Yes, I've read the Harry Potter series, and yes I'm looking forward to going and seeing the last movie that came out today when I get the chance. This blog is normally reserved for family news and I don't usually sound off on issues, politics, etc. but the Facebook statuses that have been posted by dear, but misinformed, Christian friends and the hubbub of conservative Christianity putting on it's war paint and getting out the tomahawks to fight against the evil forces of witch craft every time something Harry Potter (a new book, a new movie) jumps into the limelight, really makes me laugh and also get angry. Two points always occur to me: 1. The people who are up in arms over Harry Potter have probably never really read the books. (After all, just touching the cover of a Potter book could make way for the devil to take over your soul). or 2. They have read them, at least one or two, and they simply don't know how to read because they forgot to pay attention in lit. class.
It always amazes me that so many who love and know every detail about The Chronicles of Narnia and the Lord of the Rings Series, suddenly get fangs, claws, and start foaming at the mouth when Harry Potter is mentioned. No one I've talked to has ever really been able to explain why the magic in The C.S. Lewis and Tolkien series is fine and dandy, while the magic in Harry Potter is corrupting out children's souls and putting them in danger of demon possession. After all Lewis and Tolkien both use witches and wizards in there books. The White Witch in Lewis' series is evil, Gandalf (sp? I'm not a Tolkien buff), a wizard in the Lord of the Rings series, is good. Gandalf even gets killed and comes back to life as Gandalf the White. (See any parallels to the last Potter book?)
Perhaps Christians feel iffy about the Rowling series because she is not a professed Christian. (But perhaps these same people would not consider Tolkien Christian if they knew he was and remained a devout Catholic all his life). Nevertheless, there is no doubt to someone who has actually attentively read her work, that Rowling is at least writing from a moral viewpoint and is drawing on classical literature to create her story. She is not trying to draw readers into a Dungeon and Dragons fantasy land. Rather she is telling a story about the forces of good and evil and the battle of good overcoming evil--the story we all love to hear, Christian or not. Rowling even warns against the desire for magical powers in the last book when readers learn that Aunt Petunia once desired to be admitted to Hogwarts and her hatred and "fear" of magic are actually just sour grapes and jealousy of her sister. Rowling is merely using magic and a magical world as a device and backdrop against which her character face dilemmas that require them to discover what it means to be a good and responsible person as they choose between popularity and doing the right thing. Rowling espouses virtues such as: friendship, loyalty, standing up against peer pressure, doing the right thing even when it is hard, and respecting and listening to authorities. Her character struggle with these issues and don't always make the right decisions because Rowling is trying to present real human beings rather than the cardboard, melodramatic "good" and "bad" characters that are so often seen in modern Christian fiction.
Finally it is quite irritating that while Christians are crying for Harry Potter to be burned at the stake, I have never seen anyone write a facebook status or get so worked up over movies and TV shows like Hangover 2, Desperate Housewives, and The Bachelor. (Ironic is a pale word when it comes to describing the phenomena of liberated women all over the country weekly tuning in to watch a man gather a harem around him and then run all the women through their paces before choosing the "best" one.) If you have or do watch these shows I'm not condemning you to hell or thinking that you have endangered your soul. I think you've wasted your time but that's you business and not mine. None of us can claim we haven't wasted time on something. I am merely pointing these out to say that the values espoused by these shows are shoddy, sensational, and definitely not moral or Biblical--all descriptors which cannot be sincerely applied to Rowlings books by anyone who has read them. While Christians are trying to tear down the fantasy world of Harry and Hogwarts, our kids are being exposed to thousands of books, movies, and songs that tell them that sleeping around is a necessary step to finding true love, looking out for number one is the only way to make it in the world, drunken orgies and having a potty mouth make you cool, and the Bible is for uptight, angry people who just want to spoil your fun.
Christians need to stop reacting to books like Harry Potter and start RESPONDING to them. Another person who reads the series might come to the opposite conclusion I have and decide Harry Potter is not promoting morals or good. That is fine as long as they can present good and informed reasons why they have come to their conclusion. This is the response that respected Christian writers have always had to contemporaries who promoted viewpoints in opposition to their own. Lewis read authors such as Wells and Huxley and RESPONDED to them with writing of his own. He didn't organize a book burning and invite all his friends to throw any book they didn't agree with onto the bonfire. I won't claim that Lewis or Tolkien would like Rowlings books. (They didn't even like each others work). But I think that they would give her a fair read and respond to what she had written in an intelligent manner. It's time for Christians to get out of the middle ages and learn how to read.
