Some Thoughts on the Harry Potter Series

Michael O'Brien is the author of eleven books, including several best-selling Catholic novels, notably, Father Elijah. He has authored children's books as well, and the critically praised assessment of the pagan invasion of children's culture, "A Landscape With Dragons: the Battle for Your Child's Mind," published by Ignatius Press.

There is currently a strong controversy raging over J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. Because I have six children of my own, all of them avid readers with an interest in fantasy literature, I have followed it closely. It is interesting to note that the truly reasonable arguments are all on the side of caution regarding the Potter series. By contrast, the pro-Harry articles lack any serious reflection on the issues involved. Their opinions can generally be boiled down to this: "Now, now, let's not get paranoid here. Isn't it wonderful to see kids enthusiastic about reading?" That is no argument at all, because there are a great many things to be cautious about in our present secular culture (calm vigilance is not necessarily paranoia), and children are frequently enthusiastic about unhealthy interests. Librarians around the English-speaking world have noted that due to the unprecedented marketing pressure and media attention surrounding these books, and the resulting fascination young readers have for them, a spin-off phenomenon is occurring. Among the young, an interest in witchcraft, sorcery, and allied occult activity is growing at an astonishing rate. Some libraries now put their occult section beside the Potter books, to make access easier for young readers. Thus, millions of children, including large numbers of Catholic children, are getting involved in spiritually and psychologically dangerous activity. Harry Potter provided the role model.

I was not impressed by the four books in Rowling's series, despite all the media hype that tells us how wonderful they are for young readers. And I strongly disagree with those reviewers (sadly, even some Catholic reviewers) who compare her work to solid Christian fantasy writing such as C.S. Lewis's Narnia series, or J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, or the imaginative novels of George MacDonald. The comparison is only superficial. At root, Rowling's objective is to interest the young in a spiritual path that is the converse of what healthy Christian fantasy is about. The use of "magic" in Christian fantasy is always for the reinforcing of the moral order of the universe, the development of man's proper use of freedom. Rowling, by contrast, tries to turn that order topsy-turvy. The subtle and unsubtle manipulation which she uses to control the child's mind is obvious from the first few pages, prompting one to wonder if this is a deliberate attempt at indoctrination. Among the many dubious messages, presented with charm and power, there are these: occult activity is liberating, noble, exciting, and not what your parents and Christians in general say about it. Coupled to this message is the gross characterization of traditional families, and anyone else who objects to the occult, as abusive hypocrites. The line between good and evil is significantly shifted, and the child enticed into a radically changed worldview, one in which activities known for over 4000 years to be extremely dangerous to mind and soul are now presented as positive forces.

Potter-frenzy and Potter-hype are suddenly everywhere, from school to shopping-center to library, affecting many millions of children. The promotion of such books even in Catholic schools should alert us to the fact that the Catholic community is suffering a grave loss of discernment. In a secular culture searching in all the wrong places for answers to the meaning of life, and for a "spirituality" to replace lost or weakened faith, occult movements and spiritual experimentation of all sorts are having a revival that has not been seen in the Western world since the early centuries of the Church. What is particularly disturbing is the fact that otherwise sensible people see no problem in introducing to children books that promote such activities-activities strictly forbidden by God and the Church (see Cathechism of the Catholic Church, sections 2116-2117).

