Chandra Levy

Chandra Ann Levy was an American intern at the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, D.C., who disappeared in May 2001. She was presumed murdered after her skeletal remains were found in Rock Creek Park in May 2002. The case attracted attention from the American news media for years. The police investigation revealed she was having an affair with Congressman Gary Condit, a married Democrat then serving his fifth term representing California's 18th congressional district, and a senior member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Condit was never named as a suspect by police and was eventually cleared of involvement. However, after a cloud of suspicion was raised by the intense media focus on the missing intern and the later revelation of the affair, he was not re-elected in 2002, with the Levy issue cited as a contributory factor. The circumstances surrounding Levy's death were unclear for eight years. On March 3, 2009, D.C. authorities obtained a warrant to arrest Ingmar Guandique, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador. He had been convicted of assaulting two other women in Rock Creek Park around the time of Levy's disappearance. Prosecutors alleged that Guandique had attacked and tied up Levy in a remote area of the park and left her to die of dehydration or exposure. In November 2010 Guandique was convicted of murdering Levy; he was sentenced in February 2011 to 60 years in prison. In June 2015, Guandique was granted a new trial and in March 2016, the date was set to October 11, 2016. Life and background: Levy was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Robert and Susan Levy; the family moved to Modesto, California, where she attended Grace M. Davis High School. Her parents are members of Congregation Beth Shalom, a Conservative Jewish synagogue. She attended San Francisco State University, where she earned a degree in journalism. After interning for the California Bureau of Secondary Education and working in the office of Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, she began attending the University of Southern California to earn a master's degree in public administration. As part of her final semester of study, Levy moved to Washington, D.C., to become a paid intern with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In October 2000 she began her internship at the bureau's headquarters, where she was assigned to the public affairs division. Her supervisor, bureau spokesperson Dan Dunne, was impressed with Levy's work, especially her handling of media inquiries regarding the upcoming execution of Timothy McVeigh, convicted of bombing the Oklahoma City Federal Building. Levy's internship was abruptly terminated in April 2001 because her academic eligibility was found to have expired in December 2000. She had already completed her master's degree requirements and was scheduled to return to California in May 2001 for graduation. Murder case- Disappearance and search: Levy was last seen on May 1, 2001. The Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia was first alerted on May 6, when Levy's parents called from Modesto to report that they had not heard from their daughter in five days. Police called hospitals and visited Levy's apartment in Dupont Circle that day, finding no indication of foul play. On May 7, Levy's father told the police that his daughter had been having an affair with a U.S. congressman, and said the next day that he believed the congressman to be U.S. Representative Gary Condit. Levy's aunt also called the police and told them that Chandra had confided in her about the affair. Police obtained a warrant on May 10 to conduct a formal search of Levy's apartment. Investigators found her credit cards, identification and mobile phone left behind in her purse, along with partially packed suitcases. The answering machine was full, with messages left by her relatives and two from Condit. A police sergeant tried to examine Levy's laptop computer and inadvertently corrupted the internet search data, as he was not a trained technician. Computer experts took a month to reconstruct the data to determine that the laptop was used on the morning of May 1 to search for websites related to Amtrak, Baskin-Robbins, Condit, Southwest Airlines, and a weather report from The Washington Post. The last search at 12:24 p.m. was for the location of the Pierce-Klingle Mansion, a historic house in Rock Creek Park that is used as the park's administrative office. On July 25, 2001, three D.C. police sergeants and 28 police cadets searched along Glover Road in the park but failed to find evidence related to Levy. Later, a second attempt found nothing. Relationship with Condit: Controversy surrounding Levy's disappearance drew the attention of the American news media. Levy's parents and friends held numerous vigils and news conferences in an attempt to "bring Chandra home." Condit, a married man who represented the congressional district in which the Levy family resided, at first denied that he had had an affair with her. Though police stated that Condit was not a suspect, Levy's family said they felt Condit was being evasive and possibly hiding information about the matter. Unidentified police sources alleged that Condit had admitted to an affair with Levy during an interview with law enforcement officers on July 7, 2001. Condit described her to police as a vegetarian who avoided drinking and smoking. He thought that Levy was going to return to Washington, DC after her graduation and was surprised to find out that the lease on her apartment had ended. Investigators searched Condit's apartment on July 10. They questioned flight attendant Anne Marie Smith, who claimed that Condit told her she did not need to speak to the Federal Bureau of Investigation about his personal life. Federal officials began investigating Condit for possible obstruction of justice as Smith was also involved in an affair with him. (She was not acquainted with Levy.) Upset by leaks to the media, Condit refused to submit to a polygraph test by the D.C. police; his attorney asserted that Condit passed a test administered by a privately hired examiner on July 13. He avoided answering direct questions during a televised interview on August 23, with news anchor Connie Chung on the ABC News program Primetime Thursday. Intensive coverage continued until news of the September 11 attacks superseded the media's coverage of the Levy case. In a nationwide Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll of 900 registered voters conducted in July 2001, 44 percent of American respondents thought that Condit was involved in Levy's disappearance and 27 percent felt that he should resign. Fifty-one percent of the respondents believed that he was acting as if he were guilty; 13 percent felt that he should run again for office. A poll sample taken from Condit's congressional district held a more favorable view of Condit. On March 5, 2002, Condit lost the Democratic primary election for his Congressional seat to his former aide, then-Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza, with the Levy controversy being cited as a contributing factor. He was subpoenaed to appear on April 1, 2002, before a District of Columbia grand jury investigating the disappearance. The date was kept a carefully guarded secret to avoid further leaks. Condit left Congress at the end of his term on January 3, 2003. Discovery of remains: District of Columbia Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey announced on May 22, 2002, that skeletal remains matching Levy's dental records had been discovered by a man walking his dog and looking for turtles in Rock Creek Park. Detectives found bones and personal items scattered, but not buried, in a forested area along a steep incline. A sports bra, sweat shirt, leggings and tennis shoes were among the evidence that was recovered. Though police had previously searched over half the 1,754-acre main section of the park (2.74 mi2, 7.10 km2), the wooded slope where Levy's remains were eventually found had not been searched as it was very remote: about one mile (1.6 km) north of the Pierce-Klingle Mansion and about four miles (6 km) from Levy's apartment. After a preliminary autopsy was performed, District of Columbia police announced that there was sufficient evidence to open a homicide investigation. On May 28, D.C. medical examiner Jonathan L. Arden officially declared Levy's death a homicide, but said, "There's less to work with here than I would like. It's possible we will never know specifically how she died." Arden found damage to her hyoid bone, suggesting possible strangulation, but did not deem it to be conclusive evidence of such a cause of death. On June 6, after the police completed their search, private investigators hired by the Levys found her shin bone with some twisted wire about 25 yards (23 m) from the other remains. Police chief Ramsey said, "It is unacceptable that these items were not. Memorial services: On May 28, 2002, the Levy family organized a memorial service at the Modesto Centre Plaza that drew over 1,200 people, some from as far as Los Angeles. Speakers at the 90-minute ceremony included Levy's brother, grandmother, great-aunt and friends. In a eulogy delivered in Hebrew and English by Rabbi Paul Gordon, Levy was described as "a good person taken from us much too soon." About a year later, on May 27, 2003, Levy's remains were buried in Lakewood Memorial Park Cemetery at Hughson, California, near her home town of Modesto. Attended by about 40 of Levy's friends and family members, the private ceremony concluded with the release of 12 white doves. Identification of the prime suspect: In September 2001, D.C. police and federal prosecutors were contacted by the lawyer of an informant, held in a D.C. jail, who claimed to have knowledge of Levy's killer. The informant, whose identity was protected for his safety, said that Ingmar Guandique, a 20-year-old illegal immigrant from El Salvador also being held in the jail, told him that Condit paid him $25,000 to kill Levy. Investigators ruled out the story about Condit, because Guandique had already admitted to assaulting two other women in the same park where Levy's remains were found. Guandique failed to show up for work on the day of Levy's disappearance. His former landlady recalled that his face appeared scratched and bruised at around that time. The investigators on the Levy case did not interview the other Rock Creek Park victims. Police chief Ramsey avoided calling Guandique a suspect and described him as a "person of interest",[34] telling reporters not to make "too big a deal" about him. Assistant chief Terrance W. Gainer said that if Guandique had been considered a suspect, D.C. police would have been after him "like flies on honey." Guandique denied attacking Levy. On November 28, the FBI had the informant take a polygraph test, which he failed. A polygraph test on Guandique, administered on February 4, 2002, returned inconclusive results that were officially ruled "not deceptive". Because neither the informant nor Guandique was fluent in English, D.C. chief detective Jack Barrett said that he would have preferred polygraph tests to have been administered by bilingual examiners, who were unavailable at the time. When Judge Noel Anketell Kramer was asked about Guandique's potential connection to the Levy homicide, she responded, "This is such a satellite issue. To me it doesn't have anything to do with this case." Kramer sentenced Guandique to 10 years in prison for his attacks on two other women at Rock Creek Park. Guandique was sent to the U.S. Penitentiary, Big Sandy near Inez, Kentucky, and was later transferred to the U.S. Penitentiary at Victorville, California. The Levy homicide remained listed as a "cold case" until 2006, when Cathy L. Lanier succeeded Ramsey as D.C. police chief. Lanier replaced the lead detective on the case with three veteran investigators who had more homicide experience. In 2007, the editors of the Washington Post assigned a new team of reporters to take a year to re-examine the Levy case. The resulting series of articles, published during the summer of 2008, focused on the past failure of the police to fully investigate Guandique's connection to the attacks in Rock Creek Park. In September 2008, investigators searched Guandique's federal prison cell in California and found a photo of Levy that he had saved from a magazine. Police interviewed acquaintances of Guandique and witnesses of the other Rock Creek Park incidents. On March 3, 2009, the Superior Court of the District of Columbia issued an arrest warrant for Guandique. He was returned to the custody of the District of Columbia Department of Corrections on April 20 via the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City. Two days later, Guandique was charged in D.C. with Levy's murder. He was indicted by a grand jury on six counts: kidnapping, first-degree murder committed during a kidnapping, attempted first-degree sexual abuse, first-degree murder committed during a sexual offense, attempted robbery, and first-degree murder committed during a robbery. Guandique pled not guilty at his arraignment, where a trial date was initially set for January 27, 2010. His lawyers argued that Guandique's federal prison cell was outside the jurisdiction of a court-ordered search. After errors in processing contaminated some of the gathered evidence with DNA from employees of the prosecution, the start date of the trial at the Moultrie Courthouse was moved to October 4, 2010. Trial of Guandique: On October 18, 2010, jury selection commenced in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia before Judge Gerald I. Fisher. Assistant U.S. Attorney Fernando Campoamor-Sanchez presented the names of potential witnesses for the trial, including FBI agent Brad Garrett and the two women whom Guandique was convicted of assaulting. At the start of the trial, the prosecution's case was expected to take around four weeks and the defense was expected to take one day. On October 25 and 26, Halle Shilling and Christy Wiegand testified about being attacked by Guandique while independently jogging in Rock Creek Park. Wiegand recounted that Guandique grabbed her from behind, dragged her down a ravine and held a knife