Disenchanted by Harry Potter     11/24/1999

Harry Potter is casting a spell.  All three of the serial books—Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban—are on the New York Times bestseller list.  More than 18 million copies of the first three books have sold in the United States alone. Book four is poised for release on July 8 which Amazon.com is expecting to be the biggest online bestseller ever.  Big-name Hollywood directors are vying to bring the books to life on the silver screen.  And kids are abandoning video games and Internet surfing in pursuit of an old favorite pastime—reading.  But Harry Potter does not enchant everyone.

After learning that teachers were reading the stories aloud in class, a group of South Carolina parents recently asked the State Board of Education to review the books.  They question whether the books should be allowed in schools, much less read in class, complaining that they are too violent for children.  A district panel has rejected the parents' request and subsequent appeal. Similar objections are occurring elsewhere.

The book’s main character, Harry, is an orphaned wizard attending Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  British author J.K. Rowling chronicles his magical adventures involving spell casting, crystal-ball reading, levitation and other sorcery tools. 

The books’ violent tones concern Elizabeth Mounce, a parent calling for the review.  “There’s evil, there’s death, there’s lack of respect for human life, and there’s the occult,” she said.

Stephen Mounce said that he believes using the books as a teaching tool in public schools breaks the law, because it violates the separation of church and state.  “The witchcraft, the occult, Satanism, all the dark side that we see in these books—the part about it that disturbs us the most is we believe it’s religious” (CBN News, 10/20/99).

The concerned parents cite this passage from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone as an example:  “Harry could see (Quirrell’s palms) looked burned, raw, red, and shiny.  ‘Then kill him, fool, and be done!’ screeched Voldemort.  Quirrell raised his hand to perform a deadly curse!”

And after reviewing and recommending the Harry Potter books in their Christmas catalog, God’s World Publications, parent company of WORLD magazine and God’s World Book Club, retracted the books.  Its advertisement in WORLD said “the fact that the books are not Christ-centered” and “…not written from a perspective compatible with Christianity” led to the retraction.

Rowling’s answer to her critics: Don’t read the books.  “If you ban all books with witchcraft and supernatural, you’ll ban three-quarters of children’s literature,” she said (Washington Post, 10/20/99).

Rowling plans to chronicle Harry’s adventures in four additional books to the series which, she told Time magazine (9/20/99), will be “darker” than the earlier ones.  “There will be deaths.  I am writing about someone, Voldemort, who is evil,” she said.  “And rather than make him a pantomime villain, the only way to show how evil it is to take a life is to kill someone the reader cares about.”

Despite the occult theme, Rowling “positively” thinks that her books are moral.  “Harry, Ron and Hermione [two other characters] are innately good people,” she told the Post.  She said that she’s never met a child who has asked her about the occult.  Nor is she trying to influence anyone into black magic.  “That’s the very last thing I’d want to do” (Washington Times, USA Weekend, 11/12/99-11/14/99).

Rowling confessed that she does not “believe in the kind of magic that appears in my books.  My wizarding world is a world of imagination.”  She believes “something very magical can happen when you read a good book” (Times, Weekend). 

Not all parents object to Harry Potter.  Kate Tsubata, a Maryland home-schooling mother and free-lance writer, agrees with Rowling that the books are “quite moral in tone, with clear distinctions made between good and evil.  They uphold such virtues as bravery, self-sacrifice, loyalty and honesty” (Washington Times, 11/16/99).

Chuck Colson (BreakPoint Commentary #91102, “Witches and Wizards: The Harry Potter Phenomenon,” 11/2/99) said parents may be “relieved to know that the magic in these books is purely mechanical, as opposed to occultic.  That is, Harry and his friends cast spells, read crystal balls, and turn themselves into animals—but they don’t make contact with the supernatural world [emphasis added].”  However, many Christian parents have serious concerns about the possible spiritual harm that could come from any kind of magic. 

Colson recommends guiding children with a taste for Harry Potter and other fantasy books into Christian author C. S. Lewis’ Narnia books and J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Colson said that such books feature wizards, witches and magical potions but also “inspire the imagination within a Christian framework—and prepare the hearts of readers for the real-life story of Christ.”

CWA takes the position that parents know what is best for their children.  With the many battles faced over New Age curricula and the violence of the typical video game or fantasy product, parents will want to take a cold, hard look at the Harry Potter books.  And with all the popularity and media hype, it’s inevitable that your children will be exposed to the books.  Scripture speaks strongly about the occult, so parents should explore the Harry Potter books themselves to decide whether they’re appropriate for their children.

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