Or, even better
Tra la laaaaa!
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.
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BreakPoint/Chuck Colson Ping!
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“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.”
B U M P
“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.”
B U M P
My wife and son are taking turns reading it. I cheated and read the last chapter and epilogue. I won’t give it away.
Christian kids, like all kids benefit from fiction reading. If you can get a kid to read a book at all, it’s a plus.
I don’t think any kids should be reading them.
Oh no! Not this AGAIN! I am soooo tired of these paranoid attacks! Good grief! Have all of you forgotten your childhood when you tied on a towel and wanted to be Superman? Or better yet, wished you could blink your eyes and wiggled your nose like Genie or Samantha and have your homework done or room cleaned? I went to church and Sunday school every week, yet knew the difference between “fantasy” and reality. My family’s faith and mine was not jeapordized by my childhood fantasies.
Have any of you ever read a Potter book? If you had with an open mind then you would know that Potter and friends is far more about the good values like friendship, loyalty, strength, good versus evil, etc. You even have the characters celebrating Christmas! Not just on one occasion either. In fact, in this last movie they wish each other “Merry Christmas”! When was the last time you had a mainstream film doing that?!?!
You should be happy if your girls think Hermoine is great. She is smart, an avid scholar, strong, feminine, courageous, and loyal.
Ron is funny, loyal, and courageous.
Harry is a defender, a warrior, a teacher, loyal, and courageous. He has faced evil and defeated it. I’d be proud to have him as a son.
Have more faith in your kids. And remember, if they wave a stick around and say something you don’t understand...it is still only a stick and what they are saying is just jibberish. Just like the magician who says, “Abracadabra”.
Good for you! I grew up at around the same time, and I’ve been told that I turned out pretty well. The Potter series is good fun, and teaches alot of good values too. People need to get a grip.
Agreed. Personally, if your kid cannot tell the difference between a fictional story they read in a book, or a video game that has shooting in it and real life, then you are failing as a parent.
I just think this anti-Harry Potter thing is just silly. I have not read any of them, but I saw the movie, and...I enjoyed it. No reason a kid cannot do the same.
Parents have a responsibility called discernment.
I agree at least the kids are reading. This is not a bad book for kids.
Hell no.
bump
I never knew that Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy was Christian. Did you? And unless someone had informed that C.S. Lewis was a Christian writer, I wouldn’t have known.
Excellent point. Back in the late 1990s I saw a book in a Christian bookstore which included a couple of chapters attacking Star Wars because the Force is so similar to Eastern religions, and I remember thinking, “What kind of knob can’t teach his kid that Luke making a run on the Death star has nothing to do with the real world?”
If you purchased the book, what did you pay for it?
I bought one for my son at Walmart last evening for 17.88.
The inside cover price was a lot more!
Or, even better
Tra la laaaaa!
Why don’t you think your kids should? What are you afraid of? BTW, what did you read to them, and what do you allow them to read now?
Did you know that the Potter characters celebrate Christmas in the books and movies?
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