I meant to blog about this ages ago…
A college senior is doing her thesis on Harry Potter, and I'm sure plenty other students and scholars are doing the same. I find it all very fascinating. I look forward to attending Lumos 2006 and listening to adults discuss the Harry Potter books from a scholarly perspective.
I don't know what it is about those books that inspire so many people to spend so much time writing and talking about them. From the news story:
Since the fall, Ziznewski has been reading reviews to gain a better understanding of the controversies surrounding the series. Her main goal was to answer the question: Is Hogwarts (the fictional school of magic in the stories) “breeding heathens”?
As her senior year comes to a close, Ziznewski continues to evaluate literary and religious debates, among others. She has established that the books are not a bad influence on children, contrary to the views some groups have held. In her final paper, she will present the messages that children and adults can take away from reading The Adventures of Harry Potter. (Source)
Although I don't wish I were back in school, I do envy the younger generation's opportunities to read, study, and dissect Harry Potter for academic credit. 
Addendum: Take The Leaky Cauldron's Harry Potter IQ test. It's a cool time-waster or time-filler, depending on your perspective.
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April 17th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
Is Hogwarts (the fictional school of magic in the stories) “breeding heathens”?
I have a relative that is a member of a small, independent church that is absolutely convinced that Harry Potter is training up children to be Satanists. There is no chance that he and his wife will change their mind, as "our pastor told us so". Sigh.
April 17th, 2006 at 1:23 pm
I don't know why I didn't comment on the "heathen" part. Strange. Perhaps I've learned to tune out such ideas. Actually, I also meant to blog about a recent Christians-who-hate-HP story (in India?) , but I didn't bookmark the link.
April 18th, 2006 at 7:51 am
This is funny. I did the same research project a year or so ago,… I thought I was brilliant
that I came up with an idea allowing me to read everything Harry Potter - for credit. It was a
very fun piece of work!
April 19th, 2006 at 4:08 am
Maybe everybody on this forum knows this already but I found a good
talk on Harry Potter by Dr Jeram Barrs at BeThinking.org
http://www.bethinking.org/resource.php?ID=84
Delete this if this is old news. I was on another forum a few weeks
ago and someone wrote in with some 'news' about something and they sarcastically replied "Welcome
to the world of 3 days ago!"
April 20th, 2006 at 7:44 am
I wonder how much of the "Harry Potter Breeds Heathens!" fear that some have is related to the fact that MANY young adolescents (the HP or slightly post-HP reading age) go through a period of doubting…which is totally unconnected to what they have read. (I grew up some 20 years before HP and I had a "doubting" phase…and I didn't read any books that were condemned as "evil.")
I know a number of kids in the youth group I lead who are avide HP readers and they're all strong Christians. I realize that's fewer than 10 data points, but still.
April 27th, 2006 at 9:47 am
JK rowling did extensive reserch into occultism to write her books, which shows in names, spells, and even main plotlines (as in the sorcerers stone, which is taken from a real item (the philosophers stone) believed to exist a few hundred years ago. it supposedly brought long life and was able to turn any metal into gold(which is also mentioned in the book). actrual occultist have come to her and asked if she practiced the occult, and were surprised when she said no because of the accuracy of her books. if you want to learn more read HARRY POTTER VS. THE BIBLE its a good book, it scares me to think of what is going on out there that we arent told about, or havent heard.
April 28th, 2006 at 5:15 am
I don't have any interest in the occult and I haven't read any of the Harry Potter books. I did see the films and they look just like any other fantasy film. I do believe the devil is active in the world but I'm not sure if he's into creating giant spiders or hats that talk. There is very little detail in the Bible about the occult and the fact that people were so impressed with the miracles of Jesus, indicates to me that whatever the ancient witches were, they probably weren't very different
to the new age types today that don't really do anything magic at all -
although they probably like to think they do – and charge for it!
