The Real Problem Between Harry Potter and Christianity

There are very few people out there who have not heard of the "Harry Potter issue" that many churches have been struggling with, and indeed, still continue to struggle with. Some churches have declared young Harry and his friends to be the minions of Satan himself, and that every child ever exposed to these demons of evil needs to spend four hours with the exorcism team. Other churches have decided that Potter is essentially harmless, and even beneficial, as he teaches kids good values such as courage and loyalty. Yet, still other churches have taken the more moderate position of just ignoring it all together.

So now, the question needs to be asked, "Why all the ruckus?" If you have ever heard a sermon, or gotten into a discussion, on this issue you have probably heard that because Harry Potter is so popular, witchcraft has come to the forefront of kids minds, and as a result the Wicca societies are increasing in membership. Who knows whether or not these claims are true but it illustrates the reasons why some Christians are set against Harry Potter: 1)it makes kids more aware of, and 2)more curious about, witchcraft. Quite honestly, this is ridiculous. If you are a Christian parent and you have your kids reading the Bible, or they are going to Sunday school and hearing Bibles stories, they are aware of witchcraft. They have heard how, in 1 Samuel chapter 28, Saul went to the witch of Endor to inquire of the spirit of the prophet Samuel, and have heard their Sunday school teachers tell them that witchcraft and sorcery are evil. Besides that, we celebrate a holiday every year on October 31 where kids everywhere dress up as witches, warlocks and anything else that they want to. The myth that kids are sheltered from witchcraft by forbidding them watch or read Harry Potter is busted! As for kids being made more curious about witchcraft by Harry Potter, this too can go into the trash heap. Kids, no matter what they see or read, are curious about witchcraft. It's what kids do! They are by nature curious, and if something shows up in their scope that is abnormal, different, or weird they are naturally going to want to investigate it more. There's a word for this phenomenon: learning.

Now, we will move away from the common excuses, and get to what the problem should be with Harry Potter. The Bible says that witchcraft is a sin. What Harry Potter does is to portray this sin as a neutral thing, neither good nor bad, which can be used for either good or evil purposes. This is the true problem, portraying evil as not evil, and this is what most church going people don't want to hear. They don't want to hear this because this standard will affect their lives more than they are willing to accept. If this standard is held to we must throw out most of out beloved Disney classics, like Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and (NO! Not that one!) The Lion King. All these would need to be trashed for the exact same reason as young Potter, and the church in America isn't ready to go that extreme.

So... is it a sin to read or watch Harry Potter? That I cannot say, it is between you and God. What I can say is that if you decide not to watch Harry Potter, you need to throw more than him, at the risk of being a hypocrite. Disney, Tolkien, and the Wizard of Oz all need to join Harry in the scrap heap if that is your decision. Make sure you count the cost, before deciding. And maybe the question we need to be asking, if we are worried about the media influence on our families, is "What do we do about the sitcoms, reality shows, and other media that portray things which influence us much more than a movie or book about witchcraft?" Things like, sex outside of marriage, disrespect to parents, and the view that the dysfunctional family is completely normal. Do we want God to get up in our grill that much?