I’m looking forward to the next Harry Potter movie. My family started reading the series about the time the fourth book came out and we all heartily enjoyed them. We’re also big fans of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, so it is not surprising that fiction incorporating a fantasy world with a theme of good vs. evil, where the most unlikely heroes emerge and where redemption is an oft-used plot device would become a favorite of ours.
We know a lot of Christians who would be unpleasantly surprised by the fact that we like these movies and books. Friends have seen them on our shelves and turned away, faces tight with disapproval. Hey, if you don’t want to eat the temple meat, I’ll refrain from doing so while I’m with you. I do hope at some point you’ll hear me out on why I think you’re getting upset about the wrong thing.
Think of faith as a river. We’re either swimming upstream toward Christ, drifting back downstream toward the world, or standing on the shore, lukewarm. And our entertainment choices – as all our other choices – move us in one of those directions. There’s very little entertainment that points us to Christ. And lately, most of that is courtesy of the Kendricks. We no longer have cable TV so I’m not up on the latest shows, but consider a similar case to be made against some of the television shows that I know Christians often enjoy with a clear conscience:
- Crime shows: escape into a seamy world where the focus is to see earthly – not Godly – justice done, where moral compromises are made, and where you are exposed to the dark underbelly of society. One which you would never approach as a missionary in real life yet where you are sorely needed.
- Nighttime soaps, including medical shows: people indulge in the worst sort of behavior. Murder, infidelity, gossip, lies. Is this really the sort of entertainment in which a Christian should immerse himself? At the end of the show, what has he gained? Is he coram deo?
- Reality shows: some genuinely pathetic people who need our prayers, not our avid viewership. Oh, you might not be rooting for the next unbelievable gaffe and when it comes you may perform a facepalm. But you’re certainly supporting the system which exploits these sad people. Week after week, Christians tuned into the train wreck which was Jon and Kate. I heard – after I heard of the divorce – that they were Christians. There was certainly no evidence of that in the episodes I saw. But, again, did this show point people to Christ, or back toward the world?
Those are just a few examples, but be honest – what entertainment out there is really beneficial to Christians? Practically none. The entertainment we escape to tends to make us more jaded, to normalize sin, to deepen our hold on the world instead of releasing our grip.
Is Harry Potter sinful entertainment? There’s a case to be made for that, but not the one the “Potter is witchcraft!” folks are making, as they fight against the straw man of children being lured into the occult yet freely let their kids worship Miley Cyrus and Rihanna and the Jonas Brothers, and otherwise participate in pop culture. What I don’t think there’s a case to be made for, is the idea that Harry Potter and other fantasy stories, yes, even those incorporating themes of witchcraft or sorcery, as works by Lewis and Tolkien both did, are especially to be avoided. Especially in comparison to the sin-drenched pop culture pool we swim with our kids in every day.
A kid can pick up a twig, wave it at a closed door and intone, “Alohomora!” all day and the door will not open. Nor will that broomstick fly, no matter how she tries to make it. On the other hand, she can dress like her pop idol in the latest fashions and even attend hip-hop dance classes to learn to move like her. She is rewarded with her friends admiration for doing so, and up to the point where she is immodest – a fairly loose standard in many homes – will even be complimented by adults for looking cute. What redeeming themes are there in pop culture these days? Is there anything that points to Christ? (That’s a serious question; I don’t know much about popular entertainment.) I do know that she will find themes consistent with Christianity in Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings – loyalty, self-sacrifice, redemption and fighting evil.
The most consistent argument I’ve seen Christians make against the Potter stories is that they will entice kids into the occult. (In the decade or so since the books became popular, surely someone can provide a case study on that? Or a long list of anecdotal examples?) For my part, I can point you to a generation of Miley Cyrus and Rihanna wanna-bes, dressing and acting in ways more adult than any tween ought, falling asleep and fantasizing under the Jonas brothers posters on their walls about the boy in her class who most looks/acts/resembles said pop stars.
