In any event, Laura Mallory, a fundie who says she has never even read a Harry Potter book, has been granted leave to present her case at the Georgia State Board of Education hearings. The hearings were originally to have been closed, but the Associated Press successfully filed a protest with the state attorney-general to have the meetings open to the public.
The state Board of Education will decide Wednesday whether to keep Harry Potter books on library shelves in one suburban Atlanta school district, and the matter will be discussed in public rather than behind closed doors as previously planned.Religion? There's religion in Harry Potter? It's fiction and fantasy.
The board will consider an appeal by parent Laura Mallory who is upset that the Gwinnett County school board voted to keep the best-selling books in its schools, despite her claims that the books indoctrinate children in pagan religion.
This isn't the first time the fundies have attacked J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books and Georgia has a history of book banning. Oddly enough, however, the Georgia BOE had previously approved Harry Potter books as a part of the curriculum for Georgia public schools. And, it is, after all, the stuff of fantasy. Prior bans have been centred around the fact that there was too much truth in certain books.
Oh yeah. Just so you can see what the fundies are really up to, have a look at Gwinnett County Public School program for gifted and talented education. Scroll down to the Elementary School delivery of Language Arts/Social Studies and you'll find the following is already a part of the curriculum:
Fairy Tales/Nursery RhymesIf Harry Potter doesn't survive this latest Christian freak's ridiculous appeal then that entire part of the program will also be gutted.
Who knows... we may be in for a good old fashioned Cisneros-style book burning.
Every book burned enlightens the world. - Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Where they burn books, they will end in burning human beings. - Heinrich Heine.
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