Maybe Rowling did research occult legends. She probably wanted to give the stories some kind of flavor of authenticity. And Jerram Barrs does mention a few aspects of the novels that need to be watched but I think that evangelicals are too quick to adopt the "conspiracy theory" mentality. The very same sort of thing happened with Star Wars. All of these films and books contain things that we might not agree with. Jerram Barrs mentions Calvin’s views on pagan authors in the MP3 talk that I mentioned in my previous comment:
Some 450 years ago John Calvin encouraged people to read books by the great writers from Greece and Rome. He wrote instructions for the teachers in the school system he designed in Geneva, Switzerland, asking that they have the students read the great classics of Greece and Rome that were pagan and non-Christian. And he asked that they not criticize them, but rather encourage the students to celebrate what is good in them, and to learn from the truth that they could find in them. Calvin said on another occasion that it is a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit to deny that pagan writers like Plato wrote many things that are true and helpful. We must be prepared to act similarly in our day when it comes to the Harry Potter series or any other product of our culture.
Having said all that, there was a toy shop owner in the UK who refused to stock the book and I sort of admired him although I’d like him to listen to the Jerram Barrs talk.
April 28th, 2006 at 7:22 am
In reply to Paul O'Driscol's comment
Even if Rowling doesnt believe that the witchcraft is real, her stories still have enough occult in them to draw in children who like what they saw in the movies. There is a occult group in Oklahoma that had to hire a youth director, because of all the children flocking to them. They attributed their success completely to the Harry Potter series. This is only one instance , and there are many.
In the book "Harry potter and the Bible" ( Sorry about the wrong title in my last comment i found the book and realized i had typed it inorrectly), Richard Banes tells a story about a child who was abused by is parents, so he played "Dungeons and Dragons" (the role playing game). eventually he bacame a dungeon master, and was enamoured by what his character in the game could do. He later met a witch who told him that he could do these things also, and gave him his own spell. He went to his first satanist meeting and at the initiation slit his rist and poured his blood into a chalise, which was passed around for everyone to drink from. Later in his life he killed a man for not givin his friend any more alcohol, and then decided to get revenge on his parents. He asked the help of a demon for this particular sacrifice, then he snuck into his parents bedroom with a .357 revolver and killed them both. He was found guilty of the crime and sentenced to lethal injection. Before his sentence was carried out however he wrote a series of letters, to warn people about the occult,and how it ruined his life. I believe he became a christian before he died. This is a true story. I'm not saying that our children are going to get this involved in satanism, but hopefully you now can see what we are making our children suceptible to.
As you say there is some good that can be extracted from these books, but is there enough that we should risk destroying our childrens lives in order to give them the chance to extract it ? If you see good in these books bring it to their attention, dont let them go to find what the find. You dont put your child into a car until you know that they know how to use it, and are responsible enough to drive safely. The same is true throughout life.
I was i a bookstore the other day and i saw that they had a whole new section, the wizardry section. In this section were books like "the Wicca Garden" side by side with Harry Potter. How is a child to know the difference between fiction that looks like fact,and fact that looks just like the fiction. Now children have the occult right at their fingertips , and all we do is buy them a book for their birthdays that can get them intrested in it.
please answer, id like to hear what you think.
April 28th, 2006 at 10:47 am
Well, if I’m looking for horror stories, I need go no further than the Bible. People are fallen by nature. They are bound for hell. They need a Saviour. It’s only a matter of detail what false religion they adopt.
It doesn’t surprise me that there is a bit of a craze for the occult. I’m not all that sure if it will last. I’ve even heard some witch or other say that she thinks that Harry Potter mocks and trivializes here religion.
I have no doubt that Satan damages people in all sorts of ways. I am pleased to learn about the man being saved. But I think that his chief spiritual problem was that he was lost spiritually. His next problem was that he was abused. What happened after was just a symptom of all this. I am just pleased that God turned it all around.
I haven’t read the book you mentioned but I have read this type of book in relation to other matters. Generally, these adopt a very negative approach towards the culture of the world, with stories like the one you mention. Some of them, to me, aren’t all that different to occult books in that they seem to glorify and glamorize the whole thing.
