Harry Potter

With the final release recently of J.K. Rowling’s conclusion to the Harry Potter series will come the inevitable questions of whether or not this is the type of story that Christian parents should be encouraging their children to read or if Christian should abstain from it because of the backdrop of witchcraft and wizardry. I’ll admit that I have not read any of the books (for me a rarity) but that I have enjoyed the movie versions. That being said, are we as Christians supposed to be withdrawing ourselves from anything that smacks of paganism, no matter what the other factors may be, or are we going to judge things on a case by case basis? {Oh yeah, if you’re going to be anti-witch in all forms, I’d better not catch you watching the Wizard of Oz, or reading Macbeth} I would like to suggest that we certainly should be avoiding the actual practice of the Wicca religion, as it, like paganism in general, involves the worship of the Earth as a god; as Christians we know that God created the Earth, and he deserves the glory and honor for its beauty. Certainly as Christians we don’t have any need for divination or fortune telling, be it tied to “psychics” or simply the horoscopes in the paper. We believe that God, not fate, controls the world, and as such we should not be anxious about the future.
Which eventually brings us back to Harry Potter. I would certainly not put Rowling’s work in the same league as J.R.R. Tolkien or C.S. Lewis both of whom used wizardry and magic in their attempts to tell a uniquely Christian moral message (Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings through example, Lewis in The Chronicles of Narnia through allegory). Rowling is not following in their footsteps. Her books are neither pro nor anti Christian, they’re silent on the matter of religion. Be that as it may, I don’t see any real harm in her books, and as an educator I’m certainly reluctant to condemn any book that students will willingly read on their own unless I have a serious need to do so. If you don’t feel comfortable with them, by all means abstain, but I think we should save our impulse as Christians to crusade against immorality for a more worthy target. Sadly, our world is full of disreputable TV, movies, and songs; Harry certainly isn’t Christian, but he’s not the Devil either.