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'm with fdcc on this one; I enjoy reading your posts, but truthfully, it doesn't worry me. When I was a kid, I read books about witchcraft, magic, voodoo, possession, etc. My parents gave me a good foundation that wasn't easily shaken, and I turned out fine.

Truthfully, I'm more concerned about the fact that librarians are gung-ho for letting kids have access to porn on the internet than I am about putting these books next to each other.

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.

I will accept this at face value.

That leaves a question which must be answered. Where were Mom and Dad? I will not leave off my dead certain conviction that the hurrah over Harry Potter is only a symptom of massive parental neglect, malfeasance and incompetence.

Let the T V and the Mall raise your kids - what else can be expected??

HUH?

We can only speculate as to what her motivations are. If they are nefarious, it is not unreasonable to believe that she would disguise them.

This is certainly true, but I've seen no evidence that her intentions are nefarious.

I believe that she is deliberately attempting to interest children in the occult because, as O'Brien says, evil means are used to bring about good ends. That is, the casting of spells is used to bring about good ends. Also, witchcraft is presented as interesting, in contrast to the boring adult world of the Muggles. I can only conclude that this is deliberate.

The casting of spells is used to bring about good ends in the Lord of the Rings as well. Gandalf is a wizard. (We can argue about what Gandalf symbolizes or what Gandalf really is in Tolkien's larger mythology but most young readers would be unaware of this.) And Gandalf isn't the only one. The Dwarves cast spells in The Hobbit to help hide the treasure taken from the Trolls. LotR is chock-full of magical items and magical beings both good and bad.

The muggle world is not always seen as boring either. There is a wizard, Arthur Weasley, who is utterly fascinated by the Muggle world. To him, the Muggle world is the fresh, new, and exciting one.

Actually, I think he contradicts himself a little here. The practice of witchcraft is usually portrayed as evil in Christian literature. Although "magic" (as in fairy godmothers) has been used as a stand in for good spirits (angels).

I think this goes back to the fact that Harry uses evil means either to bring about good or he uses evil means (wizardry) to bring about his ends.

Again, Lord of the Rings. There are good magical beings and helpful magic throughout the George MacDonald books too. The half-dwarf (a good and admirable character) in C.S. Lewis' "Prince Caspian" knows and practices magic too. I could easily find other examples.

Thanks for your replies. I too am an Aquinas fan.

To infer that our children becoming entrenched in occultic practices or entertaining occultic beliefs is not a serious issue is wrong

That particular inference is in your own head, not out of my mouth. MY inference is that hucksters are manipulating fundamentalist parents paranoia and willingness to believe anything they say to get into the newspapers and into peoples wallets. Harry Potter is going to send the youth into Satanism just like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles did when they warned us about IT.

Be scared of the Harry Potter novels if you want. Someone has convinced you to be scared of something meaningless in the middle of a world of real dangers. THAT is whats scary.

I am a Catholic and I love the books. It's a fairy tale!!! The writer is not trying to do anything but tell a tall tale. Up with Harry Potter!!

I am also Catholic and I went into reading the Harry Potter books with open eyes- in case there was anything that was evil in them. I don't see the problem with them, either. They really are fairy tales- The world that Harry lives in is not the same as our world. It's kind-of like the Dahl books (James and the Giant Peach with the giant peach and huge bugs that talked.) Yes, there is magic and witchcraft but the characters are not normal children who play around with the occult and have things happen because of it. The Hogwarts Academy is make believe as are the games and the brooms and everything else.

The funny thing- as one who was raised Protestant and made a choice to convert to Catholicism- the Catholic church is one of the more ritualistic churches around- We have incense and candles and transubstantiation of the bread and wine and anointing with oil. Our priests wear long robes and our monks chant. We ask Saints to pray for us. We pray the rosary.

I love Catholicism and I think the rituals are beautiful. Many protestants believe the RCC is a cult for some of the reasons mentioned above. One could almost argue that an interest in magic and rituals could also draw people to the Catholic church, couldn't they?

If anyone reads Anne Rice books (the vampire and witch series,) they will find that many of her characters are Catholic and she touches a lot on Catholic doctrine in her books. (I think her maiden name was O'Brien.)There is a lot that is "Goth" about the Roman Catholic Church.

Michael O'Brien has very little knowledge of traditional fairy tales (virtually every point he makes in "A Landscape with Dragons" can be contradicted by one or more of Grimm's Hausmarchen - and the Hausmarchen themselves were heavily censored and rewritten by the Grimms brothers to fit Christian sensibilities.)

O'Brien also shows very little understanding of modern "literary" fairy tales and/or fantasy. He wants to fit Tolkien onto his procrustean bed of "Catholic orthodoxy" while ignoring all of the magical and "pre-Christian" traditions in both Tolkien and CS Lewis.

As far as Harry Potter's concerned, he IS hysterical. He has no understanding of the winsomeness and wit of British children's literature. A cursory survey of amazon.com.uk will turn up a slew of pre-Harry Potter "magical boarding school student" stories. (O'Brien probably hates Roald Dahl, too.)

O'Brien represents everything crabbed, narrow, uptight and "Jansenistic" about selecting children's literature - especially as he writes for the religiously conservative homeschooling market.

Repeat after me ... IT'S ONLY A BOOK. Come on, now, repeat after me ... IT'S ONLY A BOOK. Okay, so IT'S ONLY A BOOK and A MOVIE. Let's say it together now ... IT'S ONLY A BOOK and A MOVIE. Course, there's the merchandise ... okay IT'S ONLY A BOOK, A MOVIE, and MERCHANDISE. One more time, let's say it ... IT'S ONLY A BOOK, A MOVIE, and MERCHANDISE. As a Christian, I think I'm mature enough and secure enough in my faith to be able to look at the book with a critical eye and separate what is questionable with an entertaining story that is accomplishing what most teachers in school can't ... GET KIDS TO READ IN AN MTV AGE. So one more time ... IT'S ONLY A BOOK, A MOVIE, and MERCHANDISE.

"If anyone reads Anne Rice books (the vampire and witch series,) they will find that many of her characters are Catholic and she touches a lot on Catholic doctrine in her books. (I think her maiden name was O'Brien.)There is a lot that is "Goth" about the Roman Catholic Church."

Not Goth! Just European and Byzantine. But about Ann Rice, I DON'T read her books. It's personal preference. I read a couple of them and then quit. She is a very talented writer but IMHO her books verge on blasphemy. The first rule of writing is to write about what you know. She was a Catholic, she knows about it, so she writes about it. I wish she would NOT because she gives scandal to the Church IMHO.

I love the rites of the Catholic Church too. But I wish Ann Rice would not co-opt them for her writing. But what can you do? It is a fee country. You are exactly right in your analysis of Harry Potter. I would let my kids read it and see the movie and I would just keep my antenna out to make sure they were handling it as a fairy tale.

I love Michael O'Brian and I loved his book Father Elijah but I disagree with him on Harry Potter.

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