My own kids are approaching their teens. I try to encourage them to view the world in a biblical way and I don’t think that them watching Harry Potter or listening to pop music or whatever is a big danger to them.
In any case, they will be out of my hands in a few years and they will be able to do whatever they please.
I hope that I have given them enough teaching for them to recognize truth from error.
Having said all that, I don’t have much of a problem with erring on the side of caution. Perhaps the book you read does take an intelligent approach to the matter. I think we do have to be careful that we don’t take a hysterical response and I think that it was this that started the discussion in the first place. I found the Jerram Barrs talk quite good and it might be worth listening to his point of view.
April 28th, 2006 at 10:47 pm
Which pagan religion does matter, just because some one is not saved doesnt mean that they are equally far from christian beliefs. There are some very moral pagans, and there are very immoral pagans. Both will go to hell if they are unsaved when they die. You may be in the ocean or in the lake, but you can drown in both, only the christians are on dry ground.
If you have only a short time with your kids you should be actively teaching them until they leave not give up because they're almost gone. Thats your business, we're talkin about all children.
I have read books and articals where the people who wrote them knew nothing about their topics. Theyre a waste of time, but this guy has researched alot for this book. I used to think what you do (that harry potter is just a cool fantasy), and even read some of the books,until I read "Harry Potter and the Bible". it convinced me of the dangers of Harry Potter. I know that even if I think I am ready to withstand the dangers, the devil will use that as my weakness so i dont trust myself, I can only trust God and not dally with sin. I am not condemning anyone who believes themselves strong enough. I am warning of what this can do to succeptible children or weaker adults.
I believe that Jerram Barrs was incorrect on many points especially that Harry is helpfull to children. If you need to show your kids good values, show it to them without the occultism.find other stories to point these things out in that arent potentially dangerous. When you hand a child Harry Potter, you are handing him a poisonous snake, it is possible that it wont strike, or that it will but the child will survive with a stronger immunity for the next time hes bitten, or it could kill him.
One reason we shouldnt let children watch or read harry potter is the fact that they have no easily seeable underlying set of beliefs to stand on (which is why we are talking about this right now). They could twist any direction, or be twisted in the mind, and you would overlook it because you are already attatched to the characters. The same way some see Harry Potter as christian others any other religion, she had no basis to write this book on. She may have built it on a satanist foundation or, or on a buddist, or nalmost any other. That in itself is enough to warn us to keep our children away.
April 30th, 2006 at 1:11 pm
Well Carey,
I'm glad that you took the trouble to listen to Jerram Barrs. It's not really a matter of me giving up.
I have no problem at all with my children reading Harry Potter. However, there are better fantasy
books. They are into Lord of the Rings etc and I think they like that more in any case.
I do admire that fact that you are careful and as I said in my last post, if you do err
on the side of caution, that's no harm at all. At least, you are willing to look at both
sides.
May 1st, 2006 at 8:41 am
Well it seems that this discussion is descussion os over. Take the time to read that book though, its worth it.
Im writing a paper on this subject and you helped me to come up with things I could say, and things i could speak against. I respect you for careing enough to discuss this with me. Thank You.
May 1st, 2006 at 5:58 pm
I'm a little late to the party, but I feel compelled to drop a few words. There are some considerations to make before we dismiss Harry Potter simply on the merit of its "dangers." Witchcraft, yes, is expressly forbidden in the pages of scripture. So are the practices of divination, as well as communication with the dead. Yet both are practiced in "The Chronicles of Narnia" and "The Lord of the Rings" respectively, and good things result in each story.
That's what we're saying here, to ourselves and to the rest of the world who watches Christians carry on this debate. We celebrate Tolkien and Lewis because they supposedly created Christian allegories. Later writings from both authors state that they never had that intention in mind when they wrote those stories. If we dismiss Harry Potter because of the functions which serve the story, then we have to acknowledge the whole gamut of material potentially placed on the chopping block.
