Replies

“Harry Potter is replete with Christian themes. Good vs. Evil, loyalty, sacrifice, Love...anyone who thinks otherwise has not read the books.”

Well, good vs Evil is a “theme” in Das Capital but that doesn’t make it consistent with Christianity. “Love” is a theme of “Lolita” but that doesn’t make it consistent with Christianity. Dianetics talks about loyalty between Scientologists and to their organization . . . and on and on.

This “theme” argument seems to me a rationalization by Christian parents who don’t want to make a hard decision to keep this stuff out of their children’s lives. Every culture and religion deals with love, loyalty, friendship etc. and their art reflects that. So almost any book can be rationalized as consistent with Christianity by the theme argument. The real question is, are those universal “themes” accompanied by other themes that are not consistent with Christianity? Das Kapital, Lolita and Dianetics have other themes in them that are odious and children should not be exposed to “Cool Kids are communists” books, imho.

The theme of Harry Potter that actually has to do with God
and Christianity is:

“The really cool kids do occult stuff, they win and everything turns out OK. People who don’t do occult (Muggles) are incredibly square and to be patronized and tolerated.”

It’s marketing—no different than: “Cool guys drink our beer and beautiful women hang with them” except, of course, the subject matter being marketed.

Whether intentionally or not, Harry Potter is incredibly effective marketing for the occult. I suspect the author just doesn’t believe in demons and thinks it’s a rousing good story, which the first movie was (I went to see it to screen it for my boy).

If you don’t believe there is a devil and demons, then just say so. If you are not Christian, just say so. But don’t portray the book as “consistent with Christianity because of it’s themes;” because it is not.

If you believe in demons and are a professing Christian, then the Bible is unambiguous about the role the occult should play in a Christian’s life. Based on that, it has always seemed to me that giving your kids occult marketing materials was a, duh, really bad idea. But I know a lot of professing Christians disagree.

I realize this is a very unpopular opinion to express on FR and the pile-on will now commence. But the author of the Bible wasn’t running for class president and I’m just a Muggle, who could never win a popularity contest anyway.

Harry Potter is replete with Christian themes. Good vs. Evil, loyalty, sacrifice, Love...anyone who thinks otherwise has not read the books.

Absolutely! Also the powers wielded are inherently genetic, not derived from satanic/demonic sources; and follow strict 'natural laws' analogous to scientific laws.

Even the evil antagonists are internally evil, not possessed, using their neutral (as a gun is neutral) abilities for their own internal evil purposes.

One of the main lessons is that the capacity for good and evil is internal to each person, and it is the individual who chooses which to manifest. Another is that by chosing evil, one ultimately destroys themself from within. Also, good wins the war, even if evil manages to win a battle or three.