Well, I finally did it. I went to the library and borrowed all the Harry Potter books I could find, and while Frank and Matthias were away for the week I read them (all except book 2, which was missing). I had debated about reading them for quite a while, and read a lot about them. Some Christians are convinced that since thinking about a woman lustfully is the same as committing adultery, reading a book about people who can do magic is the same as participating in witchcraft.
You know, for a long time I've been pondering how to reach the majority of our culture with the gospel -- with the truth about Jesus, who he is, and the relationship he wants with us. After reading those books, I thought, J.K. Rowling may have hit on just the thing. So I googled "Harry Potter Jesus" to see if anyone else had picked up on the parallels between the two. Some people guessed at them as early as book two. Rowling intentionally hid her religion and literary background until after the last book was published, so the ending would remain a surprise. Some people still question whether it was intended to resemble Christian "mythology" or if those themes are just inherent in all great human literature. (I say, Jesus' story is told through all the ages and in all cultures, taking different forms but always the same.)
The best article I found, interestingly, was from The Banner: Harry Potter and the Way of Jesus. (Go read it!)
It's not that Harry Potter is Jesus, it's that Jesus is Harry Potter. Knowing Jesus, you can see a small reflection, a glimmer of him, in Harry. But if you don't know Him, you only know the travesty people have made of His name, yet you love what you see in Harry Potter -- the love, the self-sacrifice, the earnest desire to overcome evil and save people from its effects -- then to you I say, Jesus is Harry Potter. Harry Potter can show you who Jesus really is, apart from the tarnish made on his name by his supposed followers. Don't worship Harry -- don't worship the "Jesus" who tells people to go spray "Lamb's blood" all over movie-goers -- worship the true Jesus, the one who did for us just what Harry did for his friends.
Good series. Not sorry I read it. Not sure what comes next, but we'll see when we get there.
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2 comments:
Book 3 is the best of the lot, in my opinion. They're great, eh? And really easy to get lost inside. I can't see how the "witchcraft" in Harry Potter's anything like real occultism, the kind that kids could actually get involved in - even the kind of occultism that IS in the book (tea leaf reading, astrology) is derided as not "real" magic (look... Read more how silly a character trelawney is), making it very clear that the magic is a storytelling gimmick, in the same way that science fiction uses a different world as a storytelling device to allow us to look at ourselves from the outside.
somebody I know's mother didn't want her to read the HP books, so without reading it, she gave her a book called "Looking for God in Harry Potter" which she figured would show her daughter that Harry is clearly of the devil. The book argued exactly the opposite.
Since my name is on this blog, maybe I should leave a comment. I've never read Harry Potter, and don't intend to. I've not even listened to the rumors or arguments on either side. There just is so much truth to investigate that I don't think there is time to try and squeeze bits of truth out of these books that are clearly worshipped by the world. The very fact that the world worships them means that they don't clearly reveal the cross of Jesus, because the cross is offensive to all humanity.
God is sending light and truth even in our day, to correct our errors, traditions, and faulty ideas of Him. You won't find that in Harry Potter, I'm sure of that. I'm also sure that Harry Potter is the usual and popular mixture of good overcoming evil by evil methods...the same formula found in westerns, cops and robbers, kung-fu, and most heroic movie literature. Real truth is never popular. You can't "love the world and love the Father". Don't deceive yourselves. There's a good reason why the Truth (Jesus) was put to the cross by the religious folk of His day.
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