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Religious Objection

Religious Objection

Postby mbruno » January 20th, 2005, 7:42 pm

I am a public school teacher planning to teach with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I thought my biggest problem would be to avoid objections that the book is too Christian. However, the only objection I have yet received is from a family who are Jehovah's Witnesses. They object to the book because of the "Harry Potter stigma."

Does anyone have advice about how to handle this situation? I would like to direct the parents to several of the articles on this site, but need to do so delicately so as not to seem to be promoting (horror!) religion. I was hoping to hear from other teachers who have handled this situation before me.
mbruno
 

Re: Religious Objection

Postby ponyfeathers » January 25th, 2005, 5:41 pm

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Re: Religious Objection

Postby senotsidnar » January 30th, 2005, 10:54 pm

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Re: Religious Objection

Postby Guest » January 31st, 2005, 1:39 am

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Re: Religious Objection

Postby Paul F. Ford » February 2nd, 2005, 3:05 am

I asked my neighbor, a very knowledgable Jehovah's Witness, about your question and here is his reply:

As for C S Lewis and Narnia, I’ve never come across anything in our publications. The Watchtower has quoted C S Lewis, which I’ve included below for your interest, although I’m sure you are well aware of these words. We avoid spiritistic, demonic material. The individual is encouraged to use his/her own conscience on the matter.


‘As a literary historian I am perfectly convinced that whatever the Gospels are, they are not legends. They are not artistic enough to be legends. Most of the life of Jesus is unknown to us, and no people building up a legend would allow that to be so.’—C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock.

Could the Gospels be legends?
Author and critic C. S. Lewis found it difficult to view the Gospels as mere legends. “As a literary historian I am perfectly convinced that whatever the Gospels are, they are not legends,” he wrote. “They are not artistic enough to be legends. . . . Most of the life of Jesus is unknown to us, and no people building up a legend would allow that to be so.” It is also interesting that although noted historian H. G. Wells did not claim to be a Christian, he acknowledged: “All four [Gospel writers] agree in giving us a picture of a very definite personality; they carry the . . . conviction of reality.”

Atheism and Human Thought
“There are all sorts of different reasons for believing in God,” writes C. S. Lewis in The Case for Christianity, “and here I’ll mention only one. It is this. Supposing there were no intelligence behind the universe, no creative mind. In that case nobody designed my brain for the purpose of thinking. It is merely that when the atoms inside my skull happen for physical or chemical reasons to arrange themselves in a certain way, this gives me, as a by-product, the sensation I call thought. But if so, how can I trust my own thinking to be true? It’s like upsetting a milk jug and hoping that the way the splash arranges itself will give you a map of London. But if I can’t trust the arguments leading to atheism, [I] have no reason to be an atheist. . . . Unless I believe in God, I can’t believe in thought; so I can never use thought to disbelieve in God.”
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