Responses to the Anti-Potterites
The Calm, Rational, Curious People
This is the most reasonable and open-minded of the letters I received, and coherent enough that i could reply to it as a whole instead of bit by bit. So his letter to me comes first, in white, and mine follows in yellow. Even he, however, never did respond to my reply...
Hello,
I am concerned and have been researching and studying the Harry Potter books myself for a long while since several families in our church are reading them with their teens/children. I became alarmed when I read a
book that details some of the background behind the Harry Potter books . . .
No, I can't say I've read them to be quite honest. And I have discussed quite frankly with one member of our church why he and his wife read the books with their 3 year old daughter. But as you say at your web page, I want to remain open-minded, and above all else, charitable and respectful.
I do see an inherent danger in reading stuff that glorifies the occult and magic. How is it possible when the Bible declares we are not to be involved in witchcraft whatsoever, for us to read books that talk of spells, incantations, etc.? Magic, spells, etc., are sin to God, so should we be subjecting/exposing ourselves - let alone our children to them? I see Harry Potter as more than just "imagination" like
astronauts, princes/princesses, etc., as you state. It espouses things the Bible states are expressily forbidden. The Bible doesn't forbid using your imagination or using make-believe, or pretending but it does condemn witchcraft. That's a big difference!
Of course, I may be a bit extreme in our "Christian" world, because when God says He wants us to be holy, most of us regard that as a suggestion rather than a command. In other words, if God doesn't want us cussing, why is it OK to watch a movie when people are cussing in the movie? If God doesn't like pre-marital sex, why is it OK to rent a movie that has it? We can use the same argument that it's going on around us anyway, but that doesn't mean we have to voluntarily go out of our way and pay to watch/listen to sin does it? I feel the same way about the Harry Potter
series and the trash that it brings into the mind. It could just as well be a romance novel or have bad language, as it does occult stuff. It's wrong according to God so why would we read it? Help me to
understand why you feel it's all right to pollute your mind with this stuff?????
Your Brother In Christ,
Thank you so much for your rational and openminded request for my opinion. It makes me very happy to see a person so respectful of good discussion practices, when most people smply yell that you're wrong and won't listen to anything you say if they disagree with you, and it makes it a lot easier to converse with someone. I'm also glad that you're taking the time to look into the books instead of simply discounting them for the rumors about them. I totally understand your desire not to read them yourself, especially without being sure what they're quite involving, and this is a wonderful way to try to understand them without having to risk reading something that is truly bad ourself. I wish there were more people as reasonable as you around... Thanks!
Here are my thoughts on the subject. I definitely see what you mean about the dangers of voluntarily putting ourselves into a situation of sin, especially sin that appears on the surface to be relatively harmless, because the more we get used to it, the less bad other sin begins to seem. Its definitely better to be safe and keep potentially sinful or sin-inducing things out of the way entirely. I do believe that a constant effort to keep ourselves pure and holy is incredibly important, and I, too, would rather not watch movies or read books that involve swearing, violence, drugs, premartal sex, etc. Even if such books and movies don't ever cause us to do such things, they still create an atmosphere of tolerance of them and they certainly can't do us any good.
So why do I promote reading the Harry Potter books, which do involve witchcraft, which God has told us to keep away from? Well, I have several reasons, and none of them are so definite and convincing that I don't still question my decision to become so involved in them. But I have done a lot of praying on the subject and been open to a leading from God to cut myself off from them, and as yet have not felt one. First of all, there is a difference between the sorcery in the Harry Potter books and the witchcraft of real-life religions such as Wicca. All spells, incantations, references, etc. in the Harry potter books was made up by j. K. Rowling. Thus it is not supposedly "real" spells that the books are about, but imaginative inventions. In this way, it seems to me that it is more imagination which is a factor in the wizardry of the books than witchcraft or the occult. As I said, though, thi is not a concrete difference and I see how someone could easily disagree with this. More importantly, I don't feel that the presence of sorcery in the books has in any way polluted my relationship with God, or separated me from Him, as I sometimes feel has happened due to other immorality and sin in books and movies.
Secondly, the Harry Potter books DO promote many good values, such as love, loyalty, respect, honor, friendship, trustworthiness, kindness, acceptance, and courage. They condemn such things as hatred, evil, greed, revenge, pride, selfishness, jealousy, and murder. When sorcery is used for evil, it is condemned in the books, and it is used for good in the books, in my opinion, as only a metaphor. Part of this is difficult to understand without having read them.
The basic conflict of the story is between good and evil, and the hero represents good and has all the good values mentioned above. Indeed, a friend of mine in the church has told me of many values and morals directly stemming from Christianity that he noticed in the books. Alhough sorcery is a rather unfortunate metaphor to have used since it does go so directly against christian principles, I believe that it is only a metaphor, and nothing more.
Those are my basic feelings on the books as containing an opening for sin. Having read them and thought deeply on the subject, I have personally found them beneficial overall, and that's why I advocate them. I think children should read them because they teach a lesson about the imagination which I see as sadly dwindling in our society. Children are being forced to grow up too fast, and to look for things in life like money and success, and to ignore the truer things like friends, poetry, and the beauty of God's creation. The Harry Potter books are a movement against this, they return to true values, and this is why I hope that they will be widely read, by adults, who are ften so stuck in the world that they need such a wake-up call, and to children, who sill have time to be taught proper values. but this is also why i hope that parents will read the books before they give them to their children, to see for themselves if what I think about the books' values is really true. I also think it's incredibly important for parents to clarify the difference between the metaphorical magic of imagination of the books and the false occult magic of Wiccan religions. It is easy for children to become confused, and without their parents to teach them the difference between fact and fiction and the literal and the figurative they can esily be led astray. This is where some children have been led to try to practise magic from the books: the books don't promote trying to practse magic in real life at all, but without guidance from adults it is easy for children to misunderstand.
I hope that this has clarified for you some things about the books, or at least about my own opinions of them. I'd love to discuss anything here or anything else further with you, and would greatly appreciate hearing what you ave to say in response to this letter. If you have any questions about the opinions above, or about anything else on the site or about my thoughts on the books in general, please ask away! I especially appreciate your respectful approach; it has put me in high spirits. I look forward to your reply.
In Christ,
My Replies to:
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Leif Holmes
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TheOnion.com-Influenced Anti-HarryPotter People
Harry Potter's Bad Because The Kids Misbehave People
Reasonable, Curious People
