What will this do to the barrier between fantasy and reality? I believe that all people, children especially, need to have a barrier between what is real and what is fiction, but will this park blur those lines?

As a fan, I cannot wait until I am able to go to this extraordinary park. Last year I visited the Harry Potter exhibit at Chicago’s Science and Industry Museum and I am anxious to encounter more life-size Harry Potter experiences. When I found out that the park would not be open for my visit to Orlando in April, I was very disappointed. Aside from my own feelings about the park, I began to wonder how others would view the park, especially those who despise what the books stand for. Children have become my biggest concern. When they enter an entire world devoted to the boy wizard, are they going to be able to distinguish between the new world and the world outside? If it was already difficult to teach children just from the books and the movies, an encompassing world will be much more difficult. An example of this is that a friend of mine, 15, just went on the Tower of Terror thrill ride in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. She waited in line the whole time two years ago, but as she approached the elevator car, she chickened out. This year, she went in without any fear and loved the ride. Her dad asked her why she hadn’t done it before, and she replied that it looked really scary. From her dad’s perspective nothing has changed so he asked her if she had realized that all the decorations were fake. She said no and that they had done a good job of making it seem real. At 13, she had not been able to look at that experience as being completely fake. There was still a reality to it all. So if a 13 year-old has trouble with those boundaries between reality and fantasy, What can we say about younger children?

Before all the hype about Twilight came about, I did read the books and enjoyed them, mostly because I see a lot of myself in the main character, Bella. After finishing the last of the Twilight saga, I took a look back and found that the series was not really as good as it was while I was in the moment. Stephenie Meyer is a talented writer, but I feel that Twilight could have had a little more to it. In comparison with Harry, Harry’s characters are far more developed. All that aside, the morals in Twilight are just not there. The main plot in the third novel Eclipse is a love triangle between Bella (human), Edward (vampire), and Jacob (werewolf/shape shifter). Twilight also doesn’t seem to have as much of an adventure quality to it. In fact the main character is not the hero and isn’t capable of becoming a hero until much later, like fourth book later. Now I’m not just Twilight bashing here, I’m being serious. As I said in the beginning, I fell in love with Twilight immediately, but after some thought It seems to have lost its luster. Twilight just doesn’t seem  to measure up to the other fads. Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Chronicles of Narnia are full of adventure whereas Twilight is much more young adult romance-y. So, why do people continue to say Stephenie Meyer is the next J.K. Rowling? Even the fan bases are widely different. Twilight fans are more girls ages 13-17. Harry appeals to anyone ages 11+. What have Twilight fans done to show there appreciation? They’ve written some fan-fiction (some not very good). What have Harry fans done? They wrote fanfiction too, but they’ve also created a genre of music entitled Wizard rock, average wrocker around 20, and many conventions to showcase their talents (Infinitus, Portus, Azcatraz, etc.). So, Is Twilight really worth it? That’s what I’m going to delve into next.

In the beginning of the first chapter, Granger mentions the christian perspectives of forbidding Harry and that Harry is just a story, but Granger doesn’t believe either of these are true based on three reasons. The first reason is that “Occult practices are universally denounced by major world religions” which means that the whole religious population in the world collectively forbids occult practice. Dark forces are impossible for humans to control, therefore they are always a concern for humans. The second reason is “Scripture itself contains material about occult practice”. Nowhere in the Bible does it specifically say that the reading of occult material is forbidden because by saying that the Bible would prohibit itself. Why would the Bible prohibit reading material about the occult when the Bible portrays examples of many practices when forbidding them. The third reason is “Whether or not to read Harry Potter from the logical, human view, then, is a question of whether reading Harry fosters curiosity in the occult or in a rewarding spiritual life”. This fundamentally shifts our view from whether or not we need permission to read the books to the actual story line.

Granger then describes the difference between Invocational magic and Incantational magic. Invocational magic is simply calling upon demonic power for personal use, definitely not ok by the Bible’s standards. Incantational magic is in contrast to harmonize with, and in our perspective God can be inserted here. Harry Potter is wholly incantational magic, if I remember right even in divination they don’t call upon anything for advise except the text-book.

This paragraph may contain SPOILERS! Please read at your discretion.

Granger’s next argument talks of Harry Potter figuratively taking a Jesus like path throughout every book. Each year begins with leaving Privet Drive, then Harry escapes to Hogwarts, finds a problem, solves the problem with his friends, faces the crisis, fights Voldemort or a follower, dies figuratively(or literally), has a resurrection, and returns to the platform. Even book 7 begins with Harry’s return to Privet Drive for the last time, escapes the death eaters, hunts the Horcruxes, finds them with Ron and Hermione, destroys all horcruxes but himself, descends into the forbidden forest, combats Voldemort through his death, returns through his mother’s love protection, finishes with the epilogue at the platform.

I will be continuing with this book in another post this week before I move on, because I think it has a lot more insight to offer.

Thoughts?

Christiananswers.net has a list of some of the dealings of the Occult here.  Some of these parallel Harry Potter through the classes students take at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. A lot of the basics of Hogwarts are found on this list; witchcraft, wizardry, incantations, sorcery, and enchantments. One thing did catch my eye though. divination is not only on the list but an exact class name at Hogwarts. Some subjects within the class and found on the  list are fortune-telling, tea-cup reading, glass-looking, and mediums. So what does the Bible say about all this?

