Harry Potter

I am a Harry Potter fan. I have been reading the books since Korey was born, longer than they have been the phenomenon that they are today. I started out by reading them out loud as I nursed or rocked Korey to sleep. As he has gotten older I still read them, but his attention span has shortened and with the movies... Anyway, we are Potter fans. I love reading about the challenges the children face as they grow, the imaginary magic, the battle of good vs. evil. I usually read the books in 2-3 days because I can't put them down, and usually I re-read the entire series before the release of a new book. (Not this time, far too busy.)

Recently, a Christian women expressed her concern to me about Korey's interest in Harry Potter. I kind of shrugged it off at the time, but it has been nagging at me for a couple of months. After asking a few Christians, both from my church and others it seems that I am the ONLY Christian that enjoys the fiction that J.K. Rowling has created and as far as I can tell, the only one who lets (read that as encourages) my son to enjoy it as well. This of course has me doubting my skills as a mom. I have done a lot of thinking on this over that last few months and I have some thoughts.

I have never, even before my Christian life, considered the Harry Potter series to encourage readers to partake in the occult or Wicken or any of those crazy things. I have always viewed it as entertaining fiction. Nothing more, nothing less. I guess for me, the key word is fiction. I know the difference between imagination and reality.

I don't know the difference between the magic in Harry Potter and the force in Star Wars or the magic in the Lord of the Rings. Lets compare it to Star Wars, which I also love. They both are a battle between good and evil. Light and dark. Maybe a difference is children and adults. In Harry Potter the main characters start at age 11 and the 7 year series takes them through high school. Star Wars begins with Anakin, age 6 and jumps ahead through the years until he has a teenage son. Light Sabers vs. Magic Wands. Space Creatures (Jabba the Hut, Chewbacca, Yoda) vs. Mystical Creatures (House Elves, Giants, Werewolves). When I analyze it I don't see much of a difference.

I was playing around online today and found a link to an article written in a British newspaper titled Use Harry Potter to Spread Christian Message. I wouldn't go quite that far with it, as the person who created this study guide also created one for the Simpson's cartoon series, but the author does bring up another point: J.K. Rowling's characters and magic are not that different from those that C.S. Lewis created.

I have always believed that when children are exposed to any media it should be under the supervision of their parents. We are to help explain concepts and remind them of what is real and what is pretend. And in my own family, the first think Korey said as we were leaving the theater after seeing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was, "Mom, do those guys who do good things get to go to Heaven, too?" On the ride home we talked about Jesus and the only way to salvation.