LONDON (Reuters) -- Harry Potter, the fictional young wizard who captured children's imagination all over the world, has been banished from one English school because his magical powers go against the teachings of the Bible.
The head teacher of St. Mary's Island Church of England school in Chatham, Kent, says the tales of wizardly adventures do not conform with her school's "church ethos.""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," Carol Rookwood told the BBC on Wednesday.
"We are a Church of England-aided primary school, which means the church ethos is very important to what we do," she said.
The Harry Potter adventure books, written by British author JK Rowling, have already sold more than 18 million copies in the United States alone.
The fourth book in the series, in which Harry begins taking an interest in girls and confronts death for the first time, is due out on July 8, but early orders have already taken it to the top of Internet bookseller Amazon's Hot 100 bestsellers' list.
The British head teacher said she had the full support of parents of children at her school. She added that the ban applied to other books, videos and television programmes that portray witches and wizards as harmless and fun chracters.