Is Harry Potter merely entertainment?

BP News ^ | 6-3-04 | Phil Boatwright

[BobbyBeeper]

FIRST-PERSON: Is Harry Potter merely entertainment? Jun 2, 2004 By Phil Boatwright

"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" Photo courtesy of harrypotter.com

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (BP)--"I love Harry Potter. I think it would be so cool to be a witch," Sharon, age 11, says.

That's my answer to anyone who says J.K. Rowling's adventure series is harmless fantasy.

While the Harry Potter book and film series has held a hypnotic fascination for youngsters, its thematic foundation is troubling. Arguably, perceptive children can view such material without succumbing to the snare of the occult, but it would be naive to think that movies and TV programs containing witchcraft are not aiding the rise of Wicca in our culture.

In a television special titled "Hollywood Spirituality" which aired several years back on E! Entertainment, Raven Mounauni, a professing witch and owner of an occult paraphernalia store, credited the 1996 movie "The Craft" with inspiring young women to explore the world of witches. "I get a lot of teenage girls in here. You can always tell when 'The Craft' has been on TV, 'cause we get a big influx of girls looking for supplies."

Occult practices shouldn't be considered just diverting amusement. Ouija boards, psychic readers and other forms of misleading supernatural entertainment should not be taken lightly. In Leviticus 19:26 we are instructed, "Do not practice divination or sorcery." There are several warnings in the Scriptures, both Old and New Testament, making it clear that we are to avoid witchcraft or anything associated with the occult. So if God is instructing us to avoid occult practices, how can we justify using it to entertain ourselves?

This may not be a popular view right now. The first Harry Potter film installment earned $969 million worldwide. J.K. Rowlings' five books on the young wizard have become a phenomenon, allowing the author to become the richest woman in England, with assets beyond $1 billion. That would indicate that many parents find nothing wrong with these children's adventures.

There are even a couple of books out right now exclaiming parallels between the Potter books and the Gospel. One author suggests the books help relate Christian themes and truths, opening the door for talking about things such as right and wrong, the nature of faith, loyalty, bravery and trust. Honestly, I think that's a bit thin. Yes, Rowlings’ themes deal with honor, friendship and self-sacrifice, but the kids in Harry Potter gravitate to sorcery in order to accomplish these attributes. And even if there are positive elements associated with the series, you simply can't ignore the witchcraft equation.

Members of Wicca teach a philosophy that embraces no absolute truth or sin and replaces the patriarchal male creator God of the Bible with a belief in both male and female gods. Its credo instructs members to embrace spirits and conjure spells in order to control their lives and the lives of others. There are millions of practicing witches worldwide. Indeed, Wicca has become one of the fastest-growing religions in the world today.

OK, it's good that children are reading. But what is it they're reading? Shouldn't that be considered? When an author makes $1 billion on five books that have sorcery as a main theme, and renowned secular critics hail the films as incredible filmmaking without examining their occult roots, I question what's really behind this phenom.

Is it merely entertainment? Or is there a dark spiritual source feeding and supporting it? I realize that may sound like a stretch, but often Satan is most deceiving with a glossed-over package. Wouldn't it be a shame if kids got pulled into witchcraft, while their folks thought of the books and films as merely children's fantasy? --30-- Phil Boatwright is a film reviewer and editor of The Movie Reporter, on the Web at www.moviereporter.com. (BP) photo posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo title: HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKAB

[jude24]

dungeons and dragons) are a game that directly involves you and calls you into INVITE AND PLAY with evil powers.

How does using character sheets and dice get you in contact with evil powers?

[exile]

"How does using character sheets and dice get you in contact with evil powers?"

I don't know about character sheets, but some mean dudes play yatzee.

[Xenalyte]

Bilbo is Frodo's uncle, and has adopted him. (Frodo's parents drown before the story starts.) Merry's parents are mentioned. Sam has a father.

[BlueLancer]

"Could you be the gate keeper?????"

Why? Are you the Key-Master?

[ASA Vet]

witches aren’t real.

One of my ancestors was hung in Salem as a witch.
She wasn't of course, but that didn't matter to the 1700 era religion of peace.

[Xenalyte]

How does using character sheets and dice get you in contact with evil powers?

Wouldn't YOU like to know?! :)

[jude24]

Wouldn't YOU like to know?! :)

Natural 20; guess you have to tell me.

[Tijeras_Slim]

How does using character sheets and dice get you in contact with evil powers?

If you use them to fill in your tax forms.

