[discostu]

Good and evil are very clearly defined in HP. Good is having a desire to help people and protect those less powerful, evil is the desire to control people especially those less powerful. There certainly is better stuff out there for Christians, but that doesn't make HP bad for Christians, sometimes everybody has to relax and entertain themselves.

[Antoninus]

There certainly is better stuff out there for Christians, but that doesn't make HP bad for Christians, sometimes everybody has to relax and entertain themselves.

As someone who grew up playing Dungeons & Dragons and similar games and listening to groups like Iron Maiden, I can speak from experience. It CAN be harmless if the kid reading/playing it comes from a solid family where support, instruction, and guidance in proper Christian teaching is readily available.

The problem is with kids who have no such support--and especially those who live in negative or difficult circumstances (broken home, dysfunctional home, etc.) These kids use this kind of stuff as an escape from reality--and for some of them, it BECOMES their reality.

In truth, most of my friends, my brother and I all turned out ok. However, I do know of a few people as described above who got into some really crazy stuff: satanism, drugs, wicca, psychiatric problems, etc.

And having attended some of these "fantasy/sci-fi" conventions, the people who lurk there are often EXTREMELY hostile to Christianity. Knowing what I know about them now, I would NEVER expose my kids to these people.