In  Revelation 21:8 God says “…those who practice magic arts …their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur… the second death” (NIV), and in  Galatians 5:20-21 that those who practice witchcraft will not inherit the kingdom of God. In other words, those who practice magic will burn in hell. Not a very pleasant experience for our beloved Harry Potter.  Even still some argue that “white magic” is good and obviously “dark magic” is bad, but in the Bible a distinction is not made by God, both types of magic are included. 

“There shall not be found among you anyone who …practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD, and because of these abominations the LORD your God drives them out from before you. You shall be blameless before the LORD your God. For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the LORD your God has not appointed such for you.” Deut. 18:10-14.  Robert S. McGee, author of The Search for Significance, as quoted in Harry Potter: Witchcraft Repackaged argues that if we were to make an exception for magic and include it because it’s just fantasy we could also include pornography and violence, surprisingly people aren’t quite fond of these. I agree with Mr. McGee in that if we just allow things because they seem harmless we are opening a window for a variety of things.

Scholastic, the publisher of Harry Potter, has published many varieties of childrens books including one series that caught my eye. This series called T*Witches, later turned into a Disney channel movie series starring Tia and Tamara Mowry, was written by H.B. Gilmour and Randi Reisfeld. On the scholastic site, I found a part of the T*Witches section that disturbed me. In this section there is a “Spellbook” in which young children can submit their own spells for the public to see. When I ventured there to confirm that Abanes was correct about this “Spellbook” section, I found not what I thought would be simple rhyming childish sayings, but I found mature sayings with times, locations, and herbs to bring with you to add power. This disgusted me that not only did the site exist but that some of these spells came from children as young as eight years old. Here’s the spellbook page in case you want some proof.

Next I travelled to the Harry Potter site on Scholastic’s web page. Although I didn’t find a “spellbook”, but I found the “Power of Potter Pledge” page. in this page children from around the world can list their pledges to Harry Potter. I’ve found a variety from the childish ” I pledge to eat poop” to the more grown up “I pledge to never forget the lessons I’ve learned from Harry Potter, as it was him that helped me out of my cupboard.”. Is Harry Potter poisoning the minds of our youth or is it as harmless as it seems? I pledge to keep one rule as i go forth with my research: Constant Vigilance!

My first source I have looked at sides with the discretion point of view as well. Richard Abanes‘ Fantasy in Your Family focuses on not only Harry Potter but Lord of the Rings as well.

To start off with I read the introduction which focused on myths, legends, and folklore. Abanes cites Jane Yolen with saying that folklore has four basic functions: provides landscape that reflects real society, a mode of understanding different cultures, a means for coping with and responding to reality, and a framework for one’s belief system. Compared with folklore, fairytales may have different content, including the supernatural, but both address common universal themes; fear, anger, jealousy, grief, revenge, and love. Spiritual overtones may also be worked into the story.

In relation to Harry, the book series deals with many if not all of these themes. Harry definitely fits the criteria for a fairytale, with emphasis on the love theme.

Abanes defines myths as including invented characters whose purpose is to explain natural phenomena, mysteries of the world, origin of human life, and the history of religion. Myths explain suffering, danger, disease, misfortune, and death. I don’t see much of a connection here as of yet. I know that there are myths used in the series such as the allusion to Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards the underworld,under the alias of Fluffy in The Sorcerer’s Stone. 

Abanes defines legends as usually being based off of the life of an ancestor, regional hero, or real life hero. So Harry is out at the start. Although Harry isn’t included in legends, but the series does include the most common themes of legends, including love valor, forgiveness, self-sacrifice (hint,hint:)), heroism, dignity, and the worth of a human soul.

The focus of the introduction was for Abanes to sum it up with his opinion. Abanes states that “Just because a story contains supernatural beings or bizarre creatures does not mean that it’s bad.” He goes on to say that the most important thing is the portrayal of the story, what the characters do and say, and the overall massage.

I think this point is valid, but I think what I need to look at now is what the Bible thinks of Harry Potter in comparison to see if Abanes really has a good point about this. Next I will look more of what Abanes says in the section purely devoted  to Harry and see what other sources say about why it’s so bad.

First off, I am an avid reader and a musician. I read mostly for pleasure but when required I can connect what have read to most anything. I play flute in my high school’s band, and I have played the flute since I was in middle school. I watch a lot of TV and movies, so I stay pretty current on popular culture. This will be my 10th year in 4-H plus the few years I was in mini-4-H. Currently I am working on several projects for this next years fair. I take part in my church’s youth group and all its functions weekly.

The church and my faith is a strong part of my life. I believe that is why I have chosen this topic: Harry Potter and Christianity controversy. I belive in the one and only God with all my heart, but I enjoy Harry Potter. What I am going to attempt to find out is not only what my faith believes is right, but what others believe about this controversy from the Christian and secular points of views. I hope that you will give your points of view as this will help me to further and develop my research. Please don’t be afraid to voice your opinion because I will not be