Posted on 07/23/2007 7:04:00 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback
If there’s a child in your house, then you probably know what’s going to happen when the clock strikes 12 tonight. The final Harry Potter book—Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—will be unleashed on the world.
The big question that has millions of kids on edge: Will Harry live—or will he die?
But the big question many parents have is: Should their kids be reading novels about wizards and witches and magic?
A Christian expert on Potter mania says, “It depends.”
Connie Neal, a veteran youth pastor and mother of three, is the author of a book titled What’s a Christian To Do with Harry Potter? Neal says parents must use discernment in deciding whether to allow their kids to read Harry Potter. For example, kids with an unhealthy interest in the occult should probably not read these books. Other Christians believe their kids benefit from the moral lessons the Potter books teach.
Neal’s belief that it’s okay for Christians to read secular novels comes from her reading of the biblical book of Daniel. Daniel, you will remember, was a teenager when he was taken away from Jerusalem to live in exile in Babylon. There, he was taught the language and literature of the pagan culture. He studied at a school that trained Babylon’s magicians, astrologers, and sorcerers. The actual practice of sorcery and astrology was, of course, forbidden by God. But Daniel studied it well to understand it.
One day King Nebuchadnezzer called on his magicians and astrologers to interpret a dream; none could do it. In a rage, the king ordered that all of his wise men be put to death. Daniel asked to see the king, who then asked him, “Are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen and its interpretation?” Daniel responded: “No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery which the king has asked, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days.”
Daniel had immersed himself in his culture’s pagan literature in order to understand it. But, because of his deep devotion to God, he didn’t defile himself. As Connie Neal told BreakPoint, “God put Daniel in Babylon to be a light in the darkness—and he was. He was not afraid to read literature that resounded in the hearts of the people with whom he lived. He used his familiarity with this pagan literature to reveal the true and living God.” And Neal knows some kids who have done the same in our own post-Christian culture.
Now personally, I don’t recommend the Potter books. I’d rather Christian kids not read them. But with some 325 million of them in print, your kids will probably see them and hear others talk about them, and they’re probably going to read them anyway. So use this occasion to teach them to be discerning—like Daniel. Dare them to have Daniel as their role model, not Harry Potter.
And if your kids do enjoy Harry’s magical world, you should give them copies of C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books and Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.
These books also feature wizards and witches and magic, but in addition, they inspire the imagination within a Christian framework—and prepare the hearts of readers for the real-life story of Jesus Christ.
Those people would be those living in darkness.
Oh wow, that is creepy. I swear I was singing that in my head, then I hit my comments and saw it typed.
LOL!
You’re added! See you tomorrow.
All of this hullabaloo about a bleeding work of fiction?
None of those books are in any way comparable to Harry Potter. Talk about comparing apples to hand grenades.
Potter is fantasy. It is no more harmful than Mickey Mouse, Snow White, Santa Claus, or the Easter Bunny.
Not true. Don’t have to be black to understand racism. Don’t have to read the books or see the movies because I can read reviews. I don’t have to be in the occult and practice it to know about it or know that it is wrong. Just like i don’t have to be alcoholic to know that alcoholism is bad.
What I do know is that the HP stories are full of the occult and occult imagery. Many of his teachers are dead. They practice spells. They have wizards and witches there. They have classes on how to use charms. A teacher that transfigures from animal form to human form. Conjuring up the dead.
The HP books encapsulate occultic events between the ‘good’ side and the ‘evil’ side, that it’s about the fight between good and evil. God says anyone who does this stuff is doing evil. Whether they think they’re doing good or not.
The HP books are not anything new in terms of painting something God says is evil and you shouldn’t be involved in. It’s a new twist on an old theme.
That’s silly, it’s Harry Potter, not Mein Kampf. Get a grip.
Too bad as a parent you can’t get your kid into God’s Word where he/she can really learn much more about His word, instead of from a fictional book using witchcraft to get a message across.
Randal Graves: Oh, I’m crazy? Those f****n’ hobbit movies were boring as hell. All it was, was a bunch of people walking, three movies of people walking to a f*****g volcano.
Randal Graves: [describing the Lord of the Rings Trilogy] Here’s the first movie.
[walks a few steps, staring blankly]
Randal Graves: And here’s the second movie.
[walks a few steps again, pretends to trip]
Hobbit Lover: He is way off, loser.
Randal Graves: You ready for the third movie?
[walks yet again, stops, pretends to throw the ring into the volcano. Shrugs his shoulders and turns around]
Randal Graves: Even the trees walked in those f****n’ movies.
Mark
Worse is Snow White. A young lady should not live with 7 surly men no matter how short they maybe...
1. What? Jedi knights aren't real? How did you figure that out? Did you operate under the delusion that they were real until you were 18 or so, or did you know you were watching a movie? Or, did your parents shield you from the evil that is Luke Skywalker?
2. The Force shares some aspects with Eastern religions. So, perhaps a better question would be, did you see a lot of kids coming out of Star Wars screenings and converting to buddhism or the hare Krishna cult?
Like I said, any kid who goes into witchcraft after reading a OPotter book is a nut with dumb parents.
Also, one message you find throughout the HP theme is that magic is okay under certain circumstances if your intentions are good. You won’t find that in the Bible.
As far as I can tell, the sole difference is the religion of the authors (I'm not saying Rowling isn't a Christian, I have no idea) and the newness of the Potter books. For the most part, Lewis' magic all came direct from Aslan or from evil sources (the White Queen, etc.) but as far as I know Tolkien and Rowling both use standard mechanics-based fantasy magic. Heck, Tolkien even has ghosts.
“Are we going through this nonsense again? This debate has been going on since the first Potter Book. Get on with other things.”
Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to have: Are we going through this nonsense again? This debate has been going on since that book, [insert fantasy book title]. Get on with other things.
Agreed. Teaching kids that casting a spell to get others to do what you want is wrong.
It’s not just the sorcery, which is evil, but it goes against the respect for individual freedom that America is based on.
Funny coincidence, that's what got me to stop building my X-Wing.
Have you been turned into a toad recently?
Does anyone know what they said about the CS Lewis books when they first came out? Were they considered Christian literature or books with sorcery, so they shouldn’t be read.
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