Whats wrong with Harry Potter?

[ExaltedReign]

I'm a fan, and don't see why people think its leading kids into occult practices.

I mean, yeah they have magic, but comparing HP witchcraft with Wicca, is like comparing Apples and Bricks. Plus, it has good morals, some christian themes, and the line of good and evil is clear. I mean the chracters celebrate Christmas and Easter, When Mad Eye Moody dies harry puts a cross on his grave, if it was truly about teaching witchcraft wouldn't it be a pentagram? No matter how much you try, you can't Say "Lumos" and a light will appear around the twig your holding.

I remeber playing with friends at school, it was all in good fun. I was never able to magically lift things with my stick.

Check out this link, rather funny: The Escapist - Spellcasting 101

 

[inconsequential]

From all the arguments I've read, it seems many people feel that the Harry Potter books and movies make the idea of magic and spellcasting much more mainstream, even normalizing it. They feel that someone, particularly a child, who has read these and come to love the characters would be more easily led into the occult.

Personally, I think it has as much to do with the person and their raising as with anything they might read. I read a lot of horror stories when I was young and it was a fascination with vampires and werewolves that initiated my involvement with the occult. This was likely heavily exacerbated by my mother's extreme permissiveness with me. I had few boundaries so there was no sense of drifting into "dangerous waters" when I began to experiment with occultic practices.

Then there are the people who see the devil everywhere and in everything from HP to Pokemon to Barney.

 

[ExaltedReign]

I read the first book when it came out, and even though i didn't have anyone in my family that believed in Christ, I knew it wasn't real. If you actually look at Wicca, its much more mild than people think. Their credo is something like "Do what you will, but don't harm others". The skeptics think its all fireballs and curses. I remember reading an article about how a wiccan says harry potter has no resemblance to actual witchcraft.

 

[Nova Scotian Boy]

I’m a fan. And find little to nothing wrong with it. The books in themselves in many ways helped lead me to Christ. I saw much of what I read in the books in Christ and his Church. A few points id bring up:

One of the things that really irk me is when people say that children will confuse make believe with reality. I’ve worked with children and I find it sick that adults think that kids are this stupid. If you think that reading a certain book is going to make your children fall from the Christian faith, then just lock them into a closet because there are far worse things that can do this then Harry Potter. Since all the harry potter buzz there has actually been a rise in Christianity and decline in the occult.

Another point is that Wicca and the magic used in Harry Potter are so opposite that I feel ridiculous even bringing it up. The spells are in Latin lumos: light, some of the major spells in the books in Latin mean pretty Christian ideas. The Potronus Charm is Expecto Patronum which in can be translated to mean something like "I look for the Father". Actually Wicca has nothing to do with spells as they are in harry potter, real Wicca is more about ritual. Rowling draws from English literature for the source of her magic which is classified as incantational, and has Christian roots. In much of european literature there is incantational magic which can be understood as the language used to call the world into being by God. CS Lewis understood this obviously in writing Narnia.

Also Rowling says that she wrote the story for Christian meaning right from the get go. She was raised in non-Christian home and when a kid and then teen would go to church by herself was quite involved and was even baptised. When she went to University she backslid quite a bit but when her daughter was born came back to the faith as she wanted her daughter to grow up in the Church. And she and her family attend a Presbyterian Church in Edinburgh currently. Whether she is a true Christian or not who knows, I try not to speculate as I think only God can judge a person. But the truth remains that she wrote the books with the intention of Christian symbolism. I’ve heard many people debate that it isn’t there and it’s very hard to find. The trouble is that although CS Lewis was a great author he changed Christian literature with his own popularity. Narnia is Christian Allegory you look and you can tell strait parallels from it and the Bible. Tolkien wrote books with Christian symbolism, less blatant then Lewis but still there. In fact Tolkien disliked Narnia because he thought it was too blatantly Christian. It’s the symbolic route that is the more common and traditional tough and the way Rowling a English major would of been taught. Anyone wishing to learn more about Christian symbolism in these books a recommend "How Harry Casts His Spell" by John Granger, he is a English Professor who is a Christian specifically Orthodox but has been part of many other denominations. In his book he examines much of the traditional symbolism Rowling uses. He is a home schooling father of 7 who originally read the series to point out to his daughter how it was trash and discovered the wealth of Christian influences in

 

[keith99]

I'm a fan, and don't see why people think its leading kids into occult practices.

