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!
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