The Pastor was right. The setting may be one in which witchcraft and wizardry are used, but clearly the story is about the pursuit of power at any cost, and the consequences of one’s choices for good or evil.
My main concern is for secular kids, reading the series, who may start to look up witchcraft on the internet or browse through the witchcraft section of the bookstore, stop into a satanist bookstore, try to cast spells. . . I think these scenarios are likely. These are terrible consequences.
That said, I’ve let my kids read them. We just talk first about what real witchcraft is, why it is evil, etc., and how the HP books are fantasy that do not show real witchcraft in truth, but pretend magic in fantasy.
One of my absolutely favorite sets of books, The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, has very important characters that are good and bad wizards. Christian author. Also C.S. Lewis has witches in his books, although they are bad. There is magic that is good in the C.S. Lewis books, and he was a thoroughgoing Christian.