Harry Potter

[alastairblake]

I have been reading about Harry Potter recently.. I have seen all the movies but not read the books. I am curious what you all feel God thinks of them, what you think of them, etc.

I can see good and bad in them.
I also know of the caution and serious discipline that God required in the OT for those who were caught dabbling in these things in real life.

Some seem to compare it to C.S.Lewis and JRT and their works, saying its fantasy like that. others say its different because of where power is derived from.

Id love to hear all your opinions.

[TK]

I have all the HP books on CD and have listened to them several times. The books (of course) are 10 times better than the movies, because there is so much more in them. The movies are good, they just by necessity have to leave a ton out. I believe the books are very cleverly written.

I would say the HP books are about as harmful as say, "Bewitched."

In HP's world, people are born wizards, they arent made. The go to school to hone their skills. In HP's world, magic is a way of life so one must learn to use it responsibly.

There is mention of "the dark arts" but always in a bad light. There are good wizards, and bad. The books are about good triumphing over evil.

To be fair, there is no mention of God in the books, although HP and his friends and their families do celebrate Christmas and Easter.

They are entertaining works of fiction, nothing more.

TK

[alastairblake]

Thanks TK! and i look forward to hearing other people too.

after viewing this webpage: http://www.godandscience.org/doctrine/harrypotter.html , I thought id come here and see what you all had to say. thanks again TK.

[TK]

Hi Alistair--

I thought you had probably seen a website like that. There are plenty out there just like it; I suppose the "mainline" evangelical view is to not recommend HP or outright condemn it as the spawn of hell.

The problem is that there is a lot of magic and wizardry in the Narnia and LOTR books but these same guys dont seem to have a lot of problem with them. And those books don't mention God either. By the way, I love both the Narnia books and the LOTR.

I admit however that is a bit of a stretch to say that HP teaches "Christian" themes (as the author of the article you references states some Christians say). I do not believe this to be the case, other than in the most vague way ("good triumphs over evil in the end although there is much suffering along the way").

I never talked to anyone who wanted to go buy a wand or a spellbook after reading HP. Most reasonable people understand that HP is make-believe.

TK

[backwoodsman]

The problem is that there is a lot of magic and wizardry in the Narnia and LOTR books but these same guys dont seem to have a lot of problem with them.

The similarities between Harry Potter and Lewis/Tolkein are superficial, and there are some big differences.

When HP first came out, some Wiccan witches objected to it, saying that real witchcraft shouldn't be promoted to children. Some of the witchcraft textbooks in HP have names that are changed just a little from real witchcraft books, such that if someone goes looking for the book in HP, they'll easily find the real one. Tolkein and Lewis, on the other hand, are purely fantasy with no connection to real witchcraft.

In HP, even the heroes are of questionable character regarding ethics and morality, and sometimes they win by displaying these traits. In Tolkein and Lewis, the heroes are of good character, and when they slip and do wrong things, they learn an important lesson; and the bad characters are of questionable or bad character. Which do you suppose is the better lesson for children?

Tolkein and Lewis were very well-known and very outspoken Christians, and made no secret of the Christian symbolism and themes in their works. The closest I've heard of Rowling in that regard is that she attends the Church of England regularly. I've never heard of her mentioning her faith or any Christian themes in Harry Potter, except when pressed by a Christian radio host.

I admit however that is a bit of a stretch to say that HP teaches "Christian" themes (as the author of the article you references states some Christians say).

In the spring or summer of 2005 I heard a program on Moody Radio, which went on for a couple hours about how HP is full of Christian themes and teaches Christian values. I don't remember the name of the host, but it was one of their major morning hosts at the time, and J.K. Rowling was the guest. Needless to say, it knocked my opinion of Moody down a few notches.

[TheEditor]

Greetings,

Noy really caring all that much, I'll still throw my two cents in. Fiction is just that, fiction. In point of fact, while I respect and enjoy the Narnia series, Lewis peppers mythological characters such as "Satyrs" (read the definition online) with great liberality. The mythos of half human-half horse/goat/what have you, and it's sexual aspects are well known. Yet, these characters are often considered good. In the HP series, there are also references to mythological creatures and "magic", but again, purely fiction and personally I would put it on par with whether or not one eats meat or vegetables only. On a personal note, there are at least one or two of the HP movies that I would have a bit of reluctance in taking a child to, because of the intensity of some scenes.

Regards, Brenden.

[alastairblake]

Thanks Brenden. I certainly agree with you on some of those scenes...