New friend is setting off alarm bells!

[HappyI]

Hi, ive know my new friend for sbout 6 months through our children and we've grown quite close. She is a Christian and I'm.not, but we both respect each other's views. Last week, she and her daughter came over for lunch and my girl was watching my little pony. Her daughter wanted to sit and watch it to however, she said she doesn't allow MLP because it has magic in it which is against her Christian views (mermaids too seemingly). I switched it to something she was comfortable with despite her saying because it's my house its ok to watch.
I've continued to think about this and believe its a very extreme view and I just dont get it as she allows her girl to watch frozen. My own daughter asked me why magic and MLP is bad and I'm.not happy that this friends, in my opinion, crazy views are seeping into my daughter's conscience.

Other stuff is coming to light too such as having ridiculously unrealistic goals and I'm wondering if she's a fantasist and if I should step back from our friendship. TIA x

@SapphireSeptember

Fun fact, JK Rowling is a Christian. The bit at the end of Deathly Hallows where Harry sacrifices himself for everyone else and comes back to life if a pretty big analogy! So I never understand why the HP series gets so much stick from Christians. Tolkien was a Catholic, but his works also seem to get a lot stick from people who think magic is evil.

Like I said. Selective faux outrage!

@sapphire my old church went on and on about HP being dodgy and eventually as an adult I watched it - I hadn’t consciously not watched it prior to that, I just hadn’t got to it - but I saw exactly what you day in the final HP and to me there were real parallels with the Christian faith. Not dissimilar to CS Lewis.

People tend to get a bit silly.

Having said that if something feels wrong that the kids are watching I tend to switch it over but mainly because middle child is v.sensitive and I don’t want him getting nightmares so I’ve said HP is for when they are a bit older.

“HappyI

Streetwise Hercules, another Christian friend from the same church hits her child to the point he has serious behavioural problems. She seemingly believes children are born with sin and the parents should 'help them get rid of it.”

I do hope someone anonymously tips off social services.

I spoke to the school as this boy bullied my son terribly to the point he bashed my boys head against the ground multiple times ( thankfully my boy had his Helmet on). I expressed my concern re the boys behaviour ( 4 weeks of terrorising my son physically and mentally to the point that he was becomimg unwell. This boy is 6 btw) and told them as much as I felt I could without betraying the mums confidence. It was suggested she go to a parenting class just as she was advised when he was in nursery. I feel denial is a recurring theme with some religious folks.

I can understand banning MLP for their annoying voices but for their magic??

If your new friend is annoying you with their contradictions and theories this early on then I'd be shutting down any conversations about shared holidays sharpish

I think this is a fairly common sort of view amongst Baptist denominations. One of my oldest friends is a lifelong Baptist churchgoer and she was very selective about what her daughters watched and read, certainly no Harry Potter or anything supernatural, no Halloween etc.
I’ve known her since primary school and she was brought up the same way, in fact more strictly I would say, but it never affected our friendship except being a bit annoying when she can’t do things on Sundays because of church. That said, she did try to encourage me to go to her church when we were kids,, but coming from a Catholic family that didn’t really work!

Even if she were completely normal I’d never go away with a new friend unless we really perfectly clicked. Don’t do that.

The references in the bible are about sorcery and mediums, not friendship magic... tell your friend she is barking (up the wrong tree)!

Yeah, I'd just quietly back away. I find that sort of dogma a bit uncomfortable to be around.

Thanks everyone for your input! I'll discuss the magic thing with her and cool it a bit with the play dates to give a bit of space to see if I can shake the discomfort off and yeah, no holidays together! Appreciate your time!

Has your friend recently moved back to the area to be near parents? And has a name that begins with N?

I think I may know her

Haha no, I sense its quite a common belief though.

I stopped at she is a Christian

Sorry - I don’t want to derail, but your friend’s confidence is irrelevant when the welfare of a child is at stake and you should’ve told the school and social services exactly what you know about that poor abused child.

It's not that rare.

We had a Christian mum put a stop to anything Halloween related at school, particularly anything witch related.

A few weeks later she told me how much she's enjoyed reading The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe to her son.

I have no proof the child was hit, only that she had said she'd smack him for not eating his dinner and there is obviously a lack of bonding between them. I'm not going to involve social work when I have no tangible proof which would cause major unnecessary upset for all involved. She said he eats his dinner now so no hitting. We all parent differently. Ive raised my concerns with the school and asked them to involve the parents.

Im surprised the school bowed down to the pressure. The Christian kids just don't go to the Halloween disco. I always feel sorry for them.

I'm a Christian, from a strict family. My parents didn't restrict or comment on anything re: magic and neither did our church or school.
Personally, I refused to get involved with things like the ubiquitous 'ouija board' craze or any other bit of pseudo-occult teenage nonsense because I don't think it is very good for anyone, not because I had been indoctrinated.

Blimey!
Have you asked her how she explains the water into wine and loaf of bread into fish, coz if that’s not magic I’m not what is!

My husbands business partner wouldn't let his 4 children go to school, watch TV or use a computer because he was afraid they would learn the earth is more than 6,000 years old etc. They were also not vaccinated because he claimed the vaccines had something in them from aborted fetus's. The children were lovely to be around and even though we are a family of atheist we all got along very well.

I wouldn’t just say to my daughter to accept other’s views like that. It’s clearly inconsistent (frozen) and demonises something innocent - MLP. It’s also possible that her beliefs are as fantastical as believing in MLP. Some people would consider they are

Verbena I was just going to say the same thing .

I know people are entitled to believe whatever they want but I just don’t understand it when it’s all so illogical and hypocritical.

This is bizarre. What kind of Christian is she? I’ve been brought up in a VERY strict Catholic household, continue to practice, have dozens of family members and friends of all ages who are Christian, theologists, clergy etc and this is genuinely the first time I have heard anything like this. Nor is hitting your children something that’s acceptable.

There’s something very odd about your hometown church. It doesn’t represent how any Christians I know live.

All of our local Catholic Schools have Halloween Discos! I won a prize for my (witch) costume in infant school. Also, the Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe is actually an allegory about the Christian story...Aslan represents Christ. He’s put to death, rises again and restores peace to Narnia.