Should we err on the side of caution? Absolutely. Any reading requires some amount of responsibility, especially where children are concerned. My first question when I read the recent story about a teenage girl who claimed Harry Potter opened her life to witchcraft, and a couple years later considered suicide, is simply “where were your parents?”
Works of fantasy can serve as excellent teaching tools—but a work of fiction cannot, and should not, ever replace the care and guidance of loving parents, and the discerning attributes of the Holy Spirit. Any story is potentially dangerous.
We need to also acknowledge the good that comes from these books as well. I’ve read testimonies from people who’ve used these books to connect with troubled kids, as well as adults, and in at least one documented instance, have led a person to Christ using these books as a starting point. To ignore the virtuous things wrought from these books does a disservice to everyone.
And, if one feels led to avoid the Harry Potter books, by all means, do so. It is not worth compromising one’s own conviction for the sake of sharing a drink from the well of pop culture.
May 2nd, 2006 at 8:24 am
I have read both the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Chronicles of Narnia. I have not looked into it that way however. thank you for calling this to my attention. I will need to think about this.
I do not find fault with Narnia however because all the witchcraft is used by the evil characters, which is clearly defined in this book.
The Lord of the Rings however I'm going to have to look at because I know that Gandalf, Pippin and Aragorn do a form of skrying using the Palantir.
Please write back if you can think of any instances in Chronicles of Narnia. In the mean time I will look at the Lord of the Rings, and write my Harry Potter paper. thanks for writing.
May 3rd, 2006 at 9:27 am
The problem with pointing out things in Narnia or Middle-earth is that both locations are explicitly NOT here. They are not the real world; therefore, they have different laws. The thing that makes me most nervous about Harry is that his stories are set in the "real world," planet Earth. (Actually, that's not true. The thing that makes me most nervous about Harry is that he always, ALWAYS breaks the rules, gets away with it, and there are no consequences.)
Wiccan organizations in England have attributed their recent record growth entirely to Harry Potter and similar books.
That being said, there are good things about Harry, and there are much more dangerous books. I'm firmly in the middle.
May 7th, 2006 at 8:43 am
even though they are not here they can still impact how we think. I agree with all the rest that you said though.
May 16th, 2006 at 4:13 pm
I have read Richard Abanes book for a paper I wrote on Harry Potter for my theology book, and I
just don't think he proved his point. He pick and chose examples that proved his point, while
ignoring things that don't. And he was inconsistent in applying the principles he did claim
to stand for, accepting Lord of the Rings and Narnia (perhaps because they are popular?) while
dismissing Harry Potter. It reminded me very much of the friends who used to be against all
science fiction/fantasy. Then decided Star Wars was okay. And even LoTR and Narnia. They don't like Harry
Potter — yet. But I'm not at all convinced that will stay either as time goes on and they begin
to realize the abundance of God's grace in more ways.
Of course, I don't push these things on them either. I respect what parents do
and do not want their kids reading (even when it leaves, IMHO, the kids woefully
too innocent of some of the facts of life they really should know) Paul tells
us not to cause our brotehrs to stumble. If one has taken a stand on a particular
point, they need to stand there.
As for the "Does Harry Potter create Heathens" — erm. No. We are all BORN heathens. It takes action to move us out of that state.
May 16th, 2006 at 5:58 pm
I've come across the argument that HP is evil because it's witchcraft several times, and I don't believe it holds water. First of all, there are a great number of creatures in the books that everyone, including children reading the books, knows don't exist: Sphinxes, Mermaids, and creatures made up as well. Secondly, I think the argument ignore something else. If it's evil for children and/or adults to read the HP books because they contain magic, then what about fairytales? A good number of those contain magic as well, but I've yet to hear someone criticize them in the same breath as the Potter books. Lastly, the bad guys aren't the only ones who use magic in the Narnia saga either. If I'm not mistaken, Aslan relies on some very old magic that allows for Edward to be spared despite his being a traitor. Whether or not it's now taken as allegory is irrelevant, as Lewis himself stated that he never intended the books as allegory. Also, is there any evidence that anyone's actually tried to use the spells in the HP series for themselves?
