I am a Christian.
What about The Lord of the Rings? Tolkien was a devout Catholic and is credited with being C.S. Lewis' biggest reason for becoming a Christian.
It is fantasy, yes. It is not reality. I personally feel that LOTR is better literature and does a better job of defining good and evil. However, I read books 4 and 5, and seen the movies, 1, 2 and 3 of the HP series, and do feel that it is decent literature, particularly considering that it is written in a post-modern culture by a European.
It is very accurate to state that power is tempting and has a tendency to corrupt. Saruman fell to the temptation of power in LOTR, and one would expect Harry P to be fighting those temptations. Aniken (sp?) Skywalker fell to to the Dark Side (unrelated sorry).
I also found the references to HP in the article to be misrepresented and taken out of context... severely.
Although I appreciate anybody championing for a Christian worldview, misrepresentation only harms that cause.
C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia and Tolkien's Lord of the Rings are both excellent examples of Christian-authored fantasy that are widely praised.
I cannot squarely place the HP series in with these two, but having attended to the all 5 currently available HP stories, and having read LOTR at least 5 times in their entirety, and thaving read several of the Chronicle's of Narnia books, I cannot pillory HP as demonic nor evil.
The HP series pits good vs. evil palpably, and the books' struggles are full of personal sacrifice for cause and friendship. Harry's friends take big risks to help Harry and each other. They do fight with authority when authority is astray. But, then there is the whole protestant movement, no?
Harry, if you pardon the expression, is kind of an ass. Because the story is from his viewpoint, we can see that the character the Rolling has created is self-absorbed, often selfish, but generally comes back to himself, does the right thing, and then feels a fool for his previous failures of understanding.
Synopsis... Article misrepresents HP. Stories are entertaining and are less harmful than reading the newspaper... With parental guidance, may be as useful as other fables in illustrating god vs. evil, sacrifice, honor, etc.
It was one of my favorite books as a child.
"Harry, if you pardon the expression, is kind of an ass. Because the story is from his viewpoint, we can see that the character the Rolling has created is self-absorbed, often selfish, but generally comes back to himself, does the right thing, and then feels a fool for his previous failures of understanding."
That's one of the best synopsises of the HP books I seen. And isn't it that paragraph the life of the Christian believer?