against her face. On October 26, 2010, Levy's then-64-year-old father, Robert, took the stand and refuted statements about his past suspicions of Condit. Robert Levy testified that he told authorities during the early years of the investigation that his daughter Chandra would have been too cautious to jog in the woods alone, but said that he no longer believed this to be true. He said that he also told police that his daughter and Condit had a five-year plan between them to get married. In retrospect, Robert Levy admitted: "I just said whatever came to mind just to point to him as the villain." Levy added that he had been convinced that Condit was “guilty until we learned about this character here”, referring to Guandique. On November 1, Condit testified at the trial and was asked on at least three occasions if he and Chandra Levy had been involved in a sexual relationship. He replied, "I am not going to respond to that question out of privacy for myself and Chandra." FBI biologist Alan Giusti testified that semen found on underwear from Levy's apartment contained sperm matching Condit's DNA profile. Prosecution witness Armando Morales, who shared a cell with Guandique at the U.S. Penitentiary in Kentucky, testified that Guandique was concerned about being transferred between prisons in 2006 because of inmate violence against suspected rapists. Morales stated that Guandique, a fellow member of the Mara Salvatrucha gang, confided to him that he had killed Levy while trying to rob her, but said that he did not rape her. The prosecution rested their case on November 10, while dropping two out of the six charges against Guandique: sexual assault and murder associated with that assault. On November 15, the defense rested its case without calling Guandique to the stand. Other prison witnesses called by the defense refuted Morales' testimony. Jose Manuel Alaniz said that Guandique made no mention of rape or murder while sharing a cell with both Alaniz and Morales at the penitentiary in Kentucky. Alaniz admitted under cross-examination that he "didn't want to be too nosy" and was often asleep at the prison while recovering from a gunshot wound. The prosecution dropped two more charges because the statute of limitations had passed: kidnapping and attempted robbery. During closing arguments for the remaining charges of first-degree murder committed during a kidnapping and during a robbery, prosecutor Amanda Haines contended that Guandique bound and gagged Levy after attacking her, leaving her to die of dehydration or exposure in the park. Defense attorney Santha Sonenberg countered with the lack of any DNA evidence connecting Guandique to the crime scene. Calling the prosecution's case "fiction", Sonenberg suggested that Levy had been murdered elsewhere, with her dead body being dumped in the park. The jury began deliberations on November 17, 2010. Scheduled proceedings of the case met delays because of increased security at the courthouse. After two days of deliberations, all but one juror had voted to convict Guandique. On the third day, the jury asked Judge Gerald Fisher to clarify the definition of assault. Fisher responded that any physical injury could legally be considered an assault, regardless of how small. On November 22, 2010, the jury found Guandique guilty of both remaining counts of first-degree murder. After the trial, a juror said the testimony of Morales was decisive in reaching the verdict. The conviction was called a "miracle" for having been reached with only circumstantial evidence. Gladys Weatherspoon, who had previously represented Guandique in the 2001 assault cases, stated that she was troubled by the jury's verdict: "I just think they were going to convict anyway.... They felt bad for that woman, the mom. She's sitting in there every day." At a post-trial press conference, Susan Levy said, "There's always going to be a feeling of sadness. I can surely tell you, it ain't closure." Since the conclusion of the trial, Susan Levy has acted to keep photographic evidence of her daughter's remains sealed from the news media. Sentencing and appeals: On February 1, 2011, Guandique's attorneys requested a new trial on the grounds that the verdict had been improperly attained. The 17-page filing claimed that the prosecutors had appealed to the emotions of the jury, using "references to facts not in evidence." The motion also alleged that one juror, who did not take notes, had breached the judge's instructions not to be "influenced by another juror's notes." The prosecution opposed a retrial, arguing that the issue regarding the notes was no more than a technicality that did not have a significant effect on the verdict. Guandique faced a minimum penalty of 30 years to a maximum of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. In seeking the maximum possible sentence, the prosecutors stated that Guandique "is unable to control himself and thus, will always remain a danger to women." A memo submitted by the prosecution in February 2011 cited Guandique's harassment of female staff in prison, including soliciting a nurse and masturbating in front of guards. Assistant U.S. Attorney Fernando Campoamor-Sanchez disclosed that he had traveled to El Salvador with a detective to investigate allegations that Guandique had fled his native country because of suspected attacks against local women dating back to 1999. During the sentencing hearing on February 11, Guandique said to Levy's family, "I am sorry for what happened to your daughter," and insisted on his innocence. Before Judge Gerald Fisher reminded Susan Levy to address the court instead of the defendant, Levy said to him, "Did you really take her life? Look me in my eyes and tell me." Fisher denied Guandique's motion for retrial and handed down a sentence of 60 years in prison, stating that Guandique "will be a danger for some time. He's a sexual predator." Guandique repeated his innocence during his sentencing. He has maintained his innocence in the years since the trial. On February 25, 2011, public defender James Klein filed an appeal of Guandique's conviction with the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. According to the court's annual report, appeals take an average of 588 days to reach resolution. Guandique will not be eligible for parole until he is at least 80 years old. In December 2012 and January 2013, a set of secret hearings was made known to the public, but the subject of the meetings was sealed by the judge. After a third hearing in February, the judge in the case unsealed transcripts from the previous hearings which revealed that Klein was seeking a new trial based on new evidence in the case. A fourth hearing was scheduled for April 2013. New trial ordered: On May 22, 2015, prosecutors dropped their opposition to a new trial. On June 3, 2015, the defense said a new witness, a neighbor, called 911 at 4:37 a.m. on the last day Levy was alive to report hearing a 'blood-curdling scream', possibly coming from Levy's apartment. On June 4, 2015, Judge Gerald Fisher granted a motion for the new trial. Guandique's attorneys suggested that Morales fabricated Guandique's confession to gain favor with law enforcement. On June 12, 2015, Judge Robert E. Morin set the retrial of Guandique for March 1, 2016 but in March, the trial date was moved to October 11, 2016. In November 2015, prosecutors told a D.C. Superior Court judge that their office failed to turn over documents to the defense before the defendant’s first trial. In December 2015, defense attorneys argued in new court filings that the charges should be dismissed because of prosecutorial errors. Media coverage: The disappearance of Chandra Levy became a national topic of the news media in the summer of 2001, with 63 percent of Americans closely following the case. The media swamped Levy's parents from the moment they decided to go to Washington, D.C. in search of their daughter. According to Condit, there were about a hundred reporters camped out in front of his apartment during the morning of September 11, 2001, but they all left after news spread about the terrorist attacks. Media critics and cable news executives later cited the Levy case, as well as the concurrent sensationalist coverage of a string of shark attacks, as a reflection of the manner of news coverage in the United States before the September 11 attacks had taken priority. In 2002, D.C. newspaper Roll Call first reported the possible connection of Ingmar Guandique to the case, with little effect on the news media's focus on Condit. Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin noted the lack of headlines that an illegal immigrant had been questioned in the Levy case. She said that in her review of 115 news items from the Lexis-Nexis database, not a single mention of Guandique referred to his status as a "criminal illegal alien." She called the "glaring omission" of his status "a newsworthy act of negligence." She wrote that only the very conservative Human Events reported that the Immigration and Naturalization Service had approved his working legally while applying for temporary protected status. That application was ultimately denied, but not before he had assaulted two other women at Rock Creek Park. In 2005, investigative journalist Dominick Dunne said on Larry King Live that he believed Gary Condit knew more information about the Levy case than he had been disclosing. Condit filed two lawsuits against Dunne, forcing him into an undisclosed financial settlement on one of them. In 2008, U.S. District Judge Peter Leisure dismissed the other suit that alleged slander, because "The context in which Dunne's statements were made demonstrates that they were part of a discussion about 'speculation' in the media and inaccurate media coverage." During the summer of 2008, The Washington Post ran a 13-part series billed, in part, as "a tale of the tabloid and mainstream press pack journalism that helped derail the investigation." The two investigative reporters behind the Post series, Scott Higham and Sari Horwitz, wrote a book detailing their investigation. The book, Finding Chandra, was published in May 2010. Commentators, including The Washington Post Metro reporter Robert Pierre, wrote that emphasis on a glamorous white murder victim, when "about 200 people are killed in this city every year, most of them black and male," was "absolutely absurd and dare I say, racist, at its core." The media were criticized for their "rush to judgment" in suggesting, sometimes blatantly, that Condit was guilty of the murder, especially in the early days of the investigation. Some of the reporters camped in front of Condit's Washington apartment house were quoted as saying that they would remain there "until he resigns." When Ingmar Guandique was convicted in November 2010 of murdering Levy, Condit's lawyer Bert Fields remarked, "It's a complete vindication but that comes a little late. Who gives him his career back?" Impact: Levy's death has had a lasting impact, due in part to the efforts of her family and friends. Levy's disappearance came after a number of other high-profile cases that led to the creation of resources for missing young adults. For example, Levy's parents quickly turned for help to the Carole Sund/Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation, a nonprofit group that was established in Modesto after three female hikers disappeared from a 1999 trip to Yosemite National Park and were later found slain. That foundation, which offered the Levys staff support and contributed towards a cash reward for information about Chandra's disappearance, was merged into the Laci & Conner Search and Rescue Fund in 2009; Susan Levy had previously participated in the efforts to find Laci Peterson, another missing woman from Modesto. In 1997, when Kristen Modafferi mysteriously disappeared from the San Francisco Bay Area just three weeks after her 18th birthday, her parents turned to their congresswoman for help they were ineligible to receive from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. As a result, Congress enacted "Kristen's Law" in October 2000, which established the National Center for Missing Adults (NCMA) within the U.S. Department of Justice to coordinate such missing person cases. By the time Levy disappeared, institutions were in place to provide her family with support and to assist in a nationwide search to locate her. Although the Levy family moved quickly to mobilize all such available resources, including offering a cash reward for information, hiring their own investigators, and seeking media attention, those efforts to locate Chandra Levy or find her killer were overshadowed by the speculation surrounding her possible relationship with Condit. Susan Levy later joined with Donna Raley, the mother of another young woman who disappeared in 1999 from Modesto, to form "Wings of Protection", a support group for people with missing loved ones. The Mary Ann Liebert company, publishers of the Journal of Women's Health and Gender-Based Medicine, presented their annual Criterion Award in May 2002 to Susan Levy for her work with "Wings of Protection." Newsweek magazine stated that the media may have become more skeptical of "herd mentality" and open to alternative suspects after the Levy case. The D.C. police claimed that they would have discovered Levy's body earlier, if not for a miscommunication regarding the scope of the search. Commanders had ordered a search within 100 yards (91 m) of each road and trail in Rock Creek Park, but searches were focused within 100 yards of roads only, resulting in the body remaining undiscovered for a longer period of time. Both the Chief of Detectives, Jack Barrett, and the Chief of Police, Charles H. Ramsey, have since left the force in D.C. Ramsey became head of the Philadelphia Police Department; Barrett, who became an analyst for an intelligence support firm in Arlington, Virginia, stated in hindsight that the media had imposed "enormous amounts of pressure" on the D.C. police. Morales, who is serving time for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and crack cocaine, is scheduled to be released on August 5, 2016. Condit retired from politics and moved with his wife to Phoenix, Arizona, to manage real estate and open two Baskin-Robbins franchises, which have since closed.

