Harry Potter is unsafe for Christians Pope Opposes Harry Potter Novels Signed Letters from Cardinal Ratzinger Now Online

Part 2: Harry's Last Battles 2011

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 (Movie Review)  2010

Harry's Last Battles & Rowling's Beliefs  Deathly Hallows, 2007

The Deadly Magic of Potter Movies -- Not just fantasy! Phoenix, 2007

Twelve reasons not to see Harry Potter movies   2001

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince  2005

Marketing the occult: Harry's impact on "Christian" values 2005

Movie Magic and Unconscious Learning 2001

Bewitched by Harry Potter  1999

The Power of Suggestion

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix  2003

Harry Potter and the Postmodern Church  2004

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 2002

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Using Alchemy to Teach Christianity?  2003

Harry Potter Lures Kids to Witchcraft - with praise from Christian leaders 1999

A New Twist on Potter, Pokémon and Popular Psychology  2000

Harry Potter and Dungeons & Dragons: Like Peas in a Pod?

http://www.crossroad.to/text/articles/D&D&Harry.htm
Essay claiming the popularity of the novels and the games indicate a growing tolerance of pagan influences in popular culture.



Harry Potter Comments by visitors

How mysticism & the occult are changing the Church

Role-Playing Games & Popular Occultism

The Invisible War

Preparing for Victory

Harry Potter; Media Extravaganza or Deafening Silence?

http://www.christendom-awake.org/pages/reflect-lit/harry-potter/harry-potter.htm

By Mark Alder, January 30, 2008

I have real concern that many good practicing Christians receive little or no guidance when faced with a number of issues which can impact on them or their children. It could be said that such people need only to do their own research on the internet etc., and they will be fully informed. However many folk are so busy with their lives that they often do not have time or energy to do such research.

The problems with Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code and Phillip Pulman's Dark Materials Trilogy are in my opinion easier to deal with. Most Orthodox Christians are in agreement. However trying to discern Harry Potter is much more difficult because of the range of views presented by different Christian Commentators. If people are not careful the whole subject can become extremely divisive.

Many parents encourage their children's interest in Harry Potter books and films but are not aware that a number of informed Christians have various degrees of reservations about the books/films. To be fair I therefore want to start this short article by reiterating that a number of informed Christians have no problem with Harry Potter.

What seriously worries me however is that although countless adults and children are reading and enjoying Harry Potter there seems to be a "deafening silence" amongst countless people as to whether there is any cause for concern. There is usually no discussion of the pros and the cons.

There are a number of possible points of entry into this subject, Firstly I am looking at authoritative statements. One article uses the authority of The Catechism. The Reality of the Devil,

I now give an exceptionally good article by Rev. Thomas J Euteneuer of Human Life International. Halloween and Harry Potter At the top of this article there are useful links to a very good article by Michael O'Brien and some comments by the previous chief exorcist of Rome, Rev. Gabriele Amorth. Such a person as Rev Amorth speaks with real experience on the matters I am discussing here. I would also strongly recommend two books by Rev. Amorth. An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories

It is useful to view some of the articles on Harry Potter which are available on the Catholic Culture Website. This include views both for and against Harry Potter.

It is also instructive to examine the various articles on the LifeSite News website

The article below presents some useful ideas.
Harry Potter: The archetype of an abortion survivor
Is the Practice of Witchcraft Harmless?

Acknowledgement

I must give grateful thanks to Dave Parry who provides an emailing list of interesting and important websites and news items. I first learnt about some of the Harry Potter websites from Dave's mailing list. If you would like to go on the emailing list please email Dave at [e-mail].

