J K Rowling's Harry Potter: a Christian parent's nightmare?

Read our new article on 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.'

Some parents who are followers of Jesus Christ think the Harry Potter films based on J K Rowling's books are harmless fun. Others think they are a dangerous door for the occult. What should we make of the conflict? And is there a better way to respond to these films? The debate has been re-ignited by the release of the second film, 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets' in November 2002.

At the start of every term, the Hogwarts express leaves from platform nine and three quarters at Kings Cross station to take Harry Potter and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger away from the world of Muggles to Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. For Harry is a junior wizard, left orphaned when his parents were killed by the evil Lord Voldemort...

Except that this year, things begin to go wrong. First, Dobby the House Elf comes to warn Harry of unexpected dangers if he returns to Hogwarts. Then, Harry and Ron cannot get through the magic barrier onto the platform for the Hogwarts Express.

From here on in, things go from bad to worse - Harry and Ron are attacked by a homicidal tree; Harry is nearly killed during a Quidditch match, and someone is turning people into stone... clearly something very ominous is stalking the corridors of Hogwarts, and Harry and his friends have to find the Chamber of Secrets to deal with the threat - helped (or perhaps hindered) by the egotistical new Dark Arts master, Gilderoy Lockart (a wildly over the top Kenneth Branagh), and by Moaning Myrtle - a ghost with a serious self-esteem problem.

The Harry Potter phenomenon

Andrew Carey, writing in the Church of England Newspaper, called it

This second Harry Potter film is more self-assured than the first, longer, and (especially towards the end) considerably darker. How will parents who are followers of Christ respond to it?

Responses fall into two broad camps: those who 'can't see any harm in it', and who will probably take their own kids to see it, and those who believe it encourages an interest in the occult, and should be avoided as evil. The aim of this article is to examine the Harry Potter phenomenon itself, to explore the different responses by followers of Christ, to encourage careful thought and discussion, and to ask if there is a better way to approach the Harry Potter phenomenon.

J K Rowling's first four adventures of the boy wizard from Hogwarts ('Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' (in the US: 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'); 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'; 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'; and 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire') have already broken all records, with three more adventures still to come.

By the end of 2001, more than sixty million copies of the books had already been sold worldwide in two hundred languages. J K Rowling became the first-ever author to occupy the top three slots on the New York Times best-seller list at the same time. According to the Sunday Times Pay List on 4th November 2001, Rowling was the second-highest earning woman in Britain, on £24.8 million a year (after Madonna, on £42 million per year). But what is the amazing appeal of the Harry Potter stories? There are many possible answers. Here are just four:

• What happens next? Harry's adventures are well-constructed stories that keep you turning the pages because you do not know what is going to happen.
• 'Magic has a universal appeal', as J K Rowling says. We were made to live in an enchanted world, and too much that happens in our mundane lives dis-enchants us.
• There is a dark side to the stories. These are not 'nice' little patronizing books for the kiddies. The villains are genuinely sinister, and people get hurt. (In the 'Goblet of Fire', one of the characters dies.). The stories appeal because they are scary.
• A vulnerable hero. Harry Potter is not an unbreakable superman. He is a school kid with glasses, a kid whose parents have died, and who - more than anything - wants them back.

Two different responses by followers of Christ

The potential problem with Harry Potter, from the point of view of a follower of Christ, is that the books are full of magic, witches, wizards, spells, ghosts, poltergeists, and all the other stuff that we associate with 'the Occult', and we see the occult as something dangerous to be avoided. There have been two kinds of response to Harry Potter by parents who are followers of Christ:

• 'I can't see any harm in it. It encourages the kids to read. It gets them thinking about good and evil. It's just a story - the kids know it isn't real. It's no different from Roald Dahl or C S Lewis. I'll probably take the kids to see the film myself when it comes out.'
• 'It's dangerous. It encourages an interest in the occult. We should avoid it. I won't let my kids see it at all.'

Is there a better way? The purpose of this article is to help us towards a more thought-out response to the Harry Potter film and books.

A double standard?

A lot that we see on TV or in films is harmful or destructive from the point of view of a follower of Christ. In fact, you can make a strong case that TV is by its very nature, corrosive of truth and values. (See the article 'Television: Agent of Truth Decay', by Douglas Groothuis.) However, what concerns me here is the way followers of Christ sometimes seem to demonize one particular film or series, while blandly and blindly accepting others that are just as destructive.  I wonder how many parents are banning their children from watching Harry Potter (because of the witches and wizards), while they themselves have quite cheerfully been to see 'Eyes Wide Shut' or something equally pornographic,  'Gladiator', or something equally violent, or will watch TV programs that offer us nothing but a shallow and materialistic view of reality.  If we are going to reject some films and TV shows because of their anti-Christian messages, then we really should reject almost everything we currently watch.