Bear Brook murders

The Bear Brook murders, also referred to as the Allenstown Four, comprise four unidentified murder victims discovered in 1985 and 2000 at Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown, New Hampshire. This case has never been solved. All of the victims were either partially or completely skeletonized when they were found and are believed to have died between 1977 and 1985. The victims' faces have been reconstructed multiple times, most recently by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Discovery of the bodies: The body of a woman between the ages of 23 and 33 was found, together with the body of a girl, by a hunter on November 10, 1985. The bodies had been wrapped in plastic (possibly a garbage bag) and were hidden in a 55-gallon metal drum. They were close to a store that had previously been destroyed by fire. These two victims were later buried in the same grave. On May 9, 2000, two more dead girls were found. Their bodies were dated to the same time as when the first two victims were found (about 300 feet away). The bodies were also concealed in the same way. The cause of death for the two girls found in 2000 has not been determined. Victims: The woman was possibly a mix of white and Native American heritage. She had curly or wavy brown hair and was between 5 feet 2 and 5 feet 7 inches tall. She had received a significant amount of dental work on her teeth, having had multiple fillings and three tooth extractions. After their teeth were examined, the three girls were said to be possibly of Native American heritage. In their appearance, however, they would be white. The girl who was found with the adult woman was between 5 and 11 years old. She was the oldest of the three child victims. The other two girls were respectively between 2 and 4, and 1 and 3 years old. The oldest girl had symptoms of pneumonia in her lungs. She had a crooked front tooth, wore two earrings in each ear, and was 4 feet 3 to 4 feet 6 inches tall. Her hair was wavy and light brown and, unlike the adult woman, she had no dental fillings. She had a gap in her front teeth. The middle girl also had a gap in her front teeth. She was not maternally related to any of the other victims but may have been paternally related, possibly being a half-sister of the two other girls. She had brown hair and was about 3 feet 8 inches tall. She had an overbite, which was very likely noticeable. The youngest girl had long blond or light brown hair, was between 2 feet 1 and 2 feet 6 inches tall, and also had a gap in her front teeth). Investigation: In the early days of the investigation, authorities publicized the case in the media in the United States and some parts of Canada. At least ten possible identities for the victims have been ruled out. Hundreds of leads have been followed but have not resulted in identification of the killer or the victims. In June 2013, new versions of the victims' facial reconstructions were created by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. These versions incorporated their dental information, showing how their teeth could affect the appearance of their faces. The reconstructions were created in black and white, as their skin tones and eye colors could not be determined. In November 2015, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children released a third set of reconstructions of the four victims at a news conference at the New Hampshire State Attorney General's office. New information revealed that the 22- to 33-year-old woman was likely the mother of the 2- to 3-year-old girl and of the 9- to 10-year-old girl. Also, she and the three children had resided together in the Northeastern United States between two weeks and three months before their deaths. It was concluded that the woman and two of children (who investigators believe were her daughters) resided in the area where their bodies were found. The third girl, however, likely came from the Dakotas or Nebraska, based upon testing of their hair, teeth, and bones. The victims whose bodies were found in 1985 had suffered blunt-force trauma. Investigators have yet to release a cause of death for the two girls found in 2000. DNA evidence: In early 2013, it was reported that $30,000 had been raised in order to examine the DNA from each of the bodies. DNA profiling showed that the woman and at least two of the three children were related maternally. She could have been the mother, aunt, or older sister of the youngest and oldest children.

Unidentified body on Christmas Island

The unidentified body on Christmas Island is an unidentified human corpse was found on a life raft in the Indian Ocean, off Christmas Island, in 1942. The body is widely believed to originate from the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) cruiser HMAS Sydney, which sank off Western Australia in November 1941, after a mutually destructive battle with the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran. While 318 of 399 Kormoran personnel survived, Sydney was lost with no survivors from the 645 aboard. The location of both ships' wrecks were unknown until they were rediscovered in March 2008. The body was found on 6 February 1942. It is reported that an inquest was held on Christmas Island, soon afterwards. The remains were later buried with military honours, in an unmarked grave, in the Old European Cemetery on the island. Christmas Island was captured by Japanese forces on 31 March 1942 and remained in their hands until 1945. Relevant records, including any relating to the inquest, appear to have been lost or destroyed during this period. A RAN archaeological expedition in September–October 2006 recovered the body. Although a DNA profile has been recovered from the remains, researchers have not yet been able to match this profile with known relatives of personnel from Sydney. Discovery: During the late afternoon of 6 February 1942, lookouts on Christmas Island spotted an object out at sea. Initially thought to be a Japanese submarine, closer inspection from a pilot boat found it was a carley float with a dead person inside. The float was then towed ashore. With the island under threat of invasion, after brief examinations by the island's harbour master, the medical officer, and the gentleman in charge of the radio station, the body was buried in an unmarked grave near Flying Fish Cove. Reports were written by these men, but were destroyed when Japanese forces occupied Christmas Island, and later recreated from memory. An inquest was not convened until mid February and was still ongoing when evacuation began on 17 February with Japanese forces occupying the island on 23 March. It is unknown if the doctor on Christmas Island had performed an autopsy; if so it was never found. Examination: The deceased appears to have been a young adult male caucasoid, and tall by the standards of his time. A preliminary examination in 1942 by the island's Medical Officer, Dr J. Scott Clark, found that the remains were partly decomposed: its eyes, nose and all of the flesh from the right arm were missing and believed to have been consumed by fish or birds. There are several accounts regarding clothing. According to the island's Harbour Master at the time, Captain J. R. Smith, the body was clothed in a blue boilersuit which had been bleached white by exposure with four plain press studs from neck to waist. According to J.C. Baker, who was in charge of the Radio Station at Christmas Island, the body was clothed in a white boilersuit. The body was not carrying "dog tags" or personal effects. A shoe was found beside the body, which Clark did not believe belonged to the dead man. Later recollections of the shoe varied: Clark stated that it was "probably branded "CROWN BRAND PTY 4", although he had some doubts about "CROWN" and "4". Captain Smith, recalled a canvas shoe of a brand named "McCOWAN PTY" or "McEWAN PTY", which also carried symbols representing a crown and/or a broad arrow. A sergeant with the party who recovered the raft later contradicted the finding of a single shoe stating that a pair of boots were found on the raft. In Captain Smith's opinion, the life raft was a naval carley float, which had come from Sydney. The wooden decking was manufactured and branded with the word "PATENT" while the metal framework was branded: LYSAGHT DUA-ANNEAL ZINC. MADE IN AUSTRALIA INSIDE. The float had been damaged by gun or shellfire, with shrapnel embedded in the outer covering, and the underside was covered with barnacles and other marine growth, indicating that it had been at sea for some time. On 23 April 1949, the Director of Naval Intelligence wrote to the Director of Victualling in regards to whether the clothing (3a) and carley float (3b) could have come from the Sydney. The Director of Naval Victualling replied to 3a in a hand written note that while a rating may have worn a blue boilersuit, suits with press studs "had never been adopted" by the navy. However, RAN officers purchased their own boilersuits which would be either white or brown in colour with press studs. Additionally, the shoes described "definitely" corresponded with RAN issue "provided they were leather not canvass." There is no record of a reply regarding the carley float. Relocation and recovery: The 1998 Joint Standing Committee for Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade inquiry into the loss of HMAS Sydney recommended that attempts be made to find the grave, in order to exhume the body and acquire DNA for comparison with relatives of personnel from Sydney, in order to determine if the unknown sailor was from the cruiser. The RAN performed an unsuccessful search of the graveyard in August–September 2001, and a second, successful search in October 2006. When it was found, the body was in an unusually-shaped coffin, which appeared to have been constructed around it as the body was buried "with legs doubled under at the knee," the same position it had been in when found on the raft, possibly due to mummification. In addition to human remains, press studs and small fragments of clothing were found in the coffin. Tests on the studs and fragments showed that the press studs were manufactured by Carr Australia Pty Ltd in the 1930-40s and that the material of the boilersuit had never been dyed and was probably white. The Dress Regulations published in the Navy List of December 1940 do not mention white boilersuits at all. Investigations indicated that Officers, commissioned warrant officers and warrant officers wore white boilersuits as an alternative working dress while Engineer officers often wore white boilersuits all the time. Other officers wore them as required. Two former RAN officers confirmed being issued with white boilersuits twice a year which were fastened with either four or five press studs, some with press studs at the wrist and some without. The RAN stated that white canvas shoes had not been issued during World War II and recollections of the former officers confirmed this, with both also stating that they had never seen sailors wearing white shoes. However, photographs of sailors show some wearing white canvas shoes, and dress regulations for December 1940 state that sailors were issued with a pair to be worn only on "foreign" (tropical) stations. The Australian War Memorial's experts concluded that the boilersuit and shoe found with the body were both available to ship’s officers, commissioned warrant officers and warrant officers senior enough to have a watch keeping certificate. During an autopsy of the body, a shell fragment (initially believed to be a small-arms bullet, but later determined to be shell shrapnel of German origin) was found embedded in the skull, which was believed to have caused the man's death through brain trauma. Regarding the unknown man's injuries, Bruce Billson (Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence) reported that: shrapnel struck the front of the skull and lodged in the left forehead. In addition to this injury, the pathologist identified a second major skull injury, with bone loss on the left side of the skull, above and behind the left earhole, which is also believed to have occurred around the time of death... The analysis also identified multiple rib fractures, but it is unknown whether these occurred around the time of death or long after death with the settling of the grave. No other shrapnel or projectiles have been found elsewhere in the remains. The remains of the unknown sailor were reburied in the Commonwealth War Graves section in the Geraldton Cemetery on 19 November 2008 with full military honours. Attempts to extract a DNA profile from the remains began in or before 2009, although the results were not published before the Cole Inquiry. Analysis of the partial genetic profile recovered has since suggested that the man had red hair, blue eyes and pale skin, suggesting that he was of European descent. He belonged to a Y-chromosome haplogroup – an ancient male line of descent – known as J1, which is common in populations from the Caucasus, Middle East and North Africa, but is also found at low levels among men and boys throughout Europe. Anatomical analysis indicates that the unknown sailor was aged between 22 and 31 when he died, was right-handed, had size 11 feet, and was tall for his generation – between 168.2 and 187.8 centimetres (66.2 and 73.9 in). Bone isotope analysis shows that he had lived in eastern Australia – most likely NSW or Queensland – prior to enlistment and most probably grew up in a coastal area. The unknown sailor had acquired an unusual feature in both ankle joints, known as squatting facets; these indicated that he was more used to squatting than sitting on chairs. As squatting was unusual at the time in urban, western communities, it was speculated that the man had spent significant time: -in a rural area of Australia; -amongst members of an ethnic group in which squatting was more common than sitting (such as people from Asia or Eastern Europe), and/or; -involved in a sporting or similar activity that required the ankles to be flexed towards the back of the thighs for prolonged periods of time. By 2014, the identity of the unknown sailor had been narrowed to 50 members of the crew of HMAS Sydney. Connection to Sydney: The island's inhabitants believed that the float and sailor were of naval origin, and had come from Sydney. A post-war investigation by the RAN, including reconstructions of the reports from the memories of those who wrote them, determined that although the body could possibly be a naval rating, the description of the covering of the raft did not match those used by Australian warships and thus could not have come from Sydney although it is unclear how this conclusion was reached, as the only extant description of the covering was that it was grey. Despite this, several parties consider the float to come from Sydney. Christmas Island's assistant harbour master, captain E. Craig, stated that "the Carley float was typical of those in service with the RN and RAN" Winter states that a carley float starting from the believed location of the battle and left to drift in the currents of the Indian Ocean would have propelled the float into proximity of Christmas Island around the time of its discovery. Olson claims that the reports compiled after the float was discovered were vague, and that there were inconsistencies between reports.[26] However, he states that the rope used on the float, markings on the float, boilersuit, and shoe were of naval origin, and the descriptions of marine growth correspond with the time a float from Sydney would have been in the water. The government inquiry concluded that "on the balance of probability, that the body and the carley float ... were most likely from HMAS Sydney." In his book, Frame was sceptical of the raft's origins and stated that its connections to the cruiser were circumstantial only, but Olson claims that evidence presented at the 1998 inquiry had changed Frame's mind.

