Susan Westling

Seventeen members of the Fredonia Shakespeare Club enjoyed an informative and funny presentation by Susan Westling on Religious Commentary on Some Children’s Literature at the Club’s 17th meeting of the year at the home of Joyce Haines.

Susan Westling presented her paper on Criticisms of Children’s Literature from the Religious Community. She noted that there is a long history of religious themes in children’s literature, starting in the medieval era to often provide moral instruction to children, but in more recent times, some authors use children’s literature to disguise their comments on organized religion. This includes three British authors, J. K. Rowling, Phillip Pullman, and Neil Gaiman.

Westling noted that British authors may be critical not of religion, but of the state religion as exists in England. The Church of England is a Catholic church created when King Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church after Pope Clement VII refused to grant him an annulment from Catherine of Aragon so he could marry Anne Boleyn in the mid-1530s. The King is the head of the Church of England, and the British Parliament has enacted many laws to establish and protect this religion.

J. K. Rowling started writing her first Harry Potter book in 1990, while working for Amnesty International. She finally was published in 1997. Religious debates over the Harry Potter series are primarily based on claims that the novels contain occult or Satanic subtexts. And praise witchcraft while denigrating those without witch powers.

Claims also have been made that Harry Potter encourages children to oppose authority contrary to the Ten Commandments, particularly when Harry rejects his non-witch aunt and uncle, the Dursleys, who are portrayed as ignorant, demanding and intolerant.

Paul Hendricks of the Evangelical Christian Group Focus on the Family specified that “witchcraft is denounced by Scripture.” Chick Publications, designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, published a comic book that objects to the Potter series for “encouraging children to learn skills such as clairvoyance, astrology and numerology,” indicating that these are “an abomination unto the Lord,” citing Deuteronomy 18:10-12.

In response, the satirical newspaper The Onion published the article “Harry Potter Sparks Rise in Satanism Among Children,” and Canada’s National Post printed a spoof referring to Rowling as Mrs. J.K. Satan, spinning a narrative that she decided to give herself to the Dark Master in return for wealth and power, which selling over 600 million copies of the Harry Potter books has provided. Rowling is said to be worth $1 billion.

Phillip Pullman authored the trilogy His Dark Materials, which some believe was influenced by Milton’s Paradise Lost. The books center on a theocratic government that suppresses scientific discoveries and conducts experiments on children to eliminate free will. Pullman has said that he intended an underlying message on the corruption when Church and State are combined, saying “Whenever you get a political structure with ranks and hierarchies, you get . . . people who are more interested in progressing through those ranks than in doing good.”

Critics of Pullman state that his books contain anti-religious sentiments. Sophia Sproule, editor of the Catholic magazine This Rock called His Dark Materials “a vitriolic denunciation of religious faith . . . damaging the spiritual well-being of young readers.”

Pullman has also been compared to Satan, responding with “Wait until you’ve read all three books, and, if you find that you’ve inadvertently become a Satanist, you can write to the publisher and get your money back.”

Neil Gaiman has written several novels for children, including Coraline and theGraveyard Book. Coraline involves the story of a young girl whose parents are so focused on work that she feels neglected. In their new house, she finds a door in the attic that leads to an alternate work with doting button-eyed parents who want her to never leave.

ChristianAnswers.net noted that Christian parents should be concerned over Gaiman’s conception of an alternate world where the functioning domesticity of a mother who cooks and a father who works is a kind of hell. Conversely, religious writer Josh Larson wrote that Coraline was more like an updated tale of the temptations by the devil in the Garden of Eden, and could increase children’s understanding of the temptation of Adam and Eve.

The Graveyard Books is a story about an infant raised by ghosts in a graveyard after his parents were killed. Some criticized the book for its depiction of an afterlife on earth, rather than a clear separation between the physical world and the spiritual world.

Despite objections, these authors have produced best-selling novels and been given over 125 awards for their works, including Hugo Awards, Nebula Awards, Newberry Awards, and even a Tony. And what are their motivations for conjuring different worlds?

This quote from Beil Gaiman may explain that: “We who make stories know that we tell lies for a living. But they are good lies that say true things, and we owe our readers to build them the best we can. Because somewhere out there is someone who needs that story. Someone who will grow up with a different landscape, which without that story will be a different person. And who with that story may have hope, or wisdom, or comfort. And that is why we write.”

After the presentation, Shakespeare Club members enjoyed delectable treats.