Can My Kids Watch Harry Potter Films?

http://www.southasianconnection.com/articles/206/1/Can-My-Kids-Watch-Harry-Potter-Films/Page1.html

By Samuel Thambuswamy, July 3, 2007

Harry Potter - a household name
You just can’t ignore Harry Potter. He has become a household name, courtesy the powerful engines of Globalization. Harry Potter books and its product spin-offs are found everywhere. Even if you don’t want to read the book/s (watch the films), you still cannot manage to stay insulated. Hogwarts’ magic is slowly but steadily invading our living room through everyday conversations. Trust me, it is extremely difficult to be indifferent about Harry Potter and Hogwarts. Few books/films, like the Harry Potter series have evoked such ‘equal’ and ‘opposite’ reactions, all at the same time.

Pottermania: The arguments for and against
Ardent Potter fans find nothing wrong in the imaginative story that seeks to feed the human hunger for enchantment. While others hold author J.K. Rowling guilty of introducing magick to younger children. They allege that although the book/s unfold the proverbial ‘good-versus-evil’ theme, witchcraft and occultism form the subtext of its plotline. The worst fear is that the book/s (and films) would de-sensitize children to the dark shades of spirituality, now resurgent in the West.

Living the question: In the midst of a culture war
Would it be wrong for a Christian to read a compelling novel, which is creative, insightful and funny? How do we respond to the Harry Potter Phenomenon from a Christian faith perspective? What’s wrong about Harry Potter anyway? Can I allow my kids to watch Harry Potter movies? Answers aren’t easy to these questions. Troubled parents are living these questions. The return of Harry Potter through the sixth book in the series: Harry Potter and the Half-blood prince (2005) and the movie version of Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix (2007) have only re-opened the debate, re-drawn the battle lines and kicked off the latest culture war.

Do not be squeezed into the (cultural) mould of the world
Living out the Christian faith in the contemporaneous world is a counter trend. Christian lifestyle is opposed to self-interests, self-gratification and self-sufficiency, which are at the heart of our culture. Apostle Paul had warned us, “ Don’t let the world squeeze you into its own mould”.  It doesn’t come easy. It takes a lot to be able to face the contemporary challenges. The challenges to our faith come in different colors, shapes and sizes and contemporary Christians must skillfully relate their creedal affirmations to the emerging contextual challenges. Unfortunately, most Christians I meet, are unwilling to think through issues ‘Christianly’. The temptation is to settle for either ‘restatements’ or ‘readymade answers’. Somehow, I sense a lack of enthusiasm to study God’s Word, stretch the mind and discover biblical principles for everyday life issues.

Thinking ’Christianly’
Thinking ‘Christianly’ is only possible if we construct a Christian worldview. What is a worldview?

A worldview is “simply the sum total of our beliefs about the world, the big picture that directs our daily decisions and actions”.  A worldview helps us to make sense of the world we live in and also helps us order our lives accordingly. It provides clarity, consistency and coherence to the answers for questions concerning origin, meaning, purpose and destiny. Genuine Christianity is all about accepting the Christian worldview as a framework for the totality of life. Charles Colson contends

“Genuine Christianity is more than a relationship with Jesus as expressed in personal piety, church attendance, Bible Study, and works of charity. It is more than discipleship, more than believing a system of doctrines about God. Genuine Christianity is a way of seeing and comprehending all reality. It is worldview”.     
Apostle Paul, in his letter to the church at Rome, points to the need to be transformed by a constant renewal of the mind
“As an intelligent act of worship, give him your bodies as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him. Don’t let the world squeeze you into its mould, but let God re-make you so that your whole attitude of mind is changed.”

Faith seeking application
Today, we live in the market place of ideas that compete for our attention and loyalty. The challenge, then, for a Christian is to expose counter claims and defend Christian truth in the everydayness of life. Theology, then, is not an exercise removed from everyday life but it is “faith seeking application”. Commitment to the Christian worldview requires us to evaluate every truth-claim. Anything we accept as ‘true’, ‘good’ and ‘right’ must be compatible with our Christian worldview. This would mean that any and every idea must pass through the Christian grid, which would either validate a claim or expose its inadequacies.