In the world but not of it

The problem with this is that we cannot avoid the junk that the world throws at us, unless we cut ourselves off completely from contemporary culture.  Hundreds of years ago, serious followers of Christ went out into the desert, or into monasteries, to try to avoid the temptations of the world.  But they found they had taken temptation with them, because the problem is not only the world outside, but also the world within me. We cannot isolate ourselves from the world and from its culture pressing in on us. We may not be able to prevent our kids watching the Harry Potter films, even if we decide that this is what we want to do.

Safe in the world

When the Lord Jesus prays for his followers in John's Gospel chapter 17, he says to his father God, 'I'm not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one.' (17:15).  His purpose is not that we should withdraw completely from the world, but that we should be salt and light in the world.

Mindless amusement

One great problem with the visual media, whether it is the Harry Potter film, or a TV show like 'Popstars' or 'Big Brother', is that the continuous flow of images bypasses our critical faculties. We watch. We absorb mindlessly. The one thing we do not do is to think.

A Better Way?

If we want to function as followers of Christ in the world today, we need to recapture the ability to think critically about what we are watching. This does not mean jumping mindlessly on the latest bandwagon.  It does mean asking questions about what we see - asking ourselves, asking our kids. (This is one of the key principles of the 'Facing the Challenge' course - see especially session four).  There are three 'generic' questions that we can ask of almost any film or TV show that will help us to start towards a thought-through response, and will lead us towards more specific questions:

• What worldview is this film or show presenting?  What is it saying (or implying) is true about the way things are?  What values is it encouraging?
• Is there anything in this worldview that I as a follower of Christ can agree with? 
• Is there anything in this worldview that I as a follower of Christ must disagree with?

And based on my answers to these questions:

• What sort of things could I ask a non-Christian friend or neighbor about this film or TV show, that would get them thinking too?

Non-Christian stories, books, and films, may contain key themes that we can pick up and work with. Rather than banning our kids from watching the Harry Potter films and reading the books, a more constructive approach would be to see how we can use them for good, by identifying glimmers of Biblical truth in them. This is the approach Connie Neal takes in her book 'The Gospel According to Harry Potter'. Although some of her illustrations are a bit far-fetched, the principle she is seeking to apply comes from the Bible. For example, it follows on from what the apostle Paul did on Mars Hill in Athens, in Acts chapter 17 verses 16-34, when he quoted from Greek poets and writers, and used the Athenians' altar to the unknown god as his starting point. Neal says:

In 'The Gospel According to Harry Potter', Neal goes through all four HP books published at the time of writing, and looks for what she calls 'glimmers of the Gospel'. For example, in 'Chamber of Secrets' she points to:

• Freedom from oppression: Harry is oppressed by the disgusting Dursleys, and liberated by Ron Weasley and his brothers, and Dobby the house-elf is oppressed by his owners and liberated by Harry. Neal says:

• One of the key themes in 'Chamber of Secrets' is prejudice (on the part of those from pure-blooded wizard lines, against those 'mud-bloods' who have Muggle ancestors).
• Another theme is the idea that 'what you give is what you get returned': Because Ron's wand is broken, whenever someone tries to curse someone else with it, the curse rebounds on them.

In defending her approach of looking for 'glimmers of the gospel', Neal says:

She goes on to ask:

Conclusion:

If we approach Harry Potter in the right way (the way Paul approached the altar to the unknown god in Athens) instead of either blindly accepting it as harmless, or rejecting it out of hand as leading people towards the occult, we can find positive points of contact in it for the Bible's message.

I have close friends who will probably disagree strongly with what I have just written about the Harry Potter film and books. We are both convinced that we are right, and that the issue is an important one. We are not likely to persuade each other. So how are we supposed to handle it when followers of Christ disagree with each other about a secondary issue? Go here for more on this.

Web sites:

Warner Bros. official 'Harry Potter' site

Dark Horizons news and film reviews: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Books on Harry Potter from the viewpoint of a follower of Christ

'The Gospel According to Harry Potter: Spirituality in the stories of the world's most famous seeker' by Connie Neal. Order from the USA Order from the UK

See also Connie Neal's earlier title: What's a Christian to do with Harry Potter?' Order from the USA Order from the UK

A Closer Look at Harry Potter by John Houghton This is a helpful and balanced response to the Harry Potter series. Order from the UK (Apparently only available from the UK at present)

Harry Potter and the Meaning of Life Booklet by Philip Plyming Grove Spirituality series www.grovebooks.co.uk

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