I hate that kid. I hate his nerdy glasses, I hate his friends, I hate his friend’s friends, and I hate his stupid broom too.

But worst of all, I hate people who are willing to camp out for days at their local bookstores just so they can get the latest and greatest copy of the book starring, whose else, but that wand wielding little twerp.

I mean seriously people, what is this, Star Wars? Get a frakking life already.

Honestly, it’s not that I’m opposed to the idea of reading the Harry Potter series (or watching the movies), and getting a cheap thrill out of doing so. But when I see you wearing the wizard hat and pulling up your bedsheets with its Harry Potter icons while you snuggle down with one of J.K. Rowling’s books for a good read, (and you’re in your 40s for crying out loud), I don’t see someone who merely has a hobby he or she loves. I see someone who’s gone completely around the bend and is a prime candidate for drugs and lots of therapy.

And this is just the Christians I’m talking about. Really, go here and tell me if you don’t find this obsession just a little bit disconcerting.

I really don’t get this. Maybe it’s because overhyped fiction has always been a turnoff for me, a personality trait that also proved to be one of the reasons why I’ve never seen the movie Titanic either. Whatever everybody and their mother did, I tended to do the exact opposite, if for no other reason than just to maintain my individuality. Worldly fads simply didn’t appeal to me, and following after it with any degree of enthusiasm always left a bad taste in my mouth.

And yet Christians go bonkers just as much as the world does whenever there’s word that a new book or film is coming out. So let me ask you Christian Potterheads: why does Harry Potter, a fictional character no less, thrill you and move you more than Christ does? Why isn’t it enough to simply read one of the books in the series and go, “Hmm, that was interesting?”

Nope, can’t stop there. You have to camp out at bookstores, turn your bedroom into a museum of Harry Potter paraphernalia, scream like a banshee at people who threaten to reveal spoilers, and whenever you get the chance to talk about it, (which is every 5 seconds), it’s Harry this and Harry that, and Harry, Harry, Harry, HarryHarryHarryHarry…

Obsessed, MUCH? Some of you I swear need to get a good smack upside the head… with by a 2×4.

Do you not see anything wrong with this at all? Do you not even feel a teensy weensy bit embarassed? Forget about the witchcraft and the occultic elements and the controversy therein. This is about taking a hobby and pushing it to the point of obsession, an obsession that even goes so far as attempting to demonstrate Christian symbolism in Rowling’s works, as if by doing so it would somehow be seen as a validation of sorts for Christians to continue obsessing over literature that revolves around magic and witchcraft.

Please. I’m sure I myself could find Christian imagery in the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show if I looked hard enough. “Ooooooo, see Rocky flying and coming to save Bullwinkle?? Just like the Lord Jesus came to save us!”

In the end, I have to say there’s something truly disconcerting about living in a world where not having read a single Harry Potter book makes ME the weird one.