J. K. Rowling - too much witch and not enough craft

This from Think Progress.

Matt Latimer, a speechwriter for one Georgi W. Bush, says in his new book that the author of the Harry Potter series was denied a Presidential Medal of Freedom because, gasp, her Potter books "encouraged witchcraft."

The book is titled "Speech-less: Tales of a White House Survivor."

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is our highest civilian honor. It is given to people "who make an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."

One doth not need to be a U.S. citizen to receive the medal.

TP quotes from p. 201 of the Latimer's book"

"This was the same sort of narrow thinking that led people in the White House to actually object to giving the author J.K. Rowling a presidential medal because the Harry Potter books encouraged witchcraft."


Now there may be valid reasons for not giving the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Ms. Rowling. Personally, I'm not sure that the Harry Potter series, as popular the books have become, constitutes a "meritorious contribution" of ultimate significance to the United States or the world. But to say her books "encouraged witchcraft" is just plain stupid.

That does not deny that they are well-written, interesting, and entertaining. But then a lot of authors write interesting and entertaining books. Some authors, such as Victor J. Stenger, write books that actually do provide a "meritorious contribution" to world peace. And while he would better deserve such a medal he would have been rejected also, not because of his witchcraft, but because of his science, which blows the Bushite christianist religious beliefs out of the water.

It is quite amusing actually to hear that the Bush White House would object to witchcraft. Most of what they believed and most of their actions were based on a certain kind of witchcraft - that espoused by fundamentalist christianists.

Bush led the nation to war because he heard voices in his head which he assumed to be the words of the God of Israel. Bush came to believe, without a shred of evidence, that this same God wanted the United States under his leadership to install democracy throughout the Middle East no matter the cost in treasure and lives. The Bush administration vigorously declined to fight global warming because to believe in global warming somehow violated their sense that the God of Israel would protect the planet from total disaster. Furthermore, the Bushites had faith that Jesus was coming back any minute to "rapture" true believers to some fairy-tale land in the sky. Why worry about a minor thing like global warming? Bushites went so far as to force scientists to rewrite their reports on the imminent dangers of global warming.

So what's another witch or two? Witchcraft, wrapped in the cloak of christianist fundamentalism was the modus operandi of the Georgi W. Bush presidency.


The full article at Think Progress is here.