[Gathnet] Harry Potter

[Stuart D. Gathman]

On Thu, 18 Nov 2004, Ronda Pierce wrote:

> BTW:  Thanks for sharing the pictures of the girl's summer.  It was good to
> see them growing up.  Stuart please tell Julie as well you both are blessed
> with bright and beautiful young ladies.  I noticed one of the pictures had
> one of the girls (I can't remember who) reading Harry Potter.  Please, please
> let me know what your take is on this.  I have been dead set against the
> movies and the books.  Kyra is so enthralled with Halloween and Harry Potter.
> It wa so different when Sasha was little I told her we don't participate and
> she was satisfied.  Kyra is more and more interested because I won't let her
> participate.  I don't like witchcraft for children and feel tv, movies and
> books try to trivialize psychics, witches and witchcrafts for children to get
> involved.
>  
> I am really interested in what you have to say.

Harry Potter is not about witchcraft in the occult sense.  This is the
biggest mistake Christian critics make.  It *does* have a lot of moral
relativism.  It also copies images from many cultures, some of which are
occult.  But it has some good things as well.

Harry Potter is not about witchcraft.  

The "magic" in HP is an alternate technology.  There is no supernatural power
invoked.  The premise of the series is that the Alchemists were actually
right - but the successful Alchemists have stayed hidden all these centuries,
so most of us don't know about them.

The witches and wizards are people with magical (alchemist) abilities.  Those
without are called "Muggles".  Magical ability is an inherited recessive gene.
When a wizard or witch marries a mixed blood muggle, 1/2 the kids are magical.
When two mixed blood muggles marry, 1/4 of their kids are magical.
Such is the case with Hermione's family.

Many of the characters in the stories are racists - respecting only
pureblood witches and wizards and despising mudbloods (those with muggles
in their ancestry).  The author obviously does not condone this racism.

The potions have to be mixed exactly right - just as with any chemical product.
The wand gestures and incantactions have to be exactly right - or unexpected
results occur.  Just like giving commands to a computer.  For instance, when
Harry Potter mispronounces his destination for the flue transport system, he
ends up someplace unexpected.  

Another premise is that witches and wizards have the power to delay their
full exit from this world - which many chose to do.  These are the
"ghosts".  In the HP world, even the ghosts eventually have to leave this
world.  We discover in book 5 that there is no return, even for wizards,
once they have passed through the veil and left this world.

When Christians reject the series because "it has witches", they display
a profound ignorance, and there is a loss of repect.  Much deeply Christian
literature has alternate technology and magic.  Our technology is regarded
as magic by those who are unfamiliar with it.  For that matter, I've noticed
that most computer users are profoundly ignorant of how the technology works,
and treat it as magical.  Arthur C. Clarke had it right: "any sufficiently
advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic".

Harry Potter has a lot of Moral Relativism.

The biggest problem with HP, in my judgement, is the lack of moral development.
What I mean by this is that Harry and friends make moral choices, some good,
some bad.  But we don't see their character changing for the better or for
the worse as a result.  The moral character of Harry and friends is strangely
static and lifeless.  Wrong choices don't seem to corrupt them, and right
choices don't seem to strengthen them.  Contrast this with Spiderman -
where the moral choices of the characters have such an immediate and
profound effect on their character, that it is externally visible.

Harry Potter borrows imagery from many cultures.

The HP series is very post-modern in an artistic sense, borrowing imagery
from a host of cultures, and blending it together.  This is visibly
apparent in the movie versions.  A 1950s auto and school uniforms, 1930s
camera, gothic buildings, christmas trees, and candles, egyptian carvings and
statues, nordic carvings and statues.  Plus mythological creatures from far and
wide: baselisk, phoenix, dragon, giants, elves, doxies.  A greek three
headed dog monster named "fluffy".  The author is a scholar and has 
studied all these mythologies, and has picked striking images from each
for her stories.  

There is no deliberate attempt to be occult, *but*, many of these cultures
she borrows from were steeped in the occult.  She has no discernment, and
so some of her choices would have been passed over by a similarly learned
Christian author because of their occult associations.  The author does
not believe in the occult, so for her, a Greek myth is no different than a
Babylonian or Egyptian myth (the Babylonians and Egyptians having had much
more occult influence than the Greeks).  In one sense, she has a point.  
For her secular audience, there is no occult association either.

Christians might worry that familiarity with these transplanted mythic
figures may desensitize the reader to real occult practice when they
encounter it.  For this reason, I recommend that parents ensure their
children are old enough to critically evalute the mythic elements.  They
should learn what culture each mythic creature or symbol comes from, what
it represented in its original context, and when the original meaning was
an evil one.

Harry Potter celebrates virtue.

Despite the lack of understanding about moral development, the HP stories
celebrate virtues.  For instance, book 1 celebrates love.  Each succeding
book celebrates and illustrates a different virtue.  The author shows good
insight into these virtues, as did the cultures from which she takes her
mythology. For this reason, the books can be edifying for the discerning
reader.  The books are also very well written, stretch the vocabulary of
the reader, make frequent references to myths from other cultures which
should invite further study, and are exciting and entertaining.  Hence
their great popularity in the secular market.

The bottom line:

I recommend that every mature Christian should be familiar with the 
HP series.  Because of their great popularity, they form a post-modern
mythology.  The mythic elements provide a shared experience which can
serve as a springboard to the Gospel.  Greek myth served a similar purpose
in the Renaissance era.  References to Greek myths provided commonly
understood illustrations useful for both sermons and poetry.  Harry Potter
can serve the same purpose in our era, with a smorgasboard of myths
both ancient and modern. 

There are a few books showing how elements of HP can serve as illustrations
of Christian principles.  For example:

http://www.connieneal.com/book-harrypotter.htm

-- 
	      Stuart D. Gathman <stuart at bmsi.com>
    Business Management Systems Inc.  Phone: 703 591-0911 Fax: 703 591-6154
"Confutatis maledictis, flamis acribus addictis" - background song for
a Microsoft sponsored "Where do you want to go from here?" commercial.