Correction: a pretentious English professor's essay can be found in "First Things."
Perhaps the most important question I could ask my Christian friends who mistrust the Harry Potter books is this: is your concern about the portrayal of this imaginary magical technology matched by a concern for the effects of the technology that in our world displaced magic? The technocrats of this world hold in their hands powers almost infinitely greater than those of Albus Dumbledore and Voldemort: how worried are we about them, and their influence over our children? Not worried enough, I would say.
Perhaps I could answer "the most important question" if it made some sense.
But let me address this comprehensible question:
The technocrats of this world hold in their hands powers almost infinitely greater than those of Albus Dumbledore and Voldemort: how worried are we about them, and their influence over our children?
I assume that he's speaking of nuclear weapons and such. If that is the case, then his statement is infinitely wrong. Death is not the worst thing we have to fear. The thing we have to fear is the loss of God –the loss of our salvation. The professor's assertion is the assertion of a modern materialist, not a Christian. And anything that can enkindle a child's interest in the occult is of the greatest danger.
Anyway, here are the reasons that most Christians that I know are critical of the series:
1) Most witches and wizards in the books use their supernatural powers for good. Therefore, good children can reasonably conclude that good people can use witchcraft and wizardry. However, evil means, such as witchcraft, can never be used to bring about good ends. Christians of all denominations regard witchcraft and wizardry as an abomination, as it is clearly categorized in the Bible.
2) Children can empathize with Harry. Harry's not a bad guy. Harry's a wizard. This normalizes wizardry.
3) Children are exposed to occult practices (casting spells and the like) and grotesque scenes (drinking of blood; one character severs his own arm and casts it into a cauldron to make his spell efficacious).