Complaints about the immorality of Harry Potter and LOTR because of the witchcraft ring pretty hollow to me.
I turn my face away, “tight with disapproval”, not because I’m a Christian (I’m not), but because Rowling has gone out of her way, in the past, to smear the very authors that paved the way for her: Lewis and Tolkien. (I also didn’t think much of her retconning one of her characters into a homosexual, not because the context of her works suggested it, but likely because it was the PC thing to do.)
I agree with your statements and wanted to make a recommendation on another couple of authors that I’ve found “similar” to the styles of books your recommended. They do contain heavy action and as the series mature, there are some relationships but nothing seedy.
R.A. Salvatore – Drizzt Do’Urden series in the Forgotten Realms universe – Salvatore writes summer action movies in novel form. His characters are great, a bit one sided but his adventures are incredibly fun. I picked the Drizzt books because they should be easy to find but anything by Salvatore is great for some quick and fast reading
Robert Jordan – Wheel of Time series is, imo, one of the last great series. It gets a little long winded at 13 books (maybe more coming, not finished) and each book is close to 1,000 pages but the world he creates is huge, vibrant, and very, very alive. Probably good for someone who loves to read.
I hadn’t heard her smear Lewis and Tolkien. That’s very disappointing and certainly demonstrates a lot of arrogance on her part, given that she’s created some very entertaining stories, BUT that her writing is hardly outstandingly, especially the last book. It could have had about 400 fewer pages and no one would have missed them. I heard about the “Dumbledore is gay” idiocy but it wasn’t part of the story, so I ignore it. Rowling doesn’t impress me much as a person, but I still like the stories.
Thanks, Klinger, I’ll check next time I go to the library.
I enjoy “A Wizard in Rhyme”– a guy was always complaining to his friends about how all the fantasy books never have any real religion in them, just Crystal Dragon Jesus, then realized that he pretty much HAD to write a series that did it right. Christopher Stasheff writes good stuff.
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My husband and I are both very dedicated Jesus lovers. However, we both thoroughly enjoyed Harry Potter – the books and the movies. For a long time we avoided them buying into the fallacy and fear perpetuated by the massive freak-out surrounding the “magic” aspect. Finally, my husband read them and as he described the stories, I found very little to dissuade me from them.
I totally agree that there is very little wholesome entertainment available out there anymore. I too choose to ignore the “Dumbledore is gay” issue. It isn’t really in the books, so I don’t worry myself about it. The whole magic issue is silly. Many of the words that she uses for the magic have Latin roots and are just made up words.
I don’t necessarily think the books are appropriate for the age group they are sold for, but then again, we’re pretty strict about those types of things with our daughter. All in all, for the appropriate age, they are very entertaining stories, and I thoroughly enjoyed them.
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There really is no moral difference between LOTR and Harry Potter. They both employ good-guy human characters using magic. Actually, Star Wars does pretty much the same thing also. The only author with the decency to exclude magic from the good human characters (mostly) was C.S. Lewis. In the Chronicles of Narnia, the witches and such were pretty much always bad, and the magic tended to produce bad outcomes.
But the people who get uptight about watching Harry Potter remind me of monks — and that’s not a compliment. We’re called to live in society and to live life abundantly, not neurotically as prudes causing uproars about the dumbest little peccadillos. Besides, what comes out of a man makes him unclean, not what enters him.
I suspect these books probably do harm the general, unsuspecting public over time. They make society more tolerant of the occult. But any Christian with enough sense to know that magic is sinful can easily read Harry Potter without harming himself.
Drew-
No good humans used magic in LotR. Gandalf, Sauron and Sauroman were basically angels; the Witch-king and the other Riders were possessed/powered by the rings they wore.
This is a sticking point for a lot of folks who say LotR Good, Narnia good, modern magic books bad.
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Here it is!
Go down to the part about the Seven Hedges.