Re-gain my lost weight

I'm pretty sure I'm gaining all the weight i lost (6.5 lbs) back. It was super hard to lost that amount of weight but i did it.

Sexuality and Mormonism

Sexuality has a prominent role within the theology of Mormonism, including that of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). The church teaches that gender is defined in the premortal existence, and that part of the purpose of mortal life is for men and women to be sealed together, forming bonds that allow them to progress eternally together in the afterlife. The church teaches that sexual relations within the framework of opposite-sex marriage is healthy, necessary, and ordained of God. In contrast with some orthodox Christian movements, sexuality in Mormon theology is neither a product of original sin nor a "necessary evil;" however, because of the tremendous power of sexuality both for good and for evil, its expression in the LDS Church is subject to strict commandments—specifically, that there are to be no sexual relations of any kind outside of marriage, as defined by the church and by law. Chastity: The LDS Church teaches its members to obey what it calls the law of chastity, which is a code of morality and modesty. Under this code, all members are taught to be "morally clean in their thoughts, words, and actions" and to abstain from pornography. Violations of this code include "adultery, being without natural affection, lustfulness, infidelity, incontinence, filthy communications, impurity, inordinate affection, fornication. They included all sexual relations outside marriage—petting, sex perversion, and preoccupation with sex in one’s thoughts and talking." Though celestial marriage is the only form of marriage recognized as a sacrament, the church permits sex within government-recognized marital unions, the notable exceptions being same-sex marriage, common law marriage, civil unions (in jurisdictions where marriage is available), and polygamy. The church is sensitive about its historical relationship with polygamy, and entry into a polygamous marriage, even where legal, will result in mandatory consideration of church discipline and possible excommunication. Today, the church's teachings allow married couples to decide what is appropriate sexual behavior between themselves. The law of chastity has also been interpreted to include various standards of modesty, which have varied according to cultural norms of the time. Serious offenses of the law of chastity may result in church discipline, including the possibility of excommunication. LGBT members of the church are expected to keep the law of chastity. The church characterizes its church discipline policy as neutral regarding sexual orientation. If gay or lesbian members desire to enter into a heterosexual marriage, they are advised that they should first learn to deal with their homosexual feelings; otherwise, they must remain celibate. Gay or lesbian sex, in any form, whether the participants are married or not, is grounds for church discipline. Participation in "repeated homosexual activities (by adults)" results in the First Presidency making a permanent special annotation to a person's membership record. In most cases, gay or lesbian sex bars a person, permanently, from serving as a church missionary. Marriage: From the 1830s, marriage has been a central and distinctive component of Mormon theology. Mormon teachings on marriage begins with the belief that, if performed by a person who has the requisite priesthood authority, a marriage may continue in the afterlife. Such a marriage is called a "celestial marriage" or a "temple marriage", and is a particular instance of a "sealing" which binds people together in the afterlife. Celestial marriage is considered to be a requirement for entry into the highest "degree" of the celestial kingdom (the highest degree of heaven in Latter Day Saint theology), and is thought to allow the participants to continue to have spirit children in the afterlife and become gods. According to Mormon belief, the continuance of a celestial marriage in the afterlife is contingent upon the couple remaining righteous. In rare cases, a couple's exaltation may be "made sure" through the ritual of the second anointing. In the 1800s, the practice of celestial marriage included plural marriage, a form of polygamy. According to a consensus of historians, the practice of plural marriage was taught by Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, and after Smith's death was formally acknowledged in 1852 by Brigham Young, leader of the LDS Church. The practice became famous during the 19th century when it was opposed and outlawed by the United States federal government, resulting in an intense legal conflict, which culminated in LDS Church president Wilford Woodruff issuing the 1890 Manifesto, which officially discontinued the creation of new plural marriages in church temples. Nevertheless, unofficial plural marriages continued within the LDS Church after 1890 for some years, often in Mexico. In 1904, the church issued a Second Manifesto, which discontinued the official practice worldwide and established excommunication as a possible penalty for violators. These manifestos did not automatically divorce existing plural unions, however, and some couples in the LDS Church continued to live together as plural families well into the 20th century, with the final polygamous marriage in the LDS Church ending in 1954 when one of Edward Eyring's two wives died. The LDS Church now embraces monogamy and the nuclear family. Members who are found entering into or solemnizing polygamous marriages or associating with polygamous groups are now subject to church discipline and possible excommunication. Beginning in the late-20th century, the LDS Church began supporting political and legal measures to limit legal marriage to a union of one man and one woman. The LDS Church does, however, continue to recognize some theological aspects of its polygamy doctrine. Although both men and women may enter a celestial marriage with only one partner at a time, a man may be sealed to more than one woman. If his first wife dies, he may enter another celestial marriage, and be sealed to both his living wife and deceased wife or wives. A woman, however, may only be sealed to one man during her lifetime. This leaves room to believe that all these marriages will be valid in the eternities and the husband and all his sealed wives will live together in the afterlife as a polygamous family. In the 1950s, one influential church leader wrote that plural marriage would "obviously" be reinstituted after the Second Coming of Jesus. While not accorded the theological significance of a celestial marriage, the LDS Church does recognize civil marriages or marriages performed within other religious traditions. In the 1870s, a prominent Mormon writer wrote that Mormons considered such a marriage to be "no marriage at all." Today, however, non-celestial marriages are respected and recognized as valid by the church, but such marriages must be legal according to the government where the marriage is performed, and must not be a same-sex marriage, polygamous marriage, common law marriage, or other type of non-ceremonial marriages in non–common law countries. Moreover, such marriages are thought to last only for the mortal life, and not into the next. In countries where the church's celestial marriages are not recognized by the government, the church requires that it be preceded by a civil marriage. In the United States, the LDS Church has expressed support for a constitutional ban on same-sex and polygamous marriage and has stated that it "favors measures that define marriage as the union of a man and a woman and that do not confer legal status on any other sexual relationship." The church's position is that government recognition of such rights will "undermine the divinely created institution of the family". Sexual orientation: The church recognizes and officially welcomes gays and lesbians as members under condition that they attempt to live the church's moral code. The church teaches that homosexual feelings, as distinct from behavior, may sometimes seem to be inborn, and that although these feelings are sometimes unwanted, they can and should be controlled. The church's law of chastity forbids homosexual sex in all contexts. Consistently breaking the law of chastity may result in excommunication. Nevertheless, Latter-day Saints who identify themselves as gay or lesbian may remain in good standing in the church, without ramification, if they abstain from homosexual relations. In addition to opposing gay and lesbian sex, the LDS Church also opposes and campaigns against the extension of marital rights to gay and lesbian families that would, in its opinion, undermine the tradition of heterosexual monogamous marriage. Since the 1990s, the issue of same-sex marriage has been one of the church’s foremost political concerns. In 2008, the church participated in a campaign in support of California Proposition 8, which proposed limiting the definition of marriage to a union of one man and one woman. This mobilized many of its members to donate time and money towards the initiative. The political organization ProtectMarriage.com, the official proponents of Proposition 8, estimate that about half the donations they received came from Mormon sources, and that "eighty to ninety percent" of the early volunteers going door-to-door were members of the LDS Church. The church was criticized for its involvement by non-members and by some of its members, and in 2010, general authority Marlin K. Jensen personally apologized to church members in California for the church's role. Gender: An official statement made in 1995 by the LDS Church's First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles states that "gender is an essential characteristic of individual pre-mortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose". The LDS Church has no official policy on the status of intersex persons. Transgender persons are accepted in the church and may be baptized, but may not receive the priesthood or enter the temple if they are considering or have undergone elective sex reassignment surgery. Within the church, there have also been a number of unofficial statements regarding gender. For example, "Strengthening Our Families: An In-Depth Look at the Proclamation on the Family" (a book compiled by the School of Family Life at the church-owned Brigham Young University) states, "Although we do not fully understand the eternal nature of gender, we should acknowledge its meaning and purpose, and humbly seek to understand and appreciate the nature of divine gender distinctions in God's plan for His children." The book also states: "God created us male and female. This is not a mistake or a variety of genetic or hormonal chance. What we call gender is an essential characteristic of our existence prior to our birth. Gender is part of our eternal identity and essential to our eternal progression. Although we may not know all the reasons why this is so, we do know some of the reasons why gender is essential to our eternal progression. To achieve our exaltation, an eternal marriage between a man and a woman is necessary .... The sexual union between a married man and woman is, among other things, the means God has ordained to bring His spirit children into mortality, which is an essential step in the plan of salvation." In a contribution to a work on the church's 1995 official statement, Robert L. Millet writes that "over the last four decades, we have observed widespread consideration of ideas and worldviews that are destructive of individuals and families." He then discusses instances such as when men have been instructed to be stoic, or stern, to hide their emotions. He continues: "In general we could say that men and women, in and out of the Church, have been taunted and titillated with views concerning man, woman, priesthood, and family that are at odds with the revealed word and thus with 'things as they really are, and ... as they really will be' (Jacob 4:13) .... No person who revolts against the divinely established role and calling he or she was given before the foundations of this earth were laid can be happy or find real fulfillment, not here or in eternity." Apostle David A. Bednar stated: "Gender in large measure defines who we are, why we are here upon the earth, and what we are to do and become. For divine purposes, male and female spirits are different, distinctive, and complementary. … The unique combination of spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional capacities of both males and females were needed to implement the plan of happiness". Apostle M. Russell Ballard taught, "The premortal and mortal natures of men and women were specified by God Himself. … Sometimes women ask: 'Is a woman's value dependent exclusively upon her role as a wife and mother?' The answer is simple and obvious: No. … Every righteous man and woman has a significant role to play in the onward march of the kingdom of God."