The Potter series takes the old Gnostic worldview, makes it look glamorous and exciting, and does so in a way that is proving to be far more seductive than similar books in this field of children's literature. Early Gnosticism was a combination of cult and heresy that came very close to undermining Christianity at its birth, during the first few centuries of the Church. It was only defeated by the efforts of the Church Fathers as they taught, corrected, exhorted and debated with the naïve devotees of this perversion of genuine faith. And here it is again, popping up with unprecedented force, but now aimed at the most vulnerable, most impressionable part of the Body of Christ-our children. Paradoxically, the Potter books have been able to invade the Christian world due to the fact that there are a few admirable virtues promoted in them: Harry the orphan seeks a family-hey, isn't that a desirable family value? Harry the victim-innocent brings down justice on the heads of his tormentors-and don't we want to see justice done? Harry wins the reader's affection and empathy (and the child reader's identification) more readily than the bratty characters in much of children's fantasy literature-isn't it refreshing to have a "nice" boy as a hero? Harry seeks to discover his destiny and unique identity-don't we all? Yes, but in Harry's world, the ends are continually justified by the evil means (conveniently redefined as good). If the author has thrown into the plot a little moralizing for added measure, this is not a valid argument in defense of the books; indeed the whiff of morality makes them that much more deceptive. In this way, the moral order of the universe is deformed in a child's mind far more effectively than by blatantly evil books.

This raises the question: which is the most destructive form of paganism now invading children's culture? A direct assault upon faith by hard-core cultists recruiting on the streets, or an indirect seduction in the pleasant surroundings of your own home? I believe it is the latter, a "soft" form that will do the greatest damage over the long haul, because it brings a spiritually dangerous worldview into good families under the guise of promoting "values" and enthusiasm for reading. But it also prepares a child's developing imagination for worse things to follow. When he has finished reading the Potter series, what will he turn to? There is a vast industry turning out sinister material for the young that will feed their growing appetites. In the wake of likable young Harry's adventures, not-so-likable characters will appear, and they will become role models or, at the very least, images of alternative ways of living. And it should also be noted that Harry himself becomes less likable as the series gets progressively more murky. Regarding the argument sometimes put forward - "There is much good in the book, so why should we be so concerned about the flaws?" - this is not really a valid argument. The flaws in this case are grave distortions of reality in a field where such distortions have often proved disastrous. In my extended family, circle of friends and community, there are a number of people whose lives have been seriously damaged by involvement in the occult. I know three young people who have attempted suicide in acts of despair which they now attribute, years later, to dabbling in the occult. A significant factor in their attraction to the dark side of spirituality, they maintain, was their love of fantasy literature that portrayed this subculture as exciting and rewarding. Only later did they come to realize that, while occultism promises light, it actually delivers a gradual darkening of the mind and weakening of the will. I have talked with parents of children whose lives have gone seriously astray as a result of losing their moral bearings through involvement with the occult. Their anguish and puzzlement is evident as they state how their children were once stable and virtuous, how they had been so certain their child could handle anything. I have talked with priests and psychiatrists who deal with young people damaged in this fashion, and their assessment of the causes consistently points to some "experimenting" with the very activity Rowling presents as a healthy and liberating way of life. In the beginning they felt it to be no more than harmless play, simple imagining, or the acting out of fantasy. We should take note of the fact that in our sensually dominated culture the habit of acting out fantasy is becoming a widespread cultural norm. It varies from voracious consumption of expensive "toys" for all age groups, to trading in one's spouse for a new one found on the internet, to various clubs devoted to immoral activity, to high school murders. Why, then, do we presume that a sensually powerful series of children's books will not affect the young reader's interests and activities? Why have we come to assume so readily that such novels are simply entertainment, that they have no consequences, that the experience of plunging the imagination into that alternative world will remain sealed in an airtight compartment of the mind?

Of course millions of children are not going to suddenly start killing themselves and each other after reading the Harry Potter series, but studies by both secular and religious researchers demonstrate that something unhealthy is at work in the occult revival. And while we must never forget that Christ can forgive and heal the effects of any form of sin, he also calls us to guard the lambs of his flock against such sin, and the near occasions of sin. What is so often forgotten in this particular controversy is that occultism is gravely sinful. Both the Old and New Testaments warn against it with utmost urgency. Occult activity is a misreading of the nature of the war between good and evil on this planet, and the consequences of this in real life can be quite dire. Why, then, are we giving our children false tales about the nature of the war?

