Nashville school bans "Harry Potter" series, citing risk of "conjuring evil spirits" (2024)

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Nashville school bans "Harry Potter" series, citing risk of "conjuring evil spirits"? ›

A Catholic school in Nashville, Tennessee has banned the "Harry Potter" series because a reverend at the school claims the books include both good and evil magic, as well as spells, which, if read by a human can conjure "evil spirits," according to the Tennessean. The publication obtained an email from Rev.

Edward Catholic School in Nashville (TN) expressed concern about the heretical lessons students could learn from the series. He consulted exorcists, and removed the books from the schools library. “These books present magic as both good and evil, which is not true, but in fact a clever deception,” he explained.

There were concerns over the violence and increasingly dark tone of the later books but most of the censorship attempts were for religious reasons. It was also banned in some Christian schools in the UK.

Harry Potter is so popular because it's an entertaining environment that both kids and adults can enjoy exploring. Other than having magical background, the characters are incredibly real. Other than that, they are really relatable, particularly when it comes to their typical, everyday issues as teenagers and preteens.

Some school districts aimed to ban the book from schools because they believed the book has unsuitable topics for children to read about. One major complaints was that the story portrayed talking animals that can communicate and act just like humans.

Coraline is, however, a “challenged” book: challenged because of its scarier themes and because some consider it inappropriate for the age group it's intended for (the age of its title heroine, Coraline, which is never clearly stated in the book but seems to be between 10 and 13, if we can judge by the movie at all).

He later achieved international recognition with his "Captain Underpants" series, which was adapted as a film. The "Captain Underpants" books are among the American Library Association's list of the top 100 most banned and challenged books from the past decade, due to complaints from parents about violent imagery.

One of California's largest industries at the time was logging. Parents were concerned that teachers were “brainwashing” their children and were fearful the children would start an uprising against the logging industry. Because of this, “The Lorax” was banned in a Laytonville, California public school.

As The Banned Books Project points out, there have been “different reasons for the book being banned, including religious objections, hom*osexuality, violence, African history, rape, incest, drug abuse, explicit language, and sexual scenes.” The bans and challenges to The Color Purple, as we know, have nothing to do ...

What Is the Most Banned Book in America? For all time, the most frequently banned book is 1984 by George Orwell. (How very Orwellian!) The most banned and challenged book for 2020 was George by Alex Gino.

Why is James and the Giant Peach banned? ›

James and the Giant Peach

The novel promoted mysticism had the word ass in it. There were references to tobacco and alcohol.

The Great Gatsby was challenged and banned for a few reasons: sex, violence, adultery, and language. The affair between Daisy and Gatsby along with Nick's language regarding Jordan Baker make up most of the sex and adultery reasoning behind the challenging and banning of the book.

The famous Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling was banned on multiple occasions. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was published in 1997. In 2001, the book was banned because of ”satanism and anti-family themes.” In 2002-2004, the book was banned for its focus on wizardry and magic.

Ultimately, the Harry Potter series seems to continue to be popular among children. However, an increasing number of older generations—especially millennial and Gen Z readers—are bidding farewell to the once-beloved series.

Astoria Greengrass

Draco Malfoy / Significant other

In the early 2000s, a conservative backlash to the Harry Potter book series, which some Christian leaders condemned as a satanic depiction of witchcraft, fueled a surge of book banning attempts in Texas, according to the ACLU data.

A private Catholic school in Nashville has removed the Harry Potter books from its library, saying they include “actual curses and spells, which when read by a human being risk conjuring evil spirits”.

Mexico – James Bond

In 2012, the northern Mexican state of Sonora banned 61 names that they thought could cause children bullying later on in their lives. They included 'James Bond', 'Harry Potter' and – how lovely – 'Scrotum'.

As The Banned Books Project points out, there have been “different reasons for the book being banned, including religious objections, hom*osexuality, violence, African history, rape, incest, drug abuse, explicit language, and sexual scenes.” The bans and challenges to The Color Purple, as we know, have nothing to do ...