Happy hour

Starbucks frappacino happy hour is going on. I'll go grab one as i need some energy

Religious debates over the Harry Potter series

Religious debates over the Harry Potter series of books by J. K. Rowling are based on claims that the novels contain occult or Satanic subtexts. A number of Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox Christians have argued against the series, as have some Shia and Sunni Muslims. Supporters of the series have said that the magic in Harry Potter bears little resemblance to occultism, being more in the vein of fairy tales such as Cinderella and Snow White, or to the works of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, the former known for writing fantasy novels with Christian subtexts. Far from promoting a particular religion, some argue, the Harry Potter novels go out of their way to avoid discussing religion at all. However, the books' author J. K. Rowling, describes herself as a practising Christian, and many have noted the Christian references which she includes in the final novel Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In the United States, calls for the books to be banned from schools have led to legal challenges often on the grounds that witchcraft is a government-recognised religion and that to allow the books to be held in public schools violates the separation of church and state. The Orthodox churches of Greece and Bulgaria have also campaigned against the series, and some Catholic writers and officials have voiced a critical stance. The books have been banned from private schools in the United Arab Emirates and criticised in the Iranian state-run press. Religious responses to Harry Potter have not all been negative. "At least as much as they've been attacked from a theological point of view," notes Rowling, "the books have been lauded and taken into pulpit, and most interesting and satisfying for me, it's been by several different faiths." Christianity- Evangelicalism: Most of the criticism of Harry Potter is from Fundamental Evangelical Christian groups, who believe the series' alleged pagan imagery is dangerous to children. Paul Hetrick, spokesman for Focus on the Family, an American Evangelical Christian group based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, outlined the reasons for his opposition to them: "They contain some powerful and valuable lessons about love and courage and the ultimate victory of good over evil; however, the positive messages are packaged in a medium – witchcraft – that is directly denounced in Scripture." Harry Potter has been the subject of at least six book burnings in the U.S. In 2002, Chick Publications produced a comic book tract titled "The Nervous Witch" that declared "the Potter books open a doorway that will put untold millions of kids into hell." In 2007 Jacqui Komschlies wrote an article in Christianity Today comparing Harry Potter to "rat poison mixed with orange soda," and said, "We're taking something deadly from our world and turning it into what some are calling 'merely a literary device.'" A common belief among fundamentalist Christians is that Harry Potter promotes the religion of Wicca, and so keeping them in public schools violates the Separation of church and state in the United States. In her response to Laura Mallory's court case, education attorney Victoria Sweeny said that if schools were to remove all books containing reference to witches, they would have to ban Macbeth and Cinderella. Jeremiah Films, a Christian video company largely known for its Clinton Chronicles release, also released a DVD entitled Harry Potter: Witchcraft Repackaged which stated that "Harry's world says that drinking dead animal blood gives power, a satanic human sacrifice and Harry's powerful blood brings new life, demon possession is not spiritually dangerous, and that passing through fire, contacting the dead, and conversing with ghosts, others in the spirit world, and more, is normal and acceptable." In 2001, Evangelical journalist Richard Abanes, who has written several books arguing against new religions and Mormonism, published a polemical text that made similar allegations to the video: Harry Potter and the Bible: The Menace Behind the Magick. Later editions incorporated comparisons and contrasts between Harry Potter and the more overtly Christian works of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. In an interview with CBN.com, Abanes remarked that, "One of the easiest ways to know whether a fantasy book or film has real world magick in it is to just ask a simple question, 'Can my child find information in a library or bookstore that will enable them to replicate what they are seeing in the film or the book?' If you go to The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings what you see in, story magic and imagination, it is not real. You can't replicate it. But if you go to something like Harry Potter, you can find references to astrology, clairvoyance, and numerology. It takes seconds to go into a bookstore or library and get books on that and start investigating it, researching it, and doing it." Abanes writes: "The classic passage dealing with divination, along with several other forms of occultism, is Deuteronomy 18:10-12: There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these thing are an abomination unto the LORD." "If this were the only passage dealing with occultism, it would be enough to forbid all of the practices found in the Harry Potter series. But there are numerous other verses to consider..." The debate has inspired at least two satirical Internet urban legends. In 2001, The Onion, an American satirical newspaper, published an article entitled "Harry Potter Sparks Rise in Satanism Among Children," which said that the "High Priest of Satanism" had described Harry Potter as "an absolute godsend to our cause." This article was actually copied into a chain letter and circulated among Christians as "proof" of their views. The following year the Canadian daily the National Post released a similar spoof article in its satirical column Post Morten, saying that "Rowling—or, as she shall henceforth be referred to and credited as, Mrs. J. K. Satan—said that as she sat in a coffee shop one grey day, wondering what to do with her empty, aimless life, it hit her, 'I'll give myself, body and soul, to the Dark Master. And in return, he will give me absurd wealth and power over the weak and pitiful of the world. And he did!'" This article was also copied into a chain letter and released as "truth" onto the web. In 2009, Matt Latimer, a former speechwriter for US President George W. Bush, claimed that during the Bush administration, "people in the White House" had denied Rowling the Presidential Medal of Freedom because the books "encourage witchcraft." While some evangelical Christians consider Harry Potter related to Satanism, a poll in 2000 indicated that this position remains a minority view. Seven percent of Americans who have heard of the books have a negative view of them, with 52 percent having a positive opinion and the remaining 41 percent unsure. This compares with 33 percent of Americans who identify themselves as Evangelical and 39 percent who take the Bible literally. In 2001 the Alamogordo Christ Community Church in New Mexico burned hundreds of copies of the Harry Potter books. Jack Brock, leader of the church, said the books were an abomination because they inspired children to study the occult. He and his followers admitted they have never read any of the books, and tossed in some Stephen King novels. Venezuelan scholar Fernando Baez, in a study of the history of censorship and book destruction commented, "There is more than one way to destroy a book, upon being denied a city permit to burn books, the Rev. Douglas Taylor in Lewiston, Maine, has held several annual gatherings at which he cuts the Potter books up with scissors." Some evangelicals have supported the Potter books: evangelical author Connie Neal, in her books, What's a Christian to Do with Harry Potter?, The Gospel According to Harry Potter, and Wizards, Wardrobes, and Wookiees: Navigating Good and Evil in Harry Potter, Narnia, and Star Wars, wrote that the books preach Christian values and can be used to educate children in Christian tenets. Mike Hertenstein of Cornerstone magazine, in his article "Harry Potter vs the Muggles, Myth, Magic & Joy," uses the term 'Muggles,' used in the books to describe non-magical humans, to describe Christians without imagination. Christianity Today published an editorial in favour of the books in January 2000, calling the series a "Book of Virtues" and averring that although "modern witchcraft is indeed an ensnaring, seductive false religion that we must protect our children from," this does not represent the Potter books, which have "wonderful examples of compassion, loyalty, courage, friendship, and even self-sacrifice." Italian Methodist minister Peter Ciaccio analysed the relationship between J. K. Rowling's work and Christian theology, stating that the Harry Potter series is the positive outcome of the encounter of the Jewish-Christian tradition with other important features of the Western cultural heritage (namely Celtic, Nordic and Classical). Catholicism: The Catholic Church has taken no official position on the books, but various Catholics, including officials of the Roman Curia, the hierarchy, and other official bodies have presented mixed views on the subject. Beginning in 2001, Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, has occasionally written on the Harry Potter series in his regular column in The Sunday Telegraph. In his columns, he praised the books for displaying values that are "deeply compatible with Christianity." In his book Be Not Afraid, Pell praised the books as having a "good dose of moral truth" and for being "a good yarn." In 2003, Father Peter Fleetwood, a priest incardinated in the Archdiocese of Liverpool at the time serving as an official of the Pontifical Council for Culture, made comments supportive of the novels during a press conference announcing the release of Jesus Christ the Bearer of the Water of Life—A Christian reflection on the "New Age." In response to a question asking if the magic presented in the Harry Potter series should be considered in the same light as some New Age practices warned against in the document, Fleetwood stated, "If I have understood well the intentions of Harry Potter's author, they help children to see the difference between good and evil. And she is very clear on this." He added that Rowling is "Christian by conviction, is Christian in her mode of living, even in her way of writing." This comment was seized on by the media as an endorsement of the novels from the Catholic Church, and by extension, the Pope at that time, John Paul II, though there is no evidence that the Pope officially approved of the novels. Also in 2003, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – who later became Pope Benedict XVI – received a manuscript of a book critical of the novels from a German author. He stated in a private letter expressing gratitude for the receipt of the book, "It is good that you enlighten people about Harry Potter, because those are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly." He also recommended she send a copy of her book to Fleetwood at the Council for Culture. In a second letter, the cardinal gave the author permission to make his first letter public. These letters from Ratzinger prior to his elevation to the papacy have been used to suggest that the pontiff was officially opposed to the novels. Criticism against the books also comes from one of the official exorcists of the Archdiocese of Rome, Father Gabriele Amorth, who believes that, "Behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the devil." He further told the Daily Mail that the books make a false distinction between black and white magic, while, in reality, the distinction "does not exist, because magic is always a turn to the devil." Amorth believes that the books can be a bad influence on children by getting them interested in the occult. Before the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in 2005, Msgr. Fleetwood, then serving with the Council of European Episcopal Conferences, gave an interview with Vatican Radio. In the interview, Fleetwood reaffirmed his positive opinion of the books, and remarked that then-Cardinal Ratzinger's letters may have been written by a member of the congregation's staff and simply signed by the prefect. He also stated that his and Amorth's opinions are just that, conflicting personal opinions of priests. For the film adaptations, the Office for Film and Broadcasting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has rated each film either "A-II" or "A-III", meaning the content was not found to be morally offensive. The Episcopal Conference named the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban as one of the ten best family films of 2004, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 as one of the best movies of 2010. The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, dedicated a full page to the debate in its 14–15 January 2008 issue. Essayist Paolo Gulisano said the Harry Potter novels offer lessons in the importance of love and self-giving, but Professor Edoardo Rialti described Harry Potter as "the wrong kind of hero" and said that, "Despite several positive values that can be found in the story, at the foundations of this tale is the proposal that of witchcraft as positive, the violent manipulation of things and people thanks to the knowledge of the occult, an advantage of a select few: the ends justify the means because the knowledgeable, the chosen ones, the intellectuals know how to control the dark powers and turn them into good… This