It always amazes me that so many who love and know every detail about The Chronicles of Narnia and the Lord of the Rings Series, suddenly get fangs, claws, and start foaming at the mouth when Harry Potter is mentioned. No one I've talked to has ever really been able to explain why the magic in The C.S. Lewis and Tolkien series is fine and dandy, while the magic in Harry Potter is corrupting out children's souls and putting them in danger of demon possession. After all Lewis and Tolkien both use witches and wizards in there books. The White Witch in Lewis' series is evil, Gandalf (sp? I'm not a Tolkien buff), a wizard in the Lord of the Rings series, is good. Gandalf even gets killed and comes back to life as Gandalf the White. (See any parallels to the last Potter book?)
Perhaps Christians feel iffy about the Rowling series because she is not a professed Christian. (But perhaps these same people would not consider Tolkien Christian if they knew he was and remained a devout Catholic all his life). Nevertheless, there is no doubt to someone who has actually attentively read her work, that Rowling is at least writing from a moral viewpoint and is drawing on classical literature to create her story. She is not trying to draw readers into a Dungeon and Dragons fantasy land. Rather she is telling a story about the forces of good and evil and the battle of good overcoming evil--the story we all love to hear, Christian or not. Rowling even warns against the desire for magical powers in the last book when readers learn that Aunt Petunia once desired to be admitted to Hogwarts and her hatred and "fear" of magic are actually just sour grapes and jealousy of her sister. Rowling is merely using magic and a magical world as a device and backdrop against which her character face dilemmas that require them to discover what it means to be a good and responsible person as they choose between popularity and doing the right thing. Rowling espouses virtues such as: friendship, loyalty, standing up against peer pressure, doing the right thing even when it is hard, and respecting and listening to authorities. Her character struggle with these issues and don't always make the right decisions because Rowling is trying to present real human beings rather than the cardboard, melodramatic "good" and "bad" characters that are so often seen in modern Christian fiction.
Finally it is quite irritating that while Christians are crying for Harry Potter to be burned at the stake, I have never seen anyone write a facebook status or get so worked up over movies and TV shows like Hangover 2, Desperate Housewives, and The Bachelor. (Ironic is a pale word when it comes to describing the phenomena of liberated women all over the country weekly tuning in to watch a man gather a harem around him and then run all the women through their paces before choosing the "best" one.) If you have or do watch these shows I'm not condemning you to hell or thinking that you have endangered your soul. I think you've wasted your time but that's you business and not mine. None of us can claim we haven't wasted time on something. I am merely pointing these out to say that the values espoused by these shows are shoddy, sensational, and definitely not moral or Biblical--all descriptors which cannot be sincerely applied to Rowlings books by anyone who has read them. While Christians are trying to tear down the fantasy world of Harry and Hogwarts, our kids are being exposed to thousands of books, movies, and songs that tell them that sleeping around is a necessary step to finding true love, looking out for number one is the only way to make it in the world, drunken orgies and having a potty mouth make you cool, and the Bible is for uptight, angry people who just want to spoil your fun.
Christians need to stop reacting to books like Harry Potter and start RESPONDING to them. Another person who reads the series might come to the opposite conclusion I have and decide Harry Potter is not promoting morals or good. That is fine as long as they can present good and informed reasons why they have come to their conclusion. This is the response that respected Christian writers have always had to contemporaries who promoted viewpoints in opposition to their own. Lewis read authors such as Wells and Huxley and RESPONDED to them with writing of his own. He didn't organize a book burning and invite all his friends to throw any book they didn't agree with onto the bonfire. I won't claim that Lewis or Tolkien would like Rowlings books. (They didn't even like each others work). But I think that they would give her a fair read and respond to what she had written in an intelligent manner. It's time for Christians to get out of the middle ages and learn how to read.
Comments
A big AMEN!!
MATT
MATT
brittany