Fantasy literature can be a splendid way to introduce them to the great drama of existence, but we are terribly naïve if we fail to make a clear distinction between true fantasy and false fantasy-between healthy imagination and poisoned imagination. We would soon sicken and die if we applied the principle of "a little poison won't harm you" to our diet of food. Would we eat a cake in which a cook had mixed 1% cyanide with 99% good ingredients? It might not kill us, but why would we want to risk being even "mildly" poisoned. To use another metaphor, would we offer our child a bowl of fruit in which ten pieces of fruit were harmless and one had been injected with deadly poison, especially if the fruit were indistinguishable from each other?

How do we distinguish a good piece of "fruit" from a bad one, if in the mind there is no reliable criteria for doing so? How do we discern properly if we have no developed understanding of the moral order of the universe nor a consciousness of the reality of spiritual battle? If we have little or no sense of the crucial role of symbols in the healthy functioning of the mind, how can we accurately assess the spiritual realities represented by those symbols? Simply saying that the corruption of our symbol world, and in the worst cases the inversion of our symbol world, is not poison doesn't change the nature of the poisoned fruit. That's denial, not moderate reasonableness. By the same token, gathering "expert" opinions on the subject isn't very helpful either, because experts come in all varieties these days, even in Christian circles, and few are the people unaffected to some degree by the overwhelming subjectivism of our present social environment.

Parents often underestimate the power of imagination in shaping a child's sense of truth. Parents forget that they themselves grew up in another time and culture. Though theirs was an imperfect world (as is every era of history), basic truths still formed the solid architecture of their times. That is no longer so. Parents also forget that they can sort through good and bad material with more immunity than a child, because they are already formed. A child is still in a state of formation, and for that reason he experiences culture in a very different way than adults do. We can sift (although on the whole even we "grown-ups" aren't doing a very good job of sifting these days), but the child is not yet trained to recognize subtle and even unsubtle falsehood. He is busy learning about the world, and usually he is learning indiscriminately. He absorbs images and understandings of the nature of reality at a foundational level.

Getting our thinking on track according to Biblical and Church principles is essential to seeing what's really happening in this war. In other words, rational discernment. Equally important is the charism of spiritual discernment. Every parent needs to pray daily for an extraordinary grace of discernment, and for divine protection for his children. This isn't extremist or alarmist. This is just normal Christianity. Tragically, Christian faith has been so weakened in the Western world that such statements now strike many an ear as somewhat extreme. We're all a little too eager to prove that we're just normal folks, that our faith doesn't turn us into unpleasant critical people. But Jesus himself calls us to constant vigilance, to exercise the critical faculty of discernment. It is the spirit of the secular world, and the spirit of our adversary, which tells us we should all just relax and stop over-reacting. Of course, it's true that over-reacting doesn't help anyone, and usually makes matters worse. But at the other end of the spectrum is denial, a refusal to face facts, an inability to recognize a real threat to our child's well-being. This, I believe, brings about far worse consequences-again, in the long run. Neither apathy nor panic will reorient our present culture toward a condition of health. What is needed here is wisdom.

And what about the unity issue? Many of the husbands or wives who write to me about the Potter problem say that they can't come to an agreement with their spouses. A general and time-tested principle in Christian family life is that on issues where husband and wife disagree over what is or is not harmful for their child, more prayer is needed. The father's role is paramount in this, because by nature and grace his job is to watch the horizon carefully for anything that threatens the well-being of his family (tigers, bears, drunk drivers, drug-pushers, heretical teachers and unprincipled hawkers of kid-kulture). In a word, his primary focus is exterior.

The mother's role tends to be primarily interior, focused on nurturing (though of course there is considerable overlapping of roles in this regard). For that reason it's inevitable that there will be differences of emphasis and judgement. Most of the parents who contact me about these questions experience some difference of opinion between husband and wife. Prayer can bring these two "lenses" into a single unified focus. By this I do not mean that spouses should resolve their difference of opinion by bartering or compromise. Neither of the lenses work properly without the other; their harmonious function depends on earnest prayer and avoiding superficial decisions. Our culture is continuously pushing us to let down our guard, to make quick judgments that feel easier because they reduce the tension of vigilance. The harassed pace and the high volume of consumption that modern culture seems to demand of us, make genuine discernment more difficult in this regard. But in prayer and waiting on God, we do come through.

