While the original debate about the “Harry Potter” series has settled down five years after the release of the first book, the June 21 release of the series’ newest book, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” may raise some new questions.
Written by British author J.K. Rowling, the five-book series details the adventures of a teenage wizard, Harry Potter, as he attends wizardry school in England. The series raised a storm of controversy because of its magic-centered themes.
Commentators such as Chuck Colson and Christian author Richard Abanes have discouraged parents from allowing children to read the books or see the subsequent movies.
Abanes, who has written for magazines such as Christianity Today, compares the series’ central themes with biblical teachings and explores some of the issues surrounding the books such as occultism, the place of fantasy in Christian literature and the use of “Harry Potter” in schools in his book “Harry Potter and the Bible: The Menace Behind the Magick,” (Horizon Books, Christian Publications, Inc.).
Abanes uses the word magick as opposed to magic to distinguish innocent sleight-of-hand magic from magick as practiced by those in the Wiccan and other occult religions
“The occult activities [Rowling] describes … clearly are references to magick practices that are part of the contemporary religion of witchcraft (e.g., palmistry, astrology, mediumship, channeling),” Abanes states in his book. “Rowling’s books, at the very least, will desensitize children to the dangers of occultism.”
Abanes also warns that while some have looked at Harry and his friends as teaching morals such as bravery or loyalty, the series is not “morally compatible with Christianity,” since the characters use “sinful behavior” such as cheating, lying and disobedience to achieve good purposes. “[Christianity] stands in direct opposition to using evil actions to conquer evil,” he said.
As Rowling wrote the series, she did not write them with children in mind, Abanes contends.
This was made evident in a National Public Radio interview with Diane Rehm in which it was revealed, according to Abanes, “[Rowling] actually penned them as novels that she, herself, as an adult, would enjoy reading.” Abanes also quotes Rowling as saying “I can tell you the books are getting a bit darker. Harry’s going to have quite a bit to deal with as he gets older.” This includes “discovering [his] hormones.”
While not discouraging the series as strongly as Abanes, Colson urged parents to teach their children to be discerning when watching “Harry Potter” movies or reading the books.
Although the series is often compared with C.S. Lewis’ “Chronicles of Narnia” or J.R.R. Tolkein’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, Colson said he doesn’t believe the “Harry Potter” books and movies show witchcraft in the same way. In C.S. Lewis’ classics, Colson said, the story takes place in a clearly allegorical world where archetypes of God the Father and Jesus still show final authority, while the “Harry Potter” story has no reference to God.
However, in 1999, Colson, on his daily radio commentary “Breakpoint,” told listeners that the characters in the book, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” show “courage, loyalty and a willingness to sacrifice for one another — even at the risk of their own lives. Not bad lessons in a self-centered world.”
Also focusing on the series’ positive themes, in January 2000, Christianity Today wrote an editorial titled, “What We Like About Harry Potter.” In the editorial, the magazine stated that “Harry Potter” books “have almost no resemblance to the I-am-God mumbo jumbo of Wiccan circles. Author J.K. Rowling has created a world with real good and evil and Harry is definitely on the side of light fighting the ‘dark powers,’” the magazine said. The Christianity Today article also described the books as a “Book of Virtues with a preadolescent funny bone.”
Christian author Connie Neal doesn’t try to persuade “Harry Potter” critics to change their mind, but she does present a positive assessment of Harry Potter.
“Some people will tell you they’ve found 64 specific places where ‘Harry Potter’ illustrates witchcraft, but my approach was that I could do the same thing and find the gospel,” said Neal, author of the book “The Gospel According to Harry Potter: Spirituality in the Stories of the World’s Most Famous Seeker” (Westminster John Knox Press). “I found more than 80 parallels. Once you start looking for it, you get an eye for it, and you see it everywhere you look.”
She also shares in her book, “What’s a Christian to do with Harry Potter?” how Christians can use the book to to share their faith and teach their children positive moral lessons.
Neal said she doesn’t expect readers will “accept all my musings,” but for “Christians who want to communicate with the world you have to know the cultural language.”
She continued, “Anyone working with this generation of people has a challenge in that we have to find a way to relate biblical truths in relevant ways, and one of the easiest ways to do it is tying it into pop culture.” Neal added that she once held neighborhood Harry Potter/Bible study groups at her home.
For further information and viewpoints about “Harry Potter,” visit the resources page of www.thealabamabaptist.org.
(RNS, BP, Erin Webster contributed)
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