is a grave and deep lie, because it is the old Gnostic temptation of confusing salvation and truth with a secret knowledge." However, in July 2009, L'Osservatore Romano praised the moral stance of the sixth Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, saying, "There is a clear line of demarcation between good and evil and the film makes clear that good is right. One understands as well that sometimes this requires hard work and sacrifice." It also noted that the film made clear that "the search for immortality epitomised by Lord Voldemort" was morally wrong. A French Traditionalist Catholic circle has published a thorough critical study of the Harry Potter series along the lines of demonology, with the title - in English translation - Harry Potter and the Order of Darkness. Orthodox: In 2002, the Greek Orthodox Church authorities in Thrace released a statement denouncing the Harry Potter books as Satanic, saying that they "acquaint people with evil, wizardry, the occult and demonology." The statement also criticised the purported similarities between Harry Potter and Jesus Christ, saying, "It is beyond doubt that Harry was made to resemble a young savior. Upon his birth people try to kill him, he is forever subjected to injustice but always supernaturally manages to prevail and save others. Let us reflect, who else … is held to be the unjustly treated God?" In June 2004, soon after a native Bulgarian, Stanislav Ianevski, had been cast to portray the character Viktor Krum in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church printed a front-page article in their official newspaper, claiming that "magic is not a children's game," and that the holy Synod had advised that a church in Sofia hold special liturgies every Thursday to cure those afflicted by spells or possessed by evil spirits. Pamphlets were posted throughout the city, claiming that reciting a Harry Potter spell "is as if you are praying to evil", and that "God hates magic." However, the Russian Orthodox apologist deacon Andrei Kuraev argued in his 2003 book Harry Potter in the Church: Between an Anathema and a Smile that the Harry Potter books are not dangerous. His arguments include the books' similarity with traditional fairy tales and literary classics such as the Iliad which no-one calls "Satanic"; the difference between the books' magic and real occult practices; the presence of Christian values such as humility, love, sacrifice and choosing the right over the easy. He quotes other notable Orthodox priests and church officials such as M. Kozlov and S. Pravdoliubov as supporting his position. The American academic and Orthodox Christian writer John Granger has analyzed the literature in a positive light. Granger, a Christian classicist, has defended the books in his book, Looking for God in Harry Potter. Granger argues that the books do not promote the occult because none of the magic is based on summoning any sort of demon or spirit; he contrasts occult invocational magic (calling up spirit beings to do your bidding) with literature's common incantational magic (saying a set phrase to use power from an unspecified source). Indeed, says Granger, the themes of love triumphing over death and choosing what is right instead of what is easy are very compatible with Christianity. Anglicanism: In 2000, the Dean of Canterbury Cathedral refused to allow his church to be filmed as part of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter film series, saying that it was unfitting for a Christian church to be used to promote pagan imagery. Gloucester Cathedral agreed to take its place; the Dean of Gloucester, the Very Reverend Nicholas Bury, admitted to being a fan of the books; "I think the book is a marvellous traditional children's story and excellently written. It is also amusing, exciting and wholesome, and is just the sort of story families should be encouraged to read." The decision still resulted in many angry letters to the local paper, the Gloucester Citizen. Said one honorary chaplain, "Oh yes, there was quite a to-do. There was one particular man, very evangelical, writing in and complaining that it wasn't right for such things to be going on. I don't think it was so much the film's subject matter but the fact that filming was happening at all." Similarly, Durham Cathedral also allowed its use for two of the films. Then-Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey gave positive remarks about the Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone film in his New Year Message for 2002, calling it "great fun," and a film that "asks some very real questions" on moral issues. In June 2007, the Anglican Church published Mixing it up with Harry Potter, a 48-page book designed to use parallels from the novels to teach the faith to 9–13-year-olds. The author of the book, Kent youth worker Owen Smith, argued that, "These sessions draw parallels between events in the world of Harry and his friends, and the world in which we are seeking to proclaim the gospel to young people. To say, as some have, that these books draw younger readers towards the occult seems to me both to malign J. K. Rowling and to vastly underestimate the ability of children and young people to separate the real from the imaginary." Latter-day Saint (Mormon): The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) has expressed no official or unofficial reservations or cautions about the Harry Potter books and movies, all of which are freely sold at the Brigham Young University campus bookstore. At least two prominent leaders of the church have even recommended the series and spoke of being fans because they teach morality and show good victorious over evil. Islam: The popular scholarly site Muslim Matters has spoken positively of both the books and the films. However a number of Islamic scholars have argued that the books' magical themes conflict with Islamic teachings. A series of online fatāwa have been logged by imams against Harry Potter, decrying it as un-Islamic. The Harry Potter books are banned in schools across the United Arab Emirates (UAE). According to a spokesman from the education ministry of the UAE government, the books' fantasy and magic elements were contrary to Islamic values. Despite being banned from schools in the Emirates, there are no plans to ban them from bookshops within the country. In August 2007, police in Karachi, Pakistan discovered and defused a car bomb located outside a shopping centre where, hours later, the final Harry Potter novel was scheduled to go on sale. The book launch was postponed in response. A local police superintendent commented that, "We are not sure so far whether the target of the bombing was the book launch, but the connection cannot be ruled out." While the Harry Potter books are available for sale in Iran, an editorial in the 26 July 2007 edition of the state-run newspaper Kayhan, which has ties to Iran's Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, criticised Iran's Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry for approving the distribution of the final Harry Potter novel. The editorial claimed that the book, "includes destructive words and sentences which oppose to the values of the Islamic Republic," and that airport security had failed by "trusting the American-British publisher which has Zionist collaborators, such as Warner Bros.." The editorial described the books as a "Zionist project" and claimed that "Zionists had spent billions of dollars" on it. Feiz Mohammad, the Australian radical Islamic preacher believed to have inspired the Boston Marathon bombers, decried Harry Potter for "paganism, evil, magic and the drinking of unicorn blood". Judaism: Many prominent rabbis have described the Harry Potter books as, in the words of one, "a force for good". In 2005, a conference at the University of Reading debated whether Harry Potter had a "yiddishe neshama" (Jewish soul). Sir Jonathan Sacks, the former chief Rabbi of the Commonwealth of Nations, claims that, in "a society in which adolescents are precociously adult, and adults are permanently adolescent", Harry Potter has "reclaimed the kingdom of childhood, proving that you don’t have to betray to enchant". The decision to release the final volume of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, in Israel at 2 AM on a Saturday morning briefly angered many of Israel's rabbis, since it fell during the Jewish Sabbath, a time when business dealings are forbidden. Book challenges: The books' inclusion in public and school libraries has been frequently challenged for their focus on magic, particularly in the United States, where it was ranked seventh on the list of the most challenged books in American libraries between 1990 and 2000 despite having been first published in the United States in 1998. In 1999, the Harry Potter books were challenged 23 times in 13 states. According to the American Library Association, they are now the most challenged books of the 21st century. However, the ALA notes that overall, opposition to Harry Potter in the US appears to be waning; having topped the list of the most challenged books in American schools in many previous years, they have to date failed to reappear in the top ten since 2003. Humanist commentator Austin Cline attributes this decline to school libraries employing "opt-out" policies which allow parents to prohibit their children from reading books they do not wish them exposed to. A selection follows of the more notable challenges to the books: In 1999, in response to complaints from three local parents, Zeeland, Michigan school superintendent Gary Feenstra restricted access to the Harry Potter books to those pupils whose parents gave written permission. Later reports claimed that the parents were concerned about the books' magical and witchcraft-related themes. In response, children began a letter-writing campaign, forming clubs and organising petitions, which ultimately merged into an internet site called Muggles for Harry Potter. Eventually the site took on a broader remit as kidSPEAK!, a forum for children to tackle censorship in general. In 2000, The Public Library system of Jacksonville, Florida was faced with a lawsuit from conservative Christian group Liberty Counsel of Orlando after they began awarding "Hogwarts’ Certificate of Accomplishment" to young readers who completed the fourth Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. One parent complained that "If they are going to pass out witchcraft certificates they should also promote the Bible and pass out certificates of righteousness". The lawsuit was averted after the Library agreed to stop awarding the certificate. That same year, Carol Rookwood, headmistress of St Mary's Island Church of England Aided School in Chatham, Kent, England, banned the books from school grounds, saying that, "The Bible is very clear and consistent in its teachings that wizards, devils and demons exist and are very real, powerful and dangerous, and God's people are told to have nothing to do with them". In response, the chairman of the Church of England's doctrine commission, Stephen Sykes, said, "The Church's position is that magic and sorcery are contrary to the Christian religion, Mrs Rookwood is absolutely right. But children who are capable of reading Harry Potter could be told not to take witchcraft seriously, or might even realise that for themselves". In July 2000, Birkenhead Primary School in Auckland, New Zealand placed a ban on the Harry Potter novels being read aloud by teachers in class after parental complaints regarding the books' supposedly occult content. However, the ban was lifted after a number of students and parents complained. Also in 2000, Christian parents complained to the school board in Durham Region, Ontario about Harry Potter, and managed to get the books removed from school library shelves. The books were reinstated after a public outcry. In 2002, in York, Pennsylvania, local parent Deb DiEugenio, along with her pastor, attempted to have the books banned from her daughter's school. DuEugenio said that "It's against my daughter's constitution, it's evil, it's witchcraft ... I'm not paying taxes to teach my child witchcraft". The school board eventually voted 7–2 to keep the books, with an opt-out for concerned parents. In 2003, Billy Ray and Mary Nell Counts, a couple in Cedarville, Arkansas, brought suit against the local school board on behalf of their daughter to contest a rule requiring parents' written consent to read the Harry Potter books. A parent, Angie Haney, had requested such a rule on the grounds that they were "not based on fiction," at the prompting of Pastor Mark Hodges, who was also a member of the school board. A district court judge decided the rule was unconstitutional. The decision was cited as precedent in subsequent censorship cases. Also in 2003, a Russian woman filed charges against Rosman Publishing, responsible for Harry Potter's Russian translation, saying that the books "instilled religious extremism and prompted students to join religious organizations of Satanist followers". A probe found that there were no grounds for a criminal prosecution. In September 2005, Laura Mallory, a mother of four children in Loganville, Georgia, attempted to have the Harry Potter books banned from her children's school library on the grounds that they promoted a religion, Wicca, and thus for a public school library to hold them would violate the separation of church and state. On her website, she states, "Harry Potter is being used to teach and promote witchcraft, Wicca, a U.S. Government recognised religion, in our schools, classrooms, and to this entire generation." Mallory said the books carry "evil themes, witchcraft, demonic activity, murder, evil blood sacrifice, spells and teaching children all of this." Mallory, who