I mean, yeah they have magic, but comparing HP witchcraft with Wicca, is like comparing Apples and Bricks. Plus, it has good morals, some christian themes, and the line of good and evil is clear. I mean the chracters celebrate Christmas and Easter, When Mad Eye Moody dies harry puts a cross on his grave, if it was truly about teaching witchcraft wouldn't it be a pentagram? No matter how much you try, you can't Say "Lumos" and a light will appear around the twig your holding.

I remeber playing with friends at school, it was all in good fun. I was never able to magically lift things with my stick.

Check out this link, rather funny: The Escapist - Spellcasting 101

Well for some 'christians' if you say Magic it must be bad. Of course that means they also have to throw out Narnia and Lord of the Rings. Their loss.

I found Potter a decent read, but far from great. If I were to find 'dangerous' faults it would be in the way the kids relate to adults. It has a strong undertone of 'Never trust anyone over 30'. This is an easy trap to fall into as a writer, for a story with a child as the hero adult heros need to be eliminated. But I find the mechinism of somehow cutting the kid off from those he can trust to be a far better approach (Note the Potter series did use this at least once, having Dumbledor called away).

Getting back to the magic. Notice that imitation of much of it is not possible. You need materials not available. A wand with a griffin feather, unicorn hair or other part of a magic animal is needed for most. Or Mandrake root or other things that do not exist. When it comes to flying a broom they start by commanding the broom, not jumping off the roof with one. (And such never even happens as a happy accident!) The only magic workable in our world is divination (crystal balls and the like) and that is downplayed as unreliable and perhaps even rubbish. Nope magic is not a problem in Potter.

 

[.Iona.]

I've never read any of the books, or seen the films - but that is because I'm just not interesting in them and have too many other books to read!

But, I haven't heard any stories of children now becoming involved with witchcraft of any kind because of reading the books. It's a novel, and I think most children know that they aren't reality. But, also I don't see why children can't then play dress up and pretend to be Harry Potter. It's all part of growing up. I used to pretend to be a fairy, and read Thumbelina a lot! But, I didn't grow up believing fairies existed!

 

[Boatmans Foe]

I think the Harry Potter books are harmless. Kids today are just as likely to become "Wicca" as kids from my generation were to become "Jedi." The books are fun. They should be viewed as entertainment and nothing more.

 

[bsd31]

Aside from the fact that I just don't find them entertaining. Probably nothing wrong with them. God gave us all creativity, some more than others. I don't think He purposed that we all write books such as John Piper's Desiring God.

 

[unity77]

I feel many beliefs construct an experience of the universe that is narrow and not totally true because they are usually created in an environment of fear. This limits our personal life because it blocks our direct experience and replaces what we experience directly with opinions, positions, judgments and prejudice. The knowledge to change the nature of our reality and ourselves can bring us either success or failure, but it can also enable us to do something towards restraining the uncivilized instincts in society. If we fail we can try again, it is better than doing nothing because we will succeed in life despite the dogma and institutions trying to block our natural understanding of life. When a person changes, the world changes so both change or neither changes because what a person does or does not do has an impact on the world and makes a difference. Regaining our naturalness and genius will bring meaningful change to the world and our minds so Truth can be experienced.

 

[Bampot]

People hear the term witchcraft and instantly think it's evil. The people who bash Potter have never read it. A preacher at my grandmother's church started to challenge the idea when it was the hot topic and instantly got pwn'd by a member of the board who was a fan. She brought up how the books centered around the power of love and how he would know that if he would of actually read them.

I always thought it was ironic that the religious have picked Potter to hang (or burn, actually). I've seen as many Christian themes in the books as Narnia. Might as well burn them both together.

 

[Streampaws]

I may have been into the occult for years but it wasn't because of my love of Harry Potter that gave me the idea.

 

[kittycat7]

I read somewhere that this whole thing was started when The Onion did a silly article on kids getting into real witchcraft after reading Harry Potter. Some gullible Christian thought it was real and warned others about this evil fantasy series that is out to brainwash your kids. Oh noes!

 

[theblackcat]

I really like Harry Potter. The magic in it is nothing even close to Wiccan or pagan practises. Something I loved about the books but which I think may have disturbed some people was that none of the characters, not even Voldemort really, were completely black and white, but all different shades of grey. As Sirius Black said, the world isn't divided into good people and Death Eaters (the bad guys, if you haven't read the books). Good people in the books had some weaknesses and areas where they struggle, and wrongdoers often had some good traits or histories which contributed to their attitudes and interest in evil. The characters were human: fallible, sometimes lazy and other times dedicated, often hopeful but sometimes pessimistic, at times selfish but other times loyal and generous, they had doubts about themselves and their abilities, were subject to peer pressure, questioned whether they would do what was right or what was easy, questioned authority while other times complying with it or being part of it, looking for goodness even while being tempted.

