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All the arguments put forward in this thread are very interesting, but I believe, irrelevant. There are good reasons to be concerned about the effects some literature may have on vulnerable minds but the mainly American fundamentalist Christians who wanted the first HP book banned didn't reach a reasoned value judgement from the contents; they only looked at the cover.
The first thing they saw was the title, "The Sorcerer's Stone". That aroused their suspicions. Had the US publishers used the real title, it might have slipped through unnoticed.
Then they saw the words "Hogwort's School of Wizzardry and Witchcraft". They didn't need to look any further. The book banners have a knee-jerk reaction to words like "witch" and "witchcraft". Had J K Rowling used wizzard and wizzardry for both sexes there might have been less of an outcry.
The reason there wasn't the same outcry when LoTR was published in USA?: there's no mention of witches on the back of the book cover or in the advertising blurb. You have to look very hard to find the word "witch" in Tolkien's work.
By the way, I am a Christian myself. My previous Minister (he moved on last August) was a fan of both Tolkien and Rowling and often drew illustrations from their work in his sermons.
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