Wednesday, October 4: Hello, googlers. No, I don't have Laura Mallory's e-mail address, but I do have the latest news on her efforts to ban Harry Potter. By the way, I'm a Christian and I'm quite fond of Harry Potter.
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Back in the day, I was a Harry hater. Witchcraft, witchcraft! They're teaching the children witchcraft! Burn the books!

Then I calmed down.

Gwinnett County, Georgia, resident and evangelical Christian Laura Mallory, bless her heart, joins a long line of Christians who want Harry Potter books removed from government school library shelves. She said she wants to protect her kids, "children and others from evil." If Mallory believes banishing a few books will protect us from "evil," I wish her luck.

Mallory will have to appeal or go another route because the school board refused her request.

I believe the biblical admonition against sorcery is a distinct and separate issue from the hysterical call to ban the Harry Potter books from government school libraries. Reasonable Christians can discuss the biblical issue among themselves without bringing it into the public square. How reasonable is it to appeal to our faith to prevent unbelievers from reading a book? Unsustainable and unworkable, in my opinion. In the same regard, as much as I hate My Two Dads and Heather Has Two Mommies kind of books, I've never called for those to be removed. Instead, I urge Christians to pull their children out of government schools.

Book banning is hysterical and unproductive. If children want to read a certain book, believe me, they'll find a way. The focus should be on what you teach them in the home. If your kid is in a government school filled with books on homosexuality and Harry Potter — and you don't want them reading about either topic — explain to them why the books go against your values and why you don't want them reading such books. Banning a book (excluding child pornography) only provides a slippery slope for banning others you don't like. It's dangerous, ignorant, and uncool.

However, I remain noncommittal (sort of) on whether young children should read the Harry Potter books.

I deal with Bible-believing Christians and Harry Potter in Harry Potter and the Charmed Christians, Part I and Part II.

Update (5/15): Commenter and blogger Jared writes:

Teaching our kids discernment is vastly more important than trying to ‘protect’ them from the world. That’s impossible, and unbiblical. If we don’t teach critical thinking, and allow students to recognize the difference between the wheat and the chaff, we’re failing our students.

God has graced us with intellect and an insatiable curiosity. Remove discernment from that equation, and you get…well, Richard Dawkins. Or Pat Robertson.

Oooooh…low blow against Robertson, but I like the rest.

Update II (5/17): So the magic in Harry Potter is kosher? Good!

Related posts:

• "Magic" in Harry Potter and Narnia
• Harry Potter’s Figurative Death and Resurrection
• J.K. Rowling "has no understanding of holiness"

I'm outspoken on political issues but try to keep the political stuff to a minimum here at Fantasy Fiction for Christians. Today I'll make an exception.

I found a ruddy good article, as Hagrid would say, at one of my favorite political sites, The American Thinker. The anonymous author has penned an essay that's politically conservative in its brief critique of the Lord of the Rings, Narnia, and Harry Potter series and support for the war against Islamofascism. It has crossover appeal for fantasy fiction fans who are right-leaning defenders of Western culture.

The writer mentions the dark tone of both Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and mixes in some "just war" ideas. An excerpt:

In the last five years, through a series of rousing movies and books, our children have been introduced to some of the best conservative thinking ever put to paper or put on film.
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I don’t pretend to know what J.K. Rowling was thinking when she wrote Order of the Phoenix, but I can’t help but see in this post-9/11 book a perfect analogy to the situation the West faces today, in the real world, in its War against Islamofascism. Some of us, like Harry, know that we have seen evil, acknowledge its existence, and are prepared to fight it. But just as Harry must deal with a government Ministry bound and determined to explain away or ignore the evil in its midst, we too face an anti-War movement that endlessly ignores, explains away, and excuses the most vile acts of terror and human degradation.

I like articles and blogs written by people who read a lot, so I recommend you bookmark the Bookworm Room and visit often.

Fellow blogger and Harry Potter fanatic Travis Prinzi is on a roll at Sword of Gryffindor. He's taking a class in mythology and working on a paper about Harry Potter.

A couple of weeks ago, Travis asked for feedback on two paper proposals: The Meaning of the Phoenix: Love’s Victory over Death in Harry Potter and Harry as a Philosopher’s Stone: Alchemy in the Harry Potter Novels. He chose the first (which I voted for).

Love's victory over death is THE story, the ultimate theme. Because of his love for us, Christ sacrificed himself for those he came to save. As a result, we have eternal life. Physical death is the result of the Fall (sin), but when our bodies power down, our spiritual selves will live on. The power of the grave, of death, of sin, has no hold over us. This life is only the earthly phase of our eternity.

Travis also blogged about one of my favorite literary terms: narrative misdirection. He links to an article titled Why Half Blood Prince is the Best Harry Potter Novel, by our favorite HP academic, John Granger. I won't explain narrative misdirection. Read the post and Granger's article. Good stuff.

Travis also shares with us questions from his mythology class. In one post he asks, "How is the abstract theme of Good vs. Evil further developed, complicated, extended, or diversified in Goblet of Fire?" In a more recent post, he asks, "What is the biggest difference between book one Harry and book four Harry? Why is this difference significant?"

I really want to answer those questions (especially the second), but I haven't had much extra time to blog here at FFC. If you have the time, you may answer the questions here, at Travis's blog, or both.