The only problem I see is that some, both supporters and detractors, are turning to this and other fictional works and expecting them to be treatises on morality. I've been in church and heard Harry Potter condemned because the characters disobeyed parents and broke school rules. Well, yes, they do. Most human beings have sometimes flouted the rules, clashed with authority figures or felt sure they knew better than their parents. I know I have. Those actions don't make someone evil, they make them a fallible human being. Harry Potter books weren't written to teach ethics or to create figures people could look up to as sinless, they were written as entertainment containing some subtle but ultimately positive messages. What the characters in Harry Potter do is pretty normal. They lie to or disobey their parents, but they also express love to them and concern for them. They get bored in certain classes and blow off their work, yet are fiercely loyal towards those teachers with whom they feel a connection and strive for success in those they see as important to their futures. At times they take the easy way out and other times they are in all the way. They are not ideal, perfect or divine, and that is not the intention. I think a lot of the time, people who oppose the books are frustrated because the characters are not completely moral. Why though would anyone, especially someone who believes all are sinful and fallen and must be saved, expect perfection in fictional characters written by a fallen person?

As long as kids have someone to whom they can pose questions, seek advice and receive guidance, reading the books or seeing the movies shouldn't be a problem. If a kid reads how Harry Potter waves his wand to make something happens, and comes away with a desire to do the same, that doesn't evidence a desire to turn to witchcraft, it's evidence that the child can't yet separate fiction from reality. An adult or older sibling should help the child understand that what happens in the books and movies isn't real and cannot be done, and they can use that time to teach about their religious beliefs.

 

[Spirit_Star]

Has anyone heard someone claim they joined the occult or wiccan religion after they had read Harry Potter?

I dont think there is anything wrong with reading Harry Potter or any book that contains some type or form of magic. There is a lot of Christian symbolism in the last book. I am sure there is some in the other 6 but you just have to look for it more.

 

[Digibunny]

It'd be like saying Twilight is only for rabid Emo Vampire fangirls without actually having read the book. Of course, after the final book, Twilight really IS for rabid Emo Vampire fangi-

Off topic. >w>

*Ahem* But in any case, Harry's still a good read even up to now for me. Granted I know the plotline inside and out, but the way it's written keeps me entranced for a good amount of time that I would otherwise spend in front of a computer or doing nothing in particular.
I don't remember any kind of ceremonies in the books that were necessary for any spell...aside from Voldemort's ressurection and the Horcruxes. So where's this witchcraft nonsense coming from?

 

[Margil]

A sister spoke about this. She said there is nothing wrong with Harry Potter. She said it's just imagination.

 

[recklessdreamer]

There were people who started rumours that the Harry Potter series was based on actual occult activities. this being said. it is about the occult is it not? and a power that is not God's power is therefore Satan's. So, perhaps the book glorifies Satan more than it should.

That being said I've read one book and watched one movie.

 

[matthewgar]

People hear the term witchcraft and instantly think it's evil. The people who bash Potter have never read it. A preacher at my grandmother's church started to challenge the idea when it was the hot topic and instantly got pwn'd by a member of the board who was a fan. She brought up how the books centered around the power of love and how he would know that if he would of actually read them.

I always thought it was ironic that the religious have picked Potter to hang (or burn, actually). I've seen as many Christian themes in the books as Narnia. Might as well burn them both together.

I will look up the webpage, but there are a few espousing just how occultish Narnia is then it's got more in common with pagan myths then Biblical, my own mom likes the movies, but likes to say there should be no illusion that they are about the bible. Frankly I think it's putting too much into it, but yeah there are some that don't like it.

 

[Tirunus Abdullah]

Harry potter is the present day Rock and Dungeons and Dragons.

Even though after years of playing Dungeons and Dragons I cannot still cast Magic Missile on that annoying kid on my plane no matter how many times I roll the dice. D:

 

[matthewgar]

Harry potter is the present day Rock and Dungeons and Dragons.

Even though after years of playing Dungeons and Dragons I cannot still cast Magic Missile on that annoying kid on my plane no matter how many times I roll the dice. D:

Your doing it wrong, you need a rod of magick missile *AKA pistol* :>