Nashville School Bans Harry Potter Books Citing “Conjuring Evil Spirits”

This is no joke. A school in Nashville, Tennessee has just banned the Harry Potter series from its library because a reverend at the school claims the books include both good and evil magic, as well as spells, which he believes can conjure “evil spirits.”

“These books present magic as both good and evil, which is not true, but in fact a clever deception,” Rev. Dan Reehil wrote, according to the Nashville Tennessean. “The curses and spells used in the books are actual curses and spells; which when read by a human being risk conjuring evil spirits into the presence of the person reading the text.”

The superintendent of St. Edward Catholic School told the Nashville Tennessean that Reverend Reehil has the ultimate say as to whether the books stay or not. “Each pastor has canonical authority to make such decisions for his parish school,” the superintendent said. “He’s well within his authority to act in that manner.”

Despite the school’s ban, the superintendent would go onto say that other schools in the district would still carry the Harry Potter books. “Should parents deem that this or any other media to be appropriate we would hope that they would just guide their sons and daughters to understand the content through the lens of our faith,” Hammel said. “We really don’t get into censorship in such selections other than making sure that what we put in our school libraries is age-appropriate materials for our classrooms.”

[Via]