I think you're more or less correct, but you seem to be judging Charity's all-too-human failings quite harshly.
"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."
As Harry notes, modern scholarship puts gives us a *MUCH* more nuanced understanding of this verse.
But from what we understand of Charity's upbringing... that's probably how she felt about the matter.
Her background with magic was something she was ashamed of. She never really took any time to really think about it, come to a deeper understanding. She felt a reflexive dread, and shied away from addressing the issue, doing the emotional work that her own background would have required, if she were to address the issue rationally.
The overall Scriptural view of magic is still negative, including the New Testament.
Charity is not just
ashamed of magic, she's
afraid of it And with
very good reason. She nearly came to disaster because of her own fairly minor Talent, and only Michael prevented it. Or to put it another way, Charity was rescued by Divine intervention.
Magical talent
is dangerous in the DV. It can be useful, but it also makes you a target, in several different ways. Magic users are more tasty and tempting to White Vampires. They are useful pawns and tools for bad actors like Victor Sells (or Charity guru). Their interests take them to the very places where monsters are likely to show up.
(You're more likely to run into a White Vampire by chance at Mac's than you are at the local McDonald's. You've got a higher chance of meeting up with a bad-intentioned player at Bock's than at Barnes and Noble. Etc.)
Plus, of course, the risk that one could inadvertently violate one of the Seven Laws and then the relative
good guys will hunt you down and
behead you.
I realized a long time ago that for a person possessed of a fairly minor Talent in the DV, Charity is basically
right. Your best bet is to turn away from it. It'll almost surely bring you more Trouble than benefit to pursue it.
If you have a somewhat stronger Talent,
and if you have a
trustworthy mentor or teacher, the equation changes. The benefits might outweigh the costs then. But finding such a mentor is no easy thing, and there are many, many ways for it to Go Wrong.
This is an example I've cited before, but it's relevant: imagine you're a modest-or-stronger Talent trying to figure out how to use your powers. You discover two textbooks in the magic shops:
Elementary Magic by E. McCoy, and
Basic Magic by E. Relmmek.
Both purport to be introductory textbooks for magical theory and practice. Both are full of useful information, exercises, and examples. Both have the necessary information to let you increase your skills and learn to use your Talent.
How are you supposed to know that you can trust McCoy, but that you should burn the Relmmek textbook in the hottest fire available, while handling it with gloves?
Charity's attitude is 95% reasonable and well-founded. Molly fell through the cracks of the other 5%, but that's not to say that Charity is
wrong, because she's mostly right for most people most of the time.
