Postkiwi

By philjohnson on Jul 18, 2005 | Reply

Duncan
Delighted to hear you liked the new Potter story.

I accept that some Christians choose to not read the Potter stories or see the films as a matter of conscience.

However, I feel that the anti-Potter reactions are grounded in fear and ignorance. There seems to be a fundamental difficulty on the part of some Christians to differentiate between fantasy and reality with respect to “magic”, and a corresponding poverty of trust in the power of God and of God’s Word to transform their own childrens’ lives.

Mothballing children from this literature only makes the Christian child look like a person who lives in an isolated ghetto (almost an Amish throw-back to the 17th century). How can Christian children grow and mature in faith if they are “forbidden” to have contact with the outside world and cultural expressions in art, film, stories etc?

Perhaps more problematic is that the “witchcraft” found in the Bible does not correspond to the witchcraft of the middle ages; nor to today’s neo-pagan and Wiccan versions of the Craft. Witches are not devil worshippers, since Satan’s existence is not even acknowledged by Witches. There are far too many urban myths about witchcraft that are reinforced by anti-occult books.

Quite a few anti-occult books that are on sale in Christian bookstores are error-filled, based on rumour and tale-telling that has no facticity to it; indeed several anti-occult books have been subsequently exposed as fraudulent, and some bare an uncanny resemblance to scapegoating propaganda that whips up social panics and does great harm to the proclamation of good news.

It has also been shown by the Christian folklore scholar Bill Ellis that certain conversion stories (well celebrated in evangelical circles) of ex-witches have not only been “made-up”, but that the “facts” presented therein about what witches believe and practise is likewise made up and often mirrors stuff found in the famous Hammer Horror movies.

Beyond these concerns, we run the risk of bearing false witness about our neighbours who may indeed be comitted to neo-pagan ways. The Potter literature has as much “authority” and “factual truth” in them relative to witchcraft, as a Fred Flinstone cartoon has for neo-lithic anthropology.

Finally, the theological objections raised by some critics against the Potter stories are likewise unhelpful in clouding the issues. Some object that Harry has questionable ethics, such as telling lies etc. If we believe in the truth of Romans 3:23, then we should expect even fictional representations of people to show that everyone is flawed, even heroic figures. And in the Bible we find that Abraham, Moses, David, Samson and Simon Peter were occasionally guilty of deceit and other dubious ethical choices! Should we therefore apply “liquid paper” to “white out” those sections of Scripture that show “believers behaving badly”?

Other objections are that Harry uses spells and divination. None of these “spells” actually “work” (they are not even based in real witchcraft), and too often Christians magnify the demonic to the point where their theology ceases to be biblical and starts to sound gnostic or Zoroastrian.

And as I’ve raised on my blog in the past, the question of divination is not a cut and dried matter in Scripture; but many well-meaning believers think that by quoting one or two proof texts they have nailed down the issue for all time. They forget that casting lots, prophecy, dream interpretation, Urim & Thummim, putting out the fleece are all forms of divination. In Scripture the issue centres on “which God” and much less attention on “which technique”.

If children today disbelieve the gospel, it will probably have a lot more to do with social dynamics in the family and local community, widespread lack of participation in Church, and with the ineptitude of Christians to misfire on creating a robust missional outreach and deep apologetic in this nation that will be “to blame” than anything J K Rowling has written.

Instead of trying to “protect” our kiddies from Harry Potter, we ought to be protecting them from the Christian curses of “false witness”, “fear of culture”, “inept exegesis of culture”, “shallow evangelism” and “shoddy misreadings of Scripture” that we Christians foster and hence create vast “unpaid bills of the church”.

After all the orthodox Church culture can, at times, end up warping people with a pseudo-piety and shallow faith that produces some of the most provocative non-Christians the world has seen - like this small celebrated roll-call of escapees from abusive and inept faith:

* Bertrand Russell
* Joseph Stalin
* Marilyn Manson
* Hugh Hefner
* Shirley Maclaine
* Kinsey (Kinsey Report fame)
* Philip Adams
* Aleister Crowley

… and the list goes on!