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That’s a good article, Foxfier. I can see the points the author is making – though I don’t agree with all of it. And Drew, I know what you mean about the “monks.” I once received a stern lecture about LOTR from a woman I didn’t even know, at church. She overheard a few of us making plans to go see the movie and inserted herself into our conversation. Well-meaning, and simply shocked! to her core that we would consider watching it. Doubtless she went home and prayed for our immortal souls.
I clearly don’t agree, either– shoot, I can argue that D&D, especially alignments is a great tool for teaching morality, as well as being fun!– but the reasoning is out there.
Some folks’ response to fantasy (not here) reminds me of the same impulse that results in those full-body burqas. If you can see a tiny part of a woman, you *might* think about more of her, and that *might* lead you to sin, so all women *must* be covered entirely.
If a story has magic, someone *might* be interested by the idea of power in their lives, then they *might* try to find a way to get similar power in their lives, and they *might* go to demonic sources to try to get access to something like it (if they realize that or not).
If a story has good dragons in it, someone *might* be interested in hugely powerful, ancient, dangerous reptiles, and they *might* be tempted by Satan in that form. (I’ve always found this a little too obvious for old Scratch, myself– I think he’d be more likely to get to folks in the guise of good, such as “help the children!”– by killing off all the “unwanted” ones.)
Now, I wouldn’t suggest Slayers for anyone who might be tempted to call on powers outside of this universe, at least not the original version– I have no idea what the mangled English version would be like. In the Japanese version, she calls on a demon (Japanese type–think kinda like Cthulhu for equivalent) for her powers, and nearly gets destroyed by it….. but Japanese anime is a heck of a lot different from our cultural assumptions, anyways, even though you can find some gems in there. Ooops, different rant.
I didn’t encourage people to read the Harry Potter books for a long time because of what I perceived to be an attempt to trivialize the seriousness of the occult. It was as you said, I thought that the occult, the witchcraft in them was the danger. My kids were all older and grown when they started coming out and they really weren’t too interested in them but my oldest daughter bought the books in college and read them for a break from textbooks. Okay, fine, she’s an adult. So recently I read the books. I have seen the movies and had enjoyed them so I thought I’d read the books and see what was left out of the movies (there’s always something). My conclusions of the book were opposite of what I expected. First off I don’t think the writing is that terrific. Of course I have to remind myself that they are written on a 5th grade level and can’t expect the wordsmithing of an adult book. But my concerns about the enticing of kids into the occult were quickly laid to rest and misproven. The magic in the book is so fanciful that it is not believable. It is obviously fiction. BUT still I would not encourage people to just blindly hand these books to a child and say go, enjoy. I’d read them and discuss them with them because I do believe there is a danger in them. Not that of the occult but the blatant rebellion of Harry and his cohorts. Of course in the latter books there are more consequences for their rebellion but it is still there. In the early books it is rewarded. They break the rules and save the day. They show continual disrespect for those in authority. I personally find those traits to be more dangerous than any of the occult issues brought up. If a parent were to read them with their child (they would make a great read aloud book with your kids….. we read many books with the kids aloud even when they were teens) then this can be addressed but left to their own to decipher the subtle message I do not think would be wise.
Last week I spent some time in the book store and perused the teen section. I was taken aback by what I found. Many many of the books do deal with the occult, vampires, and Satanic issues and not from a Christian viewpoint. The covers of the books alone are disturbing to me. It is sad that our teens are being coerced and swayed into this so strongly. The thing is, the only options to teens outside the vampire and occult books are stupid girl/boy books. Where are the books that will build true and good character? Obviously they don’t sell. Sounds like a morality issue that goes deeper than the book store.
An acquaintance of mine – someone I go to church with – posted this status update on Facebook: “Really do not understand how “so-called Christians” can go and support a movie supporting witchcraft! (Harry Potter)”
I felt like commenting on it but why bother? If she were a good friend I’d try to engage her in a real conversation but I have a feeling I’d never get through. I can think of a lot of things that “so-called Christians” disagree on that are more important than Harry Potter, yet I still wouldn’t rhetorically kick them out of the church for.
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