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.
Darn! I forgot that spell yesterday when I had a flat! But then the twig that I picked up hasn’t helped me do one single spell. Gotta look for another twig.
I find it quite amusing to see how much the Harry Potter bashers contort themselves to justify in LOTR the same things they condemn in the Harry Potter series.
Ironically, as I was growing up in the early 1970s, the very same accusations being tossed around today about the Potter books were being said about the Tolkien books. In fact, for a time, the principal of my elementary school banned the Tolkien books outright. Of course the same principal canned the music teacher for playing a Beatles record in music class and routinely sent students home for wearing blue jeans but he wasn't the only voice speaking against the "evil" influences of J.R.R. Tolkien back in those days.
Rumors abounded back then that Tolkien's works promoted drug use (the hobbits loved to smoke those pipes after all) and the occult (it was said that the game Dungeons and Dragons was derived from LOTR).
All of that was nonsense of course and most reasonable people back then recognized that. But one thing that held true consistently was that those who hollered the loudest about Tolkien's works were those most unlikely to have read Tolkien's works. Otherwise they would have realized just how foolish their rantings sounded to the rest of us.
And so it is today with the Potter books. Any Harry Potter basher spreading the tripe that we hear today who actually sat down and read the books would want to slink under the nearest table and hide from the world for a while. They would be like those characters in those airline commercials ("Need to get away?").
I didn’t insult anyones faith. I am a church going Christian.
I didn’t say the Bible was just a story, Logan1492 did.
See # 54.
Historically, the people who believed most fervently in the power of witchcraft were the ones putting people on trial for it.
Believe it or not, it's one of the favorites at Gitmo. I don't have a source, but I'll try and find one tomorrow. Medved mentioned this on his show a while back.
Sorry, see # 46.
Are we going through this nonsense again? This debate has been going on since the first Potter Book. Get on with other things.
The point is that if a kid wanders off and become a satanist because he read a Potter book, it isn't J.K. Rowlings fault, because that kid has some pretty dim bulbs for parents.
Do a search on this stuff. It’s more popular than ever. The Potter books certainly deserve their share of credit.
Good for you. And what you will find, if you haven’t already, are the values that you most probably espouse, like family, friends, loyalty, respect, courage, scholarship, sportsmanship, the triumph of good over evil, and Christmas. Good reading! Enjoy!
The twig chooses the wizard.
OR 
You are kidding aren't you?
Tolkien denied that it was allegory, but explicitly said that as a Christian any work of his would naturally be a Christian work.
I did my entire freshman research paper on "Christlike Symbolism in the Lord of the Rings." Frodo the Deliverer, Gandalf the Resurrection. Aragorn the Triumphant King.
I think you need to read them again.
Naaahhhhh, Keep ‘em ignorant, I say!
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