As a parent, my daily prayer is: "Oh God, please give me the wisdom of Solomon, the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, today. Every day." Without it, I would soon be shaped and molded by whatever forces are flying about in this society. My kids even more so. There is so much bombarding us all the time, with unprecedented power to overwhelm the senses and to confuse our interior radar, that we scarcely have time to make sound decisions before the next wave hits. In such a climate, if one has to choose between over-caution or under-caution, I would say that in the formation of our children's minds, hearts and souls, it's better to lean in the direction of caution rather than laxity-especially during these times when a relentless indoctrination comes at our children from every level of the culture.

A balanced, intelligent and spiritually discerning collection of articles examining the Potter phenomenon is available at the website of St. Joseph's Covenant Keepers, a large international organization for Catholic fathers. The address is: www.dads.org

If you want to consider some in-depth arguments about the nature of the new paganization of children's culture, see the Ignatius Press internet website where an entire section is devoted to what well-known Catholic authors think of the Potter series. The address is: www.ignatius.com See also the highly recommended Catholic Educator's Resource Center, which has a section dealing with the Potter phenomenon. The address is www.catholiceducation.org

I struggle, as I think any person should, with not only what my children should be exposed to, but what I should expose myself to. There are some things I don't think kids should be exposed to, and it can't simply be summed up by the subject matter covered, but must also consider the viewpoint from which it is covered. You, unlike some others, have made specific statements that indicate you've read the books and don't think the subject matter is covered in a way that is negative. I appreciate that, although I may not agree with your assessment. I have read all of the Rings books several times, and have read them to my daughters, along with the Narnia books, and several other fantasy pieces. OTOH, I didn't want my children to see "The Craft", because after viewing it, I concluded that (1) the people who created it were probably involved in witchcraft, and (2) that the movie tried to make a case that witchcraft and the occult were a way to overcome the insecurities of adolescence. You may disagree with that assessment, but that's where I'm coming from. As a Christian, I'm supposed to avoid such things. Other people are, of course, under no such prohibition.

Thank you.

I find nothing objectionable about your position as you've stated it here. To each his own, and you've described your viewpoint well and sincerely.

My biggest gripe with Aquinasfan and many others isn't so much what they have chosen as their position, but in the manner in which they've presented it. Few things drive me up the wall faster than incoherent presentation, inability to field simple questions or challenges, making decisions without gathering the relevant facts first, etc. -- especially when they're delivered with an apparent attitude of, "I'm being the most sensible person in the room and you're not, so there."

I don't mind people disagreeing with me, as long as they can make a good presentation for their case. I can respect that. But it's frustrating to have someone tell you you're full of manure, and the best reason they can come up with is little better than, "because I say so".

Thank you for posting this thoughtful article. It's always most illuminating to read what other Christians think of current social fads such as Harry Potter.

Recently, I participated in a Popular Fiction class at a local university, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was on the reading list. I found J. K. Rowling's writing style captivating and her characters quite compelling. Not to mention, she sure knows how to produce a plot that kids will lick up faster than ice cream.

Interestingly, the students who did a presentation on the Harry Potter book displayed some of the pro-occult characteristics that O'Brien mentions in his article. One girl stood in front of the class for several minutes proudly describing her Wiccan beliefs. Another "educated" us on various spells & magick of witchcraft. Two more students spoke of the "paranoid Christian-driven backlash" against the Harry Potter series, implying that it was "stupid" to adhere to such a value system.

From a Christian persepective, I think O'Brien makes an *excellent* point in saying that "there are a great many things to be cautious about in our present secular culture." And yes, IMHO, Harry Potter is one of them.

