like the message of the books…
http://www.harrypotterforseekers.com/alchemy/alchemy.php
Hi. I’m aware that there is a huge amount of symbolism in the Harry Potter series – recognizing them is one of the things I really enjoy about the books.
I knew Nicholas Flamel was a real person and alchemist before I read the books, that he tried to make a philosopher’s stone, and that there are reports that he succeeded. Personally, I don’t believe there is any such thing as a philosopher’s stone.
There are other things about the books that show it’s all made up, such as stone columns into Hogwarts being topped with winged boars i.e. flying pigs. There’s another such allusion I noticed recently (I’ve juts re-read the books) but I can’t bring it to mind at the moment.
Anyway, as I said above, I think recognizing all the allusions are part of the fun. Kids enjoy them without knowing Latin (which is the language of most of the spells) or Greek myths, or about alchemy etc, and adults enjoy recognizing the patterns. Albus (white) Dumbledore and Rubeus (red) Hagrid are heroes. Malfoy (mal foi – bad faith) is a baddie. Vol de mort = wings of death. You could write books about it all.
I don’t take any of it seriously, and I don’t think anyone else should either. Just enjoy the stories, or not, as the case may be.
I am reminded that men are capable of deforming any thought to it is deranged agenda.
But it is finally driven home that to really be perverse and truly destroy something it takes a “god-fearing chirstian” with a tiny bit of knowledge.
Please for the sake of your own spirit and the sake of your children, get a hobby. Make wallets. But in the name of all that might be holy, stop pretending to think. Your scaring the dog.
I am not a fan of the vigilant Christian and have not see the review. Having said that it a so clearly a satanic movie indoctrinating and corrupting young children . Any mentally challenged ignormaous can deduce that. Keep ur retarded opinions to yourself. You yourself (author of this shit article) are doing Satan’s work. Have fun burning in hell
Hi Benny. I am worried that you may have been lied to by the leaders of your church and I advise you to look closely at them. Any person who can make a comment like: “Have fun burning in hell” to a fellow human being is surely more likely to be the one doing Satan’s work. Personally, I wish only good things for humanity.
As an example, my ability to maintain this website makes it clear that I am neither mentally challenged nor an ignoramus. Your church has led to make such clearly incorrect deductions because of the way they appear to have indoctrinated you. I see further evidence of indoctrination in the assumption that any opinion that is different from your own is retarded. Only those who are scared that their own perspective will be shown up as being wrong insist on such blind adherence to their point of view and refuse to listen to others.
If the beliefs you have been taught are strong and true, exposure to different beliefs will only show that. None of us should be scared to read or listen to the opinions of others. The more we know, the better able we are to make good judgments and decisions.
Ya gotta love delusionals. My hat is off to you for having the patience to respond civilly to such a moron.
And I love Landover Baptist. I have a “Jesus is watching you touch yourself” T-shirt. And Betty Bowers – world’s best christian is great.
I love Betty Bower too – she’s hilarious!