[pgkdan]

If either one of you wanted your Mom to have magical powers, you weren't getting into enough trouble. Shame! I'd have been a newt a long time ago.

You have a point except that when it came to knowing the bad stuff I was doing, my mom had the scoop before I ever got home. That was her magical power...almost never failed her.

[js1138]

All offstage. No icky relationship stuff on camera. Except between guys.

[what's up]

And their relationships figure into the story exactly how?

I was responding to your inaccurate comment that there were no blood-relationships in Book One and gave proof that you were wrong.

Instead of admitting you were wrong you want me to explain each relationship to you and how it figures into the story? LOL.

Are you implying that every man who writes a story about men is gay or something to that effect?

[Warrior Nurse]

Back in the day you couldn't read Slaughterhouse Five. Let's keep this in perspective what are Snow White Cinderella, Peter Pan etc? All fairy tales and involved magic. These Harry Potter books are good escape and if a child wanted to read a 800+ page book and be interested then so be it. It is better that Heather has two mommies or Daddy's roomate. Just something to think about.

[Proverbs 3-5]

So you must not be aware that Tolkien's models for TLOTR and The Hobbit were pagan epics? Where do you think the plot about the ring itself came from? The Volsung, of course.

I am very much aware that Tolkien was a big fan of Teutonic and Medieval type epics, there is no doubt of that. But borrowing from a model doen't mean there were not even greater influences on Tolkien.

Tolkien wrote in a 1953 letter to Fr. Robert Murray "The Lord of the Rings’ is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision."

His authorized biographer, Humphrey Carpenter, agreed that God was essential to everything that happened in the Lord of the Rings.

"The author’s Catholicism and arch-conservatism were instrumental in shaping his opus. (During the World War II Blitz, Tolkien kept a rosary next to his bed)... His Oxford friends included fellow don C.S. Lewis, author of "The Chronicles of Narnia." When they met, Lewis was a skeptic. Tolkien has the distinction of bringing back to the Christian fold the greatest Christian apologist of the 20th century. " ---------- Here's an except from another article:

snip... It was Tolkien's view of myth -- that it is always grounded in the reality of the transcendent God, (even if subtly) -- that ultimately shattered the barriers to Christianity for Lewis.

"Tolkien did not mean by 'myth' that it is defined as 'non-historical,'" Parker said, "but that it exhibits certain characteristics, certain ideas, recurring themes such as the dying and rising God, the sense of the moral universe behind things.

[georgia girl]

I've read all five books, seen both the movies, and plan on being at the theater tomorrow with my two neices (aged 6 and 4). Hopefully, God will not strike me dead for watching something about witchcreaft, and the girls won't attempt to cast an Unforgivable on me with their plactic wands. But if kids can watch Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, etc. (which all touch on witchcraft) without joining a coven, maybe the Harry Potter movies won't turn them to the dark side either.

[Xenalyte]

Well, dammit.

Okay, here goes. (Let's see if I can do this right.) When we sit down to play Dungeons & Dragons (I love being DM, by the way), we are casting ourselves as something God didn't make us - like an elf or a cleric or a bard - and therefore we're insulting Him.

Or something. These stupid you're-going-to-hell-for-that arguments make my teeth hurt.

[Tribune7]

There is a world of difference between The Craft, which was designed to be anti-Christian and Harry Potter, which is designed to be unrealistic fantasy (i.e. entertainment.)

[Junior]

Just trying to illustrate that there are people out there easily drawn to or influnced [sic] by things that people will say are harmless...

And apparently tens of millions more that are not so easily drawn or influenced...

Reducing everything to the least common denominator is an old liberal ploy.

[Xenalyte]

God will indeed strike you dead, and your poor nieces, if I don't do it first, you demon-possessed monster, you. :)

[js1138]

I was responding to your inaccurate comment that there were no blood-relationships in Book One and gave proof that you were wrong.

I engaged in hyperbole. There are in fact no human relationships in LOTR that require an adult mind to follow. There is a reason why such fantasy is written by childless middle aged British men.

[what's up]

I read a fascinating article tracing the parallels between LOTR and some of these myths expressed in Wagner's music. (I believe the author was speaking primarily of Wagner's work which was based on mythology and how much Tolkein despised Wagner's take on things.)

Anyway, this article said that Tolkein had actually adopted some of Wagner's themes and turned them around for Christian triumphalism. Interesting, but I don't know much about Wagner so can't say if I believe it's true or not.