Subject: Reading Harry Potter |
Bible Note: It was in November 2001 that I wrote a series of posts on books and writers in general and "Harry Potter" in particular. Some of the Post numbers are 21323, 21334, 21368, 21435, and 21468. I did not recommend the Potter series then and I do not recommend it now. Christian poet T. S. Eliot observed, "A book is not harmless because no one is consciously offended by it." ....... In this post I will add a few observations to what I have heretofore written concerning the wildly popular "Harry Potter" series. ...... While Christian parents ought to be leery about the genre of fantasy for their children's reading (or their own), these concerns should be allayed by J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" and C. S. Lewis' "The Chronicles of Narnia," but not so with J. K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series. People say, "But you have wizards in all these books, so what is the difference?" ...... The "Rings" and "Narnia" books were written by committed Christians. They present a worldview and characters that represent diametrically opposite values to those of the Harry Potter books. It is important to see the distinction between what "Harry Potter" and "Rings/Narnia" mean when they present wizards. For example, Gandalf, the wizard in "The Lord of the Rings" is an angelic being created by the One True God, sent to help people accomplish the will of God. When he does "magic" it is not magic at all but is instead his God-given ability to do things that non-angelic beings cannot do. By contrast, in "Harry Potter" the wizard is a human being who is supernaturally empowered to perform magic tricks that may be used for selfish and even evil purposes. Much information in the Harry Potter books leads one to conclude that the protagonist himself, Harry Potter, is buying into the dark side and into the occult. The Tolkien and Lewis books, unlike the Rowling books, never present a scenario in which the end justifies the means. The Harry Potter books reflect a more pantheistic and monistic understanding of reality in which the lines of right and wrong are never clearly asserted. ....... Christians, whether parents or not, are accountable for what they read and what they recommend to other people to read. ...... Christian parents have in J.R.R. Tolkien and "The Lord of the Rings" and in C. S. Lewis and "The Chronicles of Narnia" stories they can confidently present to their children to help ground them in how to think Christianly and to acquire a Christian worldview. In J. K. Rowling and "Harry Potter" they have stories that will do neither. --Hank |