Harry Potter and the Preachers’ Curses

[Joanne98]

Harry Potter and the Preachers’ Curses

Can the Books Be Read as a Manual on Political Warfare?

By Katherine Yurica

August 21, 2007
http://www.yuricareport.com/Columnists/HarryPotter_PreachersCurses.html


For we wrestle not against flesh and
blood, but against principalities, against

Powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world,

against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Ephesians 6:12


It fell upon America like a gentle summer rain from heaven, blessing the spirits of the young, refreshing the spirits of the old. It was twice blest. It blessed those who read the books literally and those who read them symbolically. Nevertheless some saw the publishing of the Harry Potter books as a threat to the churches, to institutions and to their drive for domination. While J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books have caused an inexplicable sense of elation to rise in the air—that very sense of liberty has so worried proponents of the new Domination Theology (as opposed to Liberation Theology) that for the first time in half a century book burnings came back.

After all, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became the Pope, described Harry Potter as a potentially corrupting influence in 2005. In 2006, Father Gabriele Amorth, the Pope’s demonologist said, “Behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the devil.”<1>

Of course, Protestants have little popes who also deride and curse the Harry Potter books: in late 2001 Pat Robertson launched a full-scale assault on the books, warning, “God will turn his back on nations that tolerate witchcraft.”<2> Lou Sheldon of Traditional Values Coalition, D. James Kennedy of the Coral Ridge Ministries joined the anti-Potter bandwagon, and some folks like Pastor Jack Brock of Almagordo, N.M. organized a mass Harry Potter book burning, while some school boards tried to impose restrictions upon students trying to read the books.<3>

Add James Dobson to the list and Charles Colson, who praised Harry Potter in 1999 but has now changed his position saying, “Personally, I don’t recommend the Potter books. I’d rather Christian kids not read them.”<4> What makes it worse, according to Google, there are 2.67 million web pages asserting, “Harry Potter is of the devil!”<5>

Even Christianity Today, an evangelical publication founded by Billy Graham, got in trouble for “endorsing Harry Potter.” A blogger wrote,

“It is sad and unfortunate that any ‘Christian’ or Christian organization would endorse such an evil invention as Harry Potter. The Bible clearly condemns any type of involvement with the wicked works of witchcraft.”<6>

Unfortunately that’s not exactly true, as the epigraph from Ephesians makes clear. We’re supposed to be engaged in wrestling with these powers; the Scripture assumes Christians’ participation in the war against the “rulers of darkness”—that’s involvement! And Harry Potter and his friends have joined the battle! The real question is—on which side are today’s churchgoers?

Of course, my own computer expert summed up his attitude on Rowling’s books a few months ago when he told me, “I will never read a Harry Potter book because Rowling glorifies witchcraft.” That was news to me, and I had read every one of the Potter books (except the last one), and seen all the movies repeatedly.

Rowling’s work has been compared to C. S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, and Rowling, herself, has said that she loved C. S. Lewis’ work so much that she decided to write seven volumes to match Lewis’ number.<7> Technically, Lewis did not create a secondary world held together with a consistent internal logic, however, Rowling did. As a result she is considered to be a master mythologist on the same level as J. R. R. Tolkien. Both Rowling and Tolkien have written epics, and there is a special name for the creative process that produces such a world: It’s called mythopoeia.<8>

I have thought of J. K. Rowling as a genius and a Christian ever since I started reading her books. Yet I wondered if I was overlooking something.

When in doubt I start by checking Webster’s Third New International dictionary to determine whether my understanding of key words is correct. There I found that witchcraft is a synonym for magic, and its first meaning is “an act or instance of employing sorcery especially with malevolent intent,” and includes supernatural powers such as “alleged intercourse with the devil or with a familiar.” The word “familiar” in turn means, “A supernatural spirit often embodied in an animal and at the service of a person.” Significantly, there are no familiars in Rowling’s books.<9> And never does she glorify evil or malevolent intent.

Instead, the characters, led by Harry Potter and his friends, oppose malice, cruelty, and hatred. In fact, they fight defensively against the opposition leaders and combatants in a cultural and political war that spreads across the pages of Rowling’s seventh book like the dark shadow of the religious political and cultural war sweeping over America today.
http://www.yuricareport.com/Columnists/HarryPotter_PreachersCurses.html

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Excellent! I wondered since I first heard about 'churches' condemning the books how

they could not see the themes of 'good vs. evil' and love as a great protector/power. then I realized that they had never opened any of them.

[Kookaburra]

2. I heard some fundie woman being interviewed

a few years ago, and she was explaining that she would never open a Harry Potter book because it glorifies witchcraft. The person interviewing her asked how she knew that if she hadn't read the book, and she replied "you don't have the read a book to know what it's about." Some people are so stoned out on the kool aid (different variety, same effect).

[Joanne98]

3. LOL

[MaineYooper]

4. What part of "work of fiction" don't they understand? nt

[zonmoy]

6. you are talking about people who see the bible as literally true.

so how much do you think they understand that fiction isn't real.

[Demeter]

5. This Is Unbelievable, Because JK Rowling Is a Political Idiot

Her last book completely ignores all the previous development of Good vs. Evil, and issues of morality, and so forth, and suddenly anything goes. Her basic economics and political understanding is utter trash--these books provide nothing that translates into the modern reality, other than the existence of terrorism as a form of criminal behavior.

Her villains have no discernable motivation, other than some eugenic fuzzy thinking. Neither do her heroes have any foundation under their actions, other than resistance.

The deus ex machina effects that drive the 7th book, and to a lesser extent, the previous 6, make it a fantasy, and not a very good one.


It is a great waste of an excellent alternate reality, to abuse the opportunity to do some gedanken experiments, with the messy hash that Rowling served up. The fanfiction authors have done much better on a bad day, and at their best, it is quite stunning.

[windoe]

7. What is power?

Most mainstream religions are threatened by anyone gaining esoteric knowlege with the assumption that anyone who gains knowlege of power will ultimately abuse it. Unfortunately it is also true that religious leaders have too often abused their powers, by using tools of fear and ignorance to keep their flock in a state of spiritual arrested development.
People who see through this abuse of power and wish to gain wisdom independently often turn to paths such as martial arts, wicca and shamanism, as well as many healing arts. These are the people throughout history, the indiginous tribes, gypsies and country folk who were slaughtered by religious crusades and genocides.
So interesting that millions of people seemed so hungry for this myth of a boy who learned how to defeat a dark master!

[TrogL]

8. Does anybody else see a parallel between Potterwatch and DU?

[johnaries]

9. So, Webster is still using the Christian lie for the definition of witchcraft.

Witches do not even believe in the devil, and never have. This was a lie perpertrated by the Christian church in Europe because they saw witchcraft as "competition".

[shimmergal]

10. Excellent bunch of posts.

I haven't read any of the HP books, have seen the first two films, but in the presence of my young grandchildren, which kinda worked against deep analysis.

Now I think I need to delve into the series itself. I haven't actually resisted it up till now,(certainly not for the reasons the fundies avoid it--I'm in fact a SF/fantasy fan.) I've just had so many other work-related stuff to read, I never got around to it.

As for Demeter's "the villains have no discernible motivation", that's the problem with all models that posit the existence of inherent evil in the universe. Once you've said something or somebody is "evil," what does that tell you? NOTHING about how it/they can be undercut, or transformed. In a fiction series you can make this work, with gripping enough action, ideas, and imagery. In real life, it's a different matter. As we're seeing, with our "leaders" using this kind of dualistic thinking to fuel their own drives for power % money.