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Is there anyone in the western world who hasn't heard of the Christian controversy over the Harry Potter series by J K Rowling? There were few protests or mentions of this until the series started becoming phenomenally popular, around half way through. Then all Hell let loose, with loud Christian protests against the books, their inclusion in libraries, the films and against children reading them. Book burnings and letters of protest were organised in several countries. The debate still rages, and the books are ever more popular, making J K Rowling into one of the richest people in the UK and Warner Brothers very happy indeed.
So should Christians be concerned about these books? I do not believe so. They are a mixture of fantasy and school books, combining the two most popular children's genres. They follow the life of a boy named Harry and his friends at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as he learns magic and confronts the recurrent evil figure of the books, Lord Voldemort. They are intricately detailed - which has proved a boon to merchandisers, with many descriptions of games, sweets and other aspects of daily life in the fantasy land. There are very few storylines in fantasy, and Rowling has used the most popular, that of an unknown and badly treated boy who discovers magical powers. She has also used a variant of fantasy by setting the books in a "world within a world" where the non-magical world roughly approximates to our world. This is a useful technique as it brings children closer to the characters while still making the story almost-believable. This technique was also used by the Welsh author Diana Wynne Jones in her Chrestomanci series.
Christian dislike of the books is really based on two things: their popularity, and whether they encourage witchcraft, or whether any books with witchcraft in them are against God's will.
On the first head, it is noticeable that few other books than these have aroused Christian condemnation. Books for older children, such as Cate Tiernan's Wicca series (also known as Sweep), which explicitly teaches the beliefs and practises of the Wiccan religion and which is also fairly popular, has been all but ignored. This hardly gives a good impression of Christianity. In fact it makes us look mean and envious, as though we only attack popular books because they're doing better than Christian books. This is not the sort of impression we should be giving - if we believe all books with magic in them are evil then we should take this to its logical conclusion and speak against all such books, not just the most popular.
It is also noticeable that Christians only began complaining about this type of literautre when Harry Potter became popular. Books with witches and wizards are a staple of the fantasy genre, and have been popular with children ever since fantasy novels began. Even before that, fairy stories with good and bad witches have been popular with children from time immemorial. So why has opposition suddenly arisen? The only conclusion I can make is that it is jealousy of a new book, a new author making money. If you are going to attack Harry Potter, by all means do so, but attack fairy stories, fantasy books and a good proportion of children's books too. Both J R R Tolkien and C S Lewis wrote these sorts of stories - why are they generally not attacked on the same grounds? Perhaps this is something for anti-Harry Potter advocates to think about.
Now to the specific Christian arguments against Harry Potter. The Bible says that the people of God must not use magic:
"There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer." (Deuteronomy 18:10-11 KJV)
However, reading a book does not involve making magic. Reading a book does not make you a witch anymore than anyone reading the Bible automatically becomes Christian. This granting of magical powers to objects is in itself a form of witchcraft, and I will not engage in it.
"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." (Exodus 22:18)
"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies" (Galatians 5:19-20 KJV)
We can see from the Bible that witchcraft is against God - but reading a book which has a fantasy hero who is a wizard is not the same as being a witch. Perhaps you believe that we condone witchcraft by reading anything which is not anti-magic? The trouble with this idea is that the Harry Potter books are not real. They are stories, make-believe. No child could become a witch from these books. Paganism/witchcraft is not the same as what is portrayed in fantasy books. It is a religion, with deities and rituals - not a matter of waving a wand. Harry Potter does not deal with the religion of Paganism - there is not a single mention of gods or goddesses, and even the Christian names of feasts (Hallowe'en, Christmas) have not been changed to their Pagan equivalents (Samhain, Yule). If a child read Harry Potter and decided they wanted to be a witch, they would be sorely disappointed. They would find disagreements about magic among Pagan practitioners, long and sometimes complex rituals, complicated beliefs and an unwillingness among Pagans to teach them anything - Pagans will not teach the under 18s. Not that I think children would look to become witches from reading Harry Potter - most children understand quite well the difference between fantasy and reality.
The Harry Potter series is simply a series of fantasy books, with typical childrens' themes of good versus evil, growing up, bullying etc. The only harm in those books comes from you, what you bring to them. They are simply pleasant and interesting books which are encouraging children to read. Perhaps we should be less jealous and concentrate on more important issues than children's books.
"You have nothing to do but save souls. Therefore spend and be spent in this work. And go always, not only to those that want you, but to those that want you most. Observe: It is not your business to preach so many times, and to take care of this or that society; but to save as many souls as you can; to bring as many sinners as you possibly can to repentance, and with all your power to build them up in that holiness without which they cannot see the Lord."
-John Wesley
© Dubhóc MacEògainn, 2005.