It's startling to see how many folks seem to have such passionate views on the pro-Harry side of the aisle. Their responses only tend to reinforce my general agreement with O'Brien's observations.

There's far more truly "occult" material in "Lord of the Rings" than in "Harry Potter", and in LotR it's presented far more seriously and frighteningly (which isn't surprising, since LotR was aimed at a more mature audience than is Harry Potter).

If you consider The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings to be acceptable, I fail to see how you could object to anything in Harry Potter. Plus, Harry Potter contains a great many good lessons on the virtues of honesty, loyalty, hard work, respect for authority, not judging a book by its cover, and so on.

This in partiicular was your inane statement. Tolkien was thoroughly Catholic and wrote from a Christian perspective. His subcreation was intended to mirror the fundamental realities of the real creation of God. Use of magic in Tolkien ALWAYS has negative consequences, unlike Potter. Fundamental distinctions are made between virtues --perseverence, courage/fortitude, selflessness-- and vices. In Potter, vices are made into virtues, some virtues become vices, evil (magic) is used for good, without negative consequences, the lines are not only blurred but molded together and purposely made indistinct.

This thread began with O'Brien's analysis of Potter from a Christian perspective. Please keep your attention together here, and do not castigate me for continuing along with that perspective.

And again, given the fundamental, diametrically opposed nature of Tolkien's subcreation to that of Potter, your comments noted above are indeed inane.

I guess this is one of those non-negotialbe arguments. People who hate the Potter series can't be convinced otherwise and people who love it won't hear of any criticism of it. I'm Catholic and I happen to love Harry Potter but then, I'm an adult.

Children can distinguish between fantasy and reality better than adults realize. I read Cinderella but I never tried to ride a pumpkin to school. I read all of Ursula LeGuinn's books but I never took her views of heaven and earth seriously. I read Steven King but other than going out of my way to be kind to the class losers it didn't affect me in anyway. As I said before this is an unwinable argument. Both sides believe what they believe and that's it.

While I haven't read the books, I did watch a fairly lengthy interview with the author, in which she acknowledges studying witchcraft and using actual spells in the books that were in witchcraft books, written by wiccans.

You got a link for that? I think it is more likely than not that she's been involved in channeling. Books on witchcraft that occupy the top four slots in the NY Times best-seller list don't just pop out of thin air.

It's obsessive to spend lord knows how long typing in pages of text verbatim from the book, without having a single bit of reflection to add to the duplication effort.

I just thought I'd let people draw their own conclusions. You still haven't defended the part in book four where one of the main bad guys cuts off his own arm and casts it into a cauldron to complete his spell. You might want to type in the entire page so people can see the surrounding context.

Apparently you skipped the whole section on Tom Bombadil. The whole thing boiled down to the Forces of Good vs. the Forces of Evil.

For all you slavering anti-Potter-ites. What book has women getting their father drunk so the can have sex with him? What book has a king getting the blessing of a Witch before a big battle? What book has the central figure consorting with a notorius whore, tax collectors, ect...? In what book does the prime deity expect his followers to go out and slaughter millions of people just because they are of a different race? In what book does that same deity NUKE an entire city?

There is much more violence, sex, and MAGIC in the Bible than there is in the Potter books. Keep your kids grounded in reality and stop trying to spread hysteria.

What book has women getting their father drunk so the can have sex with him? What book has a king getting the blessing of a Witch before a big battle? What book has the central figure consorting with a notorius whore, tax collectors, ect...? In what book does the prime deity expect his followers to go out and slaughter millions of people just because they are of a different race? In what book does that same deity NUKE an entire city?

Potter is fiction. As such it is optional. The Bible is not. It is half of the self revelation of the Creator God (the other half of course being the Traditional guarded, protected and passed on by His Church). To compare them too is inane. But you seem to enjoy being inane. So this will be my last correspondence with you. I cannot waste my time on inane discussions. Good day.