is a Christian missionary, said that she believed the books encouraged children to practice religious witchcraft or become Wiccans. Mallory also commented that she has not read the entire book series because "they're really very long and I have four kids. I've put a lot of work into what I've studied and read. I think it would be hypocritical for me to read all the books, honestly". Following her case's rejection by the school, Mallory then took her case to the school appeals committee, but was rejected again. On 20 April 2006, Mallory took her case to the Gwinnett County School Board, but on 11 May, the board voted unanimously against her. In June 2006, Mallory launched an appeal against the County Board's decision with the Georgia State Board of Education; that appeal was rejected the following December. In January 2007, she appealed to the Gwinnett Superior Court; that appeal too was rejected three months later. She considered taking the case to federal court, but spent the following summer with her husband and four children. She is now an ordained minister for children and young adults, claiming that her case against Harry Potter has inspired her to a new calling. In July 2006, Sariya Allan, a teaching assistant at Durand Primary School in Stockwell, South London, quit her job after she was suspended for refusing to listen to a seven-year-old pupil read a Harry Potter book in class. A practising Pentecostal, she told the girl that "I don't do witchcraft in any form," and that she would be "cursed" if she heard the novel recited. Allan took her dispute with the school to an Employment Tribunal, citing religious discrimination and claiming for damages. The school's lawyer claimed that, "her suspension was due to her obstructive conduct over time. It was not down to that day alone." The case was heard in June 2007 and the tribunal found in favour of the school. In September 2007, Pastor Ron Barker of St. Joseph Church in Wakefield, Massachusetts received international attention after pulling the books from the shelves of the parish's K-8 school. According to the ALA, this was the first time the books were banned in Massachusetts. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston claimed this was an independent action in which the Church played no role. "It may be a great series, but for some it is a vehicle for entering into some occult practices," he said. "Sorcery and witchcraft are not appropriate subjects for a Catholic school and I do not want parents or children thinking we approve of them in our library." He claimed his actions were no different from protecting children with a peanut allergy; "What I did is start a spiritual peanut butter ban on Harry Potter," he said. Responses to criticism- Wicca: In response to the criticism that the books promote Wicca, a number of Wiccans and other commenters have argued that the critics' definition of Wicca tends to lump together many and various spiritualist practices that actually have little in common. They have also highlighted the differences between magic within Wicca, which is invocational and derives from the divine powers, and that depicted by the Harry Potter books, which is a purely mechanical application of spells without invoking any deities. A Wiccan review of Harry Potter: Witchcraft Repackaged pointed out that "communing with the dead and spirit world, sorcery, curses, occult symbology, black magic and demon possession"—all cited by the book as evidence of Harry Potter promoting Wicca—are not part of Wiccan belief. Divinatory practices such as scrying and astrology, although occasionally employed by characters in the books are neither unique nor central to the Wiccan religion and are treated in the novels in a condescending, tongue-in-cheek manner; the school divination teacher is, according to writer Christine Schoeffer, "a misty, dreamy, dewy charlatan," who is ridiculed by the students and staff alike. In the Harry Potter universe, Schoeffer claims, "the entire intuitive tradition of fortune-telling … is discredited." The website religioustolerance.org says, in their analysis of Chick's "The Nervous Witch", that the comic's heroine cries that 'she got into "The Craft" (i.e. Wicca) "Through the Harry Potter books! We wanted his powers … so we called for spirit guides. Then they came into us." In reality, spirit guides are unrelated to the Witchcraft in the Harry Potter books and are not sought by Wiccans. They are a New Age phenomenon.' Occult vs. fantasy and fairytale magic: Regardless, statements such as those in Witchcraft Repackaged that the books depict actual occultist practices of any kind have been roundly criticised. Christian writer Stephen D. Greydanus writes that the magic of the Harry Potter novels is not the ritualistic, invocative magic of Wicca or occultism but the same "fantasy" magic practised in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis; "If anything, the magic in Rowling's world is even more emphatically imaginary, even further removed from real-world practices, than that of Tolkien or Lewis; and, like theirs, presents no appreciable risk of direct imitative behaviour." Christianity Today columnist Charles Colson asserts that the magic in Harry Potter is "purely mechanical, as opposed to occultic. That is, Harry and his friends cast spells, read crystal balls, and turn themselves into animals—but they don't make contact with a supernatural world. It's not the kind of real-life witchcraft the Bible condemns." Austin Cline notes that, "The Harry Potter books simply aren't about Wicca as it is currently practiced. J.K Rowling researched Wiccan practices and incorporated a few elements in order to give her books a bit more of an air of reality, but she and Wicca are drawing upon the same corpus of ancient traditions and stories so similarities are inevitable. They certainly aren't a sign that the books work to "indoctrinate" people into Wicca as a religion." In his book, John Granger makes what he thinks a critical distinction between what he calls the dangerous invocational magic (calling a spirit) and Rowling's incantational magic, in which the formula one speaks gets the job done, and says that her presentation to the materialistic world that there is more out there than is visible is doing a service for the cause of Christian evangelism. Connie Neal has commented that, "there are 64 real references to witchcraft in the first four Harry Potter books, but you have to see them in context to know they are not teaching witchcraft or sorcery. Many of the detractors who have actually read the books already have made up their mind that Harry Potter is evil before they read. They have taken a magnifying glass and picked at the books, using literary reductionism to find what they want to find. You can pick up Dickens' A Christmas Carol and do the same thing that these people have done with Harry Potter; it is ridiculous." In 2001, Massimo Introvigne, an Italian expert in emerging religious movements, criticised the Fundamentalist impulse to distrust fantasy. "Fundamentalists reject, or even burn, all products of contemporary popular culture, because their modes of production, languages and styles are not intrinsically Christian. Most children understand that magic is used in fairy tales and juvenile supernatural fiction as a century-old language, and that this is fiction, not reality. If we dismiss the use of magic as a language, we should at least be fundamentalist to the bitter end, and go against "Mary Poppins," "Peter Pan," and "Sleeping Beauty," and insist that Cinderella puts a burkha on." Secularism: Another response to the claim that the books promote the religion of witchcraft, which has been raised as much by Christians critical of the books as those who support them, is that, far from promoting religion, the books do not promote religion in any way. Apart from celebrating Christmas and Easter and a non-denominational clergyman presiding at both Dumbledore's funeral and the Weasleys' wedding, religious practices are largely absent from the books. In her critical editorial on the books, Focus on the Family's Lindy Beam comments, "The spiritual fault of Harry Potter is not so much that Rowling is playing to dark supernatural powers, but that she doesn't acknowledge any supernatural powers at all. These stories are not fueled by witchcraft, but by secularism." The Harry Potter books have been lauded by atheists and secularists for their determinedly non-religious outlook. Mika LaVaque-Manty of the liberal website Left2Right notes, "Religion plays no role in the books. There are no churches, no other religious institutions, nobody prays or meditates, and even funerals are non-religious affairs." When considering the role of religion within Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Christopher Hitchens observed the apparent secularism in the novel, stating that the characters of Harry and Hermione possess certain moral virtues while also expressing an ignorance of Christian ideas. In an article written for Time magazine before the publication of the seventh and final book in the series entitled "Who Dies in Harry Potter? God," Lev Grossman argues that, "Harry Potter lives in a world free of any religion or spirituality of any kind. He lives surrounded by ghosts but has no one to pray to, even if he were so inclined, which he isn't." Grossman goes on to contrast Harry Potter with other, more explicitly religious fantasies, such as C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia and J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Rowling's response: J.K. Rowling has repeatedly denied that her books lead children into witchcraft. In an interview with CNN in 1999, she said, "I absolutely did not start writing these books to encourage any child into witchcraft. I'm laughing slightly because to me, the idea is absurd. I have met thousands of children and not even one time has a child come up to me and said, "Ms Rowling, I'm so glad I've read these books because now I want to be a witch." In an interview on the Donny & Marie Show in 1999, Rowling said that "You have a perfect right, of course, as every parent does, and I'm a parent, to decide what your child is exposed to. You do not have the right to decide what everyone else's children are exposed to. So that's how I feel about it". "Practicing Wiccans think I'm also a witch", Rowling told Entertainment Weekly in 2000. "I'm not." "People underestimate children so hugely", Rowling said when asked about the controversy in the 2001 documentary Harry Potter and Me, "They know it's fiction. When people are arguing from that kind of standpoint, I don't think reason works tremendously well. But I would be surprised if some of them had read the books at all." In a conversation on Twitter in December 2014, Rowling tweeted, "To everyone asking whether their religion/belief/non-belief system is represented at Hogwarts: the only people I never imagined there are wiccans . . . it's a different concept of magic to the one laid out in the books, so I don't really see how they can co-exist." Christianity in the novels: While many describe the books as secular or Satanic, many writers, including Rowling herself, have gone to great lengths to demonstrate that the books actively promote Christian values. Rowling attended a Church of Scotland congregation while writing Harry Potter and her eldest daughter, Jessica, was baptised into that faith. "I go to church myself", she told MTV in 2007, "I don't take any responsibility for the lunatic fringes of my own religion". In 2000, when asked if she was a Christian by journalist Max Wyman of The Vancouver Sun, she replied, "Yes, I am, which seems to offend the religious right far worse than if I said I thought there was no God. Every time I've been asked if I believe in God, I've said yes, because I do, but no one ever really has gone any more deeply into it than that, and I have to say that does suit me, because if I talk too freely about that I think the intelligent reader, whether 10 or 60, will be able to guess what's coming in the books." "Personally", she said of her religious faith, "I think you can see that in the books. Of course, Hogwarts is a multifaith school." Rowling claims to have been very careful not to colour her novels in an overtly religious way, lest one faith be given prominence over any other. Rowling said that to her, the moral significance of the tales seems "blindingly obvious". The key for her was the choice between what is right and what is easy, "because that, that is how tyranny is started, with people being apathetic and taking the easy route and suddenly finding themselves in deep trouble." In an interview with MTV after the publication of the last book, she is quoted as saying, "To me the religious parallels have always been obvious, but I never wanted to talk too openly about it because I thought it might show people who just wanted the story where we were going." In 2007, Rowling described her religious background in an interview with the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant: "I was officially raised in the Church of England, but I was actually more of a freak in my family. We didn't talk about religion in our home. My father didn't believe in anything, neither did my sister. My mother would incidentally visit the church, but mostly during Christmas. And I was immensely curious. From when I was 13, 14 I went to church alone. I found it very interesting what was being said there, and I believed in it. When I went to university, I became more critical. I got more annoyed with the smugness of religious people and I went to church less and less. Now I'm at the point where I started: yes, I believe. And yes, I go to the church. A protestant church here in Edinburgh. My husband is also raised protestant, but