Harry Potter Comments
25th July 2005
Ran across the below blog entry and wanted to comment as the subject has been coming up quite a bit.
PyroManiac: Harry Potter and the Dark Maven of BlogSpotting
First off, let me state that one thing that I have been noticing in Christendom is the lax attitude towards secularism. Even more alarming is the brethren that bash (or try to put in a negative light) those who speak out against things such as Harry Potter and witchcraft. If you read the comments on Phil’s blog you can get a sample of such attitude.
For example, “If your child’s grasp of Christianity is so tenuous that Harry Potter can turn him to the dark side, then you have failed in your covenant duties as a parent. Further, Hogwart’s is little more than a fanciful adaptation of British public school life.” Now I ask you, does that comment cast a negative light on the brethren who have decided they are not going to let their children read Harry Potter? Does that comment make it seem that there is absolutely nothing wrong with Harry Potter? Has the person making the comment investigated the claims made about Harry Potter books and their ties to witchcraft?
The problem with the lax attitude mentioned above is that it eventually leads to crossing the line. Can you picture John Calvin (I use him as an example because many people are familiar with his writings) endorsing works along the lines of Harry Potter and telling his fellow brothers and sisters that it is ok to support such works? The fact is, Harry Potter glorifies witchcraft for young children. Now for the mature Christian, I don’t see much harm in reading anything. However, for baby Christians and especially for children, the things Harry Potter glorifies could be detrimental.
So to all those who think there is nothing wrong with Harry Potter, I challenge you to ask yourself if Jesus would approve of it. You may find that your answer could possibly be “yes” in certain situations but I highly doubt that anyone can honestly answer, “Jesus doesn’t mind if I let my children read books that glorify witchcraft”. In addition, I challenge you to search the Scripture on the subject of educating your children and see if there is room for books that glorify witchcraft (because they are written well). Does the author of the Harry Potter books stand for Christ or against Him? Is her message meant to glorify God? Should Christians be supporting her?
Deuteronomy 6:5-9
Proverbs 22:6
Ephesians 6:4
AMDG
July 26th, 2005 at 13:15
Good post. I couldn’t agree more with you Brian. There is too much other, better, reading material to spend time with. Why settle for bad fantasy literature that at worst magnifies witchcraft, at best naively believes “other-worldiness” (the spirit realm) is just that, fantasy. This seems, to me, to just be another example of how American Christians have been subsumed by secular culture, i.e. materialism has overshadowed spirituality to the point that the spiritual has no impact upon “what we can see”. And if this is true we, as Christians are in trouble, because “God is Spirit” ( Jn 4:24).
July 29th, 2005 at 15:39
[…] More on Harry Potter You can see my original comments on this subject here. I ran across this interview with Richard Abanes at challies.com and I wanted […]