Didn't see it on the net. 60 Minutes did a fairly lengthly interview with her upon the release of the 4th Harry Potter book, which, as you remember, was the book that took it into the "Everybody knows your name" category and out of the specific genre mode. They did a pretty good puff piece on her, single mom, started writing books because she thought she could make a couple of dollars. Seemed like a nice lady. The part of the interview where they asked her about the witchcraft concerns jumped out at me, though. I'd almost bet 60 Minutes will re-run it sometime between now and the opening of the movie.

There is much more violence, sex, and MAGIC in the Bible than there is in the Potter books. Keep your kids grounded in reality and stop trying to spread hysteria.

I don't read the parts dealing with incest to my children. Some realities should be reserved until children are capable of ably dealing with them. On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with the presentation of witchcraft in the Bible, since it is condemned.

Not so with the Potter series. In the Potter universe, witchcraft or wizardry can be used for good and evil purposes. This is what makes the stories so diabolically clever.

Of course, most children correctly see themselves as basically good. So, lacking instruction in the fact that witchcraft is an abomination to the Lord, they logically conclude that they can use wizardry to good ends just as Harry does.

Far fetched? Read the article where the author mentions that libraries set up witchcraft book displays next to the Potter displays to facilitate "one stop shopping."

Among the young, an interest in witchcraft, sorcery, and allied occult activity is growing at an astonishing rate. Some libraries now put their occult section beside the Potter books, to make access easier for young readers. Thus, millions of children, including large numbers of Catholic children, are getting involved in spiritually and psychologically dangerous activity. Harry Potter provided the role model.

As a Catholic, does that concern you?

I am a Catholic, and that particular ploy by libraries, if that is in fact what is happening, concerns me. However, I doubt it was done with the blessing of JK Rowling.

As a Catholic growing up, I read the Narnia and Lord of the Rings Series many times over. When I was older I read somewhere that both these series had religious connotations. I went back and read the Narnia books, and it is very obvious what those are, as an adult. However, those parallels went straight over my head as a child.

I have also read the Harry Potter books, obviously only as an adult and not as a child. There is nothing like what you find in the Narnia series in Harry Potter. CS Lewis pretty much just re-wrote the bible in a fantasy world. JK Rowling is telling a fairy tale, with no hidden agenda.

The point I am trying to make is this. Adults tend to read a lot more into stories than children do. Give children some credit for their innocence. A child with a good religious education will learn at an early age what is real and what is not. Why should we scare children by telling them magic is bad when they are only small? In Harry Potter they read about magic - something they will have no doubt already heard about, and that they know is the stuff of fairy tales - in a way that makes it a cool story. But only a story. Why take the enjoyment out of their lives?

Why take the enjoyment out of their lives?

Because they're playing with fire.

You make your point well. But children should learn very early to stay away from the occult, particularly because children's literature, movies and TV are so full of occult practices and imagery today. Things have changed a lot since I was a kid, 30 years ago.

You might want to go into the Catholic Answers on-line archives of past radio programs and listen to some of the shows with Fr. LeBar, the exorcist for NYC, I believe. He says that many times those who become posessed began with "innocent" play with a ouija board. I've heard many stories of children of very young age (kindergarten) "playing Harry Potter" and casting spells on each other. Of course, most children won't become posessed, but demonic oppression to varying degrees is very possible.

I agree that children should stay away from the occult. However, I don't think that Harry Potter on its own is effecting a major trend to child-occult practices. There have always been, and always will be, people who try to attract youngsters with the allure of "magic". It is up to us as a society to ensure our children are properly educated about where the fairy tales stop and the danger begins. I don't see any danger in the Harry Potter stories. I think the problem is that their popularity has brought the issue of children and the occult to the forefront, in both positive and negative ways.

Sure makes a great debate too - after a short respite following the release of HP#4, it's back with a vengeance in time for the movie!

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