May 26th, 2006 at 1:25 pm
Fairy tales do not follow a charachter who uses magic specifically taken from occultism. Your statement that because there are no mermaids and dryads on earth this story cant be based on this planet is incorrect. The whole point of the book is a side of earth that we never see because we are "muggles". It still has the same draw on children as if it were about a kid who had magic in a completely normal world. Aslan refers to the "deep magic". I believe Aslan to be a Jesus symbol, and the deep magic to be God, because Aslan states that he was begotten by the deep magic just as everything else was made by it. Also magic isnt evil! witchcraft is evil! if the magic seen in something leads to the witchcraft seen throughout world, look away. If your eyes cause you to sin pluck them out and throw them far from you. this means that since harry potter is leading many children and even adults to sin, we must pluck it out throw it away and not make ourselves succeptible to the devils cunning. I have heard some say, "I don't believe the devil is into making talking hats or snot-flavored jelly beans". This should warn you to be careful, the devil strikes where we are weakest, which is where we dont believe he will attack from. Guard your hearts.
Please answer with your thoughts on this point.
Carey Chastain
August 8th, 2006 at 4:52 pm
I do not think that Harry Potter is a bunch of Satanic writings. It is really
no different from many other fantasy books. Look at the Chronicles of Narnia, there
is witchcraft in it and sacrifice, but good triumphs over evil. Look at the Lord of
the Rings, there is wizardry, good and bad, much like the Harry Potter series. once
again, good triumphs over evil. Notice that the authors of these books are chistians.
The central theme of the Harry Potter books is love. It has given many children that
are being abused or are orphaned hope. It has caused children, teens and adults to
become interested in reading again. Not just the Harry Potter Series, but other
books and genres as well. Those of you who say it is satanic, I'm sorry to say, have
never read the books. Don't trust the movies. The movies have really made it seem
darker than it really is. (They also don't stick to the book as closely.) If you are
judging the series, and you have not read the books, then you are sadly mistaken, my
friends. I do not recommend the series for younger children, (anything below 13)
because, like a lot of you have said, the younger, more immature children do tend
to obsess. The books do get darker(not santanic, mind you.) as they get further
along, because Harry is no longer a little child anymore, and is dealing with real
problems. The age that you should read it really depends on you maturity level.
Also these people that write books like "Harry Potter and the Bible", have
probably not read the books, they are just trying to sound smart and talk like they
know what they are doing. Now that may not be true for all authors of these kinds of
books, but the case is, the majority is like that. If those of you out there are
skeptical of the books, and you decide to read them, read them with an open mind.
Try not to see the movies first, but read the books. Keep in mind, that it is just
FICTION. It is not an "instruction book" for spells, as some of you believe. It is
just a story. No worse than the Chronicals of Narnia or Lord of he Rings(which i
both love, dearly.) J.K. Rowling Also loves the books and their christian influence. Just
Remember that. And also, I want you to know, that christians can like Harry Potter.
It is ok. You are not sinning by reading it. If you feel uncomfortable with it,
then don't continue reading. It is a personal choice. I am a christian (Jesus is my sav
Saviour) and I am fine with the books. I realize that some of you aren't comfortable
with the books, and that is ok, too. It is a personal choice. I have chosen to read
it, and I am glad. It is really not that different from Narnia Or Rings. The book
is oacked with good morals, though most children, tend not to pay attention to it,
they tend to get caught up in the media hype. Keep an open mind. It is just a story.
August 8th, 2006 at 7:11 pm
A note on the spells. J.K. Rowling did not "dip into occults" to look for the names.
She had studied Latin, and all of her spell names are made up by her. None of the
spells mentioned in the books are real. They are just Latin, Spanish, Italian, Frencj
and other words. The movies included a lot that she did not write.