he comes from a very strict Scottish group. One where they couldn't sing and talk." Rowling has occasionally expressed ambivalence about her religious faith. In a 2006 interview with Tatler magazine, Rowling noted that, "like Graham Greene, my faith is sometimes about if my faith will return. It's important to me." In a British documentary, JK Rowling: A Year in the Life, when asked if she believed in God, she said, "Yes. I do struggle with it; I couldn't pretend that I'm not doubt-ridden about a lot of things and that would be one of them but I would say yes." When asked if she believed in an afterlife, she said, "Yes; I think I do." In a 2008 interview with the Spanish newspaper El País, Rowling said, "I feel very drawn to religion, but at the same time I feel a lot of uncertainty. I live in a state of spiritual flux. I believe in the permanence of the soul." Rowling and the Inklings: Several Christian writers have compared Rowling to the Inklings, a group that included C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams, who explored Christian themes and morality in a fantasy context. Dave Kopel, citing John Granger's book, draws comparisons between Rowling's and Lewis's common usage of Christian symbols, such as lions, unicorns and stags. He compares the work to Lewis's Christian allegory: "In the climax of Chamber of Secrets, Harry descends to a deep underworld, is confronted by two satanic minions (Voldemort and a giant serpent), is saved from certain death by his faith in Dumbledore (the bearded God the Father/Ancient of Days), rescues the virgin (Virginia Weasley), and ascends in triumph. It's Pilgrim's Progress for a new audience." (This quotation predates Rowling's revelation that Ginny Weasley's full name is Ginevra, not Virginia.) Other Christian writers find Rowling's treatment of magic less acceptable than Lewis's and Tolkien's. In his essay "Harry Potter vs. Gandalf," Steven D. Greydanus notes that in the works of Tolkien and Lewis, magic is confined to alien realms with their own laws, whereas Rowling's world coexists with our own; he thinks this is wrong: "Lewis goes to great lengths to make clear just how dangerous and wrong, how incompatible with Christianity, is any form of attempted magic in our world." John Andrew Murray similarly observes that Rowling's work portrays magic as a natural force to be manipulated, while Lewis and Tolkien portray magic as a gift bestowed by a higher power: "Despite superficial similarities, Rowling's and Lewis' worlds are as far apart as east is from west. Rowling's work invites children to a world where witchcraft is 'neutral' and where authority is determined solely by one's cleverness. Lewis invites readers to a world where God's authority is not only recognised, but celebrated — a world that resounds with His goodness and care." Rowling's attitude toward the Inklings, and to Lewis in particular, has undergone change. In 1998, in one of her earliest interviews, she said that she had a lifelong love of C. S. Lewis. "Even now, if I was in a room with one of the Narnia books I would pick it up like a shot and re-read it." However, in later interviews she expressed a different opinion. "I adored Lewis' books when I was a child," she told the Sydney Morning Herald in 2001, "I got so caught up I didn't think C. S. Lewis was especially preachy. Reading them now I find that his subliminal message isn't very subliminal." In an interview with Lev Grossman in 2005, she said, "There comes a point in Lewis' The Last Battle where Susan, who was the older girl, is lost to Narnia because she becomes interested in lipstick. She's become irreligious basically because she found sex. I have a big problem with that." "I did not set out to convert anyone to Christianity," she told Time in 2007; "I wasn't trying to do what C. S. Lewis did. It is perfectly possible to live a very moral life without a belief in God, and I think it's perfectly possible to live a life peppered with ill-doing and believe in God." As regards Tolkien, Rowling said in 2000 that "I didn't read The Hobbit until after the first Harry book was written, though I read Lord of the Rings when I was nineteen. I think, setting aside the obvious fact that we both use myth and legend, that the similarities are fairly superficial. Tolkien created a whole new mythology, which I would never claim to have done. On the other hand, I think I have better jokes." Christian allegories in Deathly Hallows: A number of commentators have drawn attention to the Biblical themes and references in her final Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In an August 2007 issue of Newsweek, Lisa Miller commented that Harry dies and then comes back to life to save mankind, like Christ. She points out the title of the chapter in which this occurs—"King's Cross"—a possible allusion to Christ's cross. Also, she outlines the scene in which Harry is temporarily dead, pointing out that it places Harry in a very heaven-like setting where he talks to a father figure "whose supernatural powers are accompanied by a profound message of love". Miller argues that these parallels make it difficult to believe that the basis of the stories is Satanic. There is also speculation from The Leaky Cauldron's podcast, PotterCast, episode 115 entitled "Those Deathly Hallows," in the Canon Conclusion segment with Steve Vander Ark, that the Hallows act as a parallel to the Holy Trinity; Harry accepts death as did Jesus, they both come back from death, and defeat the Devil/Voldemort. Jeffrey Weiss adds, in The Dallas Morning News, that the biblical quotation "And the last enemy that shall be defeated is death," featured on the tombstones of Harry's parents, refers to Christ's victory over death at the end of the world. The quotation on Dumbledore's family tomb, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also", is from Matthew 6:21, and refers to knowing which things in life are of true value. "They're very British books," Rowling revealed to an Open Book conference in October 2007, "So on a very practical note Harry was going to find biblical quotations on tombstones, but I think those two particular quotations he finds on the tombstones at Godric's Hollow, … almost epitomise the whole series." Deathly Hallows begins with a pair of epigraphs, one by Quaker leader William Penn and one from Aeschylus' The Libation Bearers. "I really enjoyed choosing those two quotations because one is pagan, of course, and one is from a Christian tradition", Rowling said. "I'd known it was going to be those two passages since 'Chamber' was published. I always knew that if I could use them at the beginning of book seven then I'd cued up the ending perfectly. If they were relevant, then I went where I needed to go. They just say it all to me, they really do." Raymond Keating also outlines several Christian themes of the last book in an article in Newsday, concluding that "It's possible to read Lord of the Rings and Narnia without recognizing the religious aspects. That's even more so the case with Harry Potter. But Christian themes are there nonetheless". Christian commentator Jerry Bowyer says of Rowling's "fundamentalist bashers", "So much of the religious right failed to see the Christianity in the Potter novels because it knows so little Christianity itself. The gospel stories themselves, the various metaphors and figures of the Law and the Prophets, and their echoes down through the past two millennia of Christian literature and art are largely unknown to vast swaths of American Christendom." As regards Rowling's belief that discussing her faith would spoil the books, Bowyer says, "For once, I disagree with her: I don't think the bashers would have guessed the ending. Most of them can't recognise the ending of the story even after it's been told." In her appraisal of the series, The Mystery of Harry Potter: A Catholic Family Guide, author Nancy Carpentier Brown writes, "After burying the remains of Mad-Eye Moody, Harry "marked the spot by gouging a small cross in the bark with his wand." Now, if they were true Wiccans, wouldn’t he have gouged a pentagram? When Harry finally has the chance to face Voldemort (Tom Riddle) and possibly kill him, Harry pauses and offers Voldemort a chance, saying, "Show some remorse." ... Giving a person a chance to redeem themselves, to begin to realise your own sins, by showing remorse, shows a Christian theme to the story." Dumbledore's sexual orientation: On 19 October 2007, Rowling spoke at New York's Carnegie Hall. When asked by a fan whether Albus Dumbledore, the books' wise mentor-figure, "who believed in the prevailing power of love, ever fell in love himself", Rowling replied, "My truthful answer to you … I always thought of Dumbledore as gay. … Dumbledore fell in love with Gellert Grindelwald, and that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was … falling in love can blind us to an extent … he was very drawn to this brilliant person, and horribly, terribly let down by him." The statement was met with an ovation from the audience. "If I'd known it would make you so happy, I would have announced it years ago!" Rowling said. In an appearance three days later in Toronto, she responded to questions about Dumbledore's "outing" by saying that she had decided his sexuality "from very early on. Probably before the first book was published." Christians critical of both Harry Potter and homosexuality responded pointedly to the revelation. Christian author Berit Kjos wrote, "My first response was, "Thank you, Lord," because this helps us show others that these books should not be used in the churches to illustrate Christianity. Because Dumbledore has been revealed as a homosexual, it helps me communicate my message. It helps Christians who are concerned about the use of Harry Potter books in churches, because it makes it very clear that these books are not intended to be Christian, that Rowling isn't speaking as a Christian. She has introduced values that are contrary to the Biblical message." Laura Mallory responded to the Rowling's statement by telling U.S. network ABC, "My prayer is that parents would wake up, that the subtle way this is presented as harmless fantasy would be exposed for what it really is: a subtle indoctrination into anti-Christian values … A homosexual lifestyle is a harmful one. That's proven, medically." Linda Harvey, the president of Mission America, an organization which "monitors both the homosexual agenda directed at children as well as paganism among American youth," wrote an opinion piece for WorldNetDaily, asking: "Will we allow our kids to believe it would be perfectly appropriate for the headmaster of any school to be homosexual? … Will some find ways to re-cast homosexuality into something different than the "abomination" it's called in Scripture? Will it become something more like a sad disability, one that the "mean religious right" targets for nefarious purposes?" "It's very disappointing that the author would have to make one of the characters gay," said Roberta Combs, president of the Christian Coalition of America, "It's not a good example for our children, who really like the books and the movies. It encourages homosexuality." On 27 October 2007, Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network called for a ban on the books. Rowling commented on the dispute in an interview with the BBC. "Do I think a gay person can be a moral compass? I think it's ludicrous that we are asking that question in the 21st century. The Christian fundamentalists were never my base." John Granger, in his blog, reposted the negative reactions of many Christians: "The media presentation of the event as Ms. Rowling’s endorsement of homosexuality and an anti-faith agenda was straight from Rita Skeeter’s notebook and part of their endless campaign to convince the public that Ms. Rowling is the enemy of their enemy, namely, the Church; the anguished and disappointed response of many Christian readers to these reports was also according to Culture War formula and in keeping with a hyper-extended understanding of the word gay. "Dumbledore is gay" no more makes the books an invitation to homosexuality or contrary to orthodox Christian belief than Sorcerer’s Stone made them a "gateway to the occult." Catholic fantasy author Regina Doman wrote an essay titled "In Defense of Dumbledore," in which she argued that the books actually support Catholic teaching on homosexuality because Dumbledore's relationship with the dark wizard Grindelwald leads to obviously terrible results, as he becomes interested in dark magic himself, neglects his responsibilities towards his younger sister and ultimately causes her death. Despite Rowling stating that "he (Dumbledore) is my character and as my character, I have the right to know what I know about him and say what I say about him", a number of commentators have argued that Rowling's claim has no weight, as there is no indication anywhere in the novels of Dumbledore's homosexuality. "Ms. Rowling may think of Dumbledore as gay," said New York Times columnist Edward Rothstein, "but there is no reason why anyone else should." According to John Mark Reynolds, assistant professor of philosophy at Biola University and the founder of Torrey Honors Institute, "there is just no way to know this “fact” about Dumbledore from the books. It is not there, it is not relevant, and Rowling’s opinions about her characters are now only of historical interest". Others doubted that Rowling's claim was true to her original intent, and some considered it a publicity stunt. American writer Orson Scott Card criticised Rowling's revelation as "appallingly hypocritical", saying that "Instead of making us know and understand the character as a gay man, we are slapped with it at the end, as if being gay were just an afterthought".