The challenge ahead
Is the Harry Potter phenomenon a challenge to the Christian faith? I don’t think so. The Harry Potter phenomenon is not a challenge to the Christian faith as a belief system. Nevertheless, it poses new challenges to the Christian readers of the book. The book/s (and film/s) promote a neo-pagan worldview contrary to the biblical understanding of life and hence, the book/s (and films) require us to duly approach it with ‘Christian’ caution. Any compelling novel/movie presents its own challenges to the Christian. There is a tendency to look at life through the eyes of its lead characters, particularly when we are emotionally absorbed into the story. Like any other idea or a cultural product, the Harry Potter books must be evaluated through a Christian grid. It is at this point that Christians need tools to raise and resolve worldview questions.

We fear what we don’t understand
Many parents have been living the question: How do we encounter the Harry Potter from a Christian faith perspective? Would it be wrong if children read it purely for entertainment? Should it be ignored, avoided or at least read with caution? The debate rages endlessly.  Ravi Zacharias has rightly reminded us “it is far better to debate a question before settling it than to settle a question before debating it”.  I guess, the issue needs to be understood through an informed debate, intense scrutiny and diligence and more importantly drawing principles from the Bible to bear upon the debate. It is said, “we fear what we don’t understand” and often times our responses have only been knee-jerk reactions rather than ‘reasoned’ answers. Children are greatly in need of a framework – a Christian grid - through which all of life is understood and interpreted. An informed discussion would help children acquire skills to address this issue and every other issue in the contemporary world.

Challenging cultures; Changing Individuals
As Christians, we also bear the responsibility of transforming the culture around us. This means, we must detect the socio-cultural underpinnings in the cultural landmarks of our time. This would help us ‘correlate’ the gospel to the questions raised within our context and setting. A study of the Harry Potter phenomenon will help us understand the issues of identity (who am I?), the longing for a new myth (What gives meaning, purpose and destiny for our times?) and the socio-cultural and religious mood (How do we now understand reality?) embedded in the collective consciousness of our children. This would help us to evangelize and nurture our children within our churches and beyond.
Can my kids watch Harry Potter films? Well… you be the judge. Remember, we’ve got to help our kids live out real faith in the real world. Engaging with the films which a Christian filter is perhaps the best way forward.

Mainstreaming Witchcraft? Parents Assess

http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/mainstreaming_witchcraft_parents_assess/

By Tim Drake, Register correspondent, Executive editor of Catholic.net, Los Angeles, December 2, 2001
As Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone opened to record-breaking crowds the weekend of Nov. 17, parents and experts continue to agree to disagree upon its appropriateness for children. While some see the series as merely adventure-some entertainment, others wonder if the film might take the stigma away from witchcraft and the occult, opening children to danger.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is the first in the series of four Harry Potter adventures written by Britain's J.K. Rowling. The film follows the exploits of a bespectacled orphan with magical powers who attends the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

In the first three days of its release, the film made a record $93.5 million. Audiences packed theaters, with thousands lining up for midnight screenings.

“I have never attended a movie on opening weekend,” admitted Barb Hennen, a Catholic mother of seven in Ghent, Minn. “Yet, it was really fun for my 13-year-old son and I to see the film together.”

She and her son Robert saw the film at their local multiplex on Nov. 17. “I was disappointed that some of the characters in the book were not in the movie,” recalled Robert. To date, only one of Robert's 15 classmates had seen the film. “I hope to go see it again,” said Robert, who admitted that he has read each of Rowling's four books at least five times each.

However, Barb Hennen cautioned that the film was probably not appropriate for anyone under the age of 9. “Lord Voldemort is scary,” she said. “At one point he absorbs a man's body. That's not as clear or visible in the book. That certainly would not be appropriate for younger children to see.”

Otherwise, she said it was a fine movie. “The Christian mothers I've talked to have agreed that it's an imaginative and adventuresome story. I don't think it's right to focus only on what could be wrong with it.” While she admitted that it could be an entry point for a child into the occult, she added, “A child leaning in that direction might … but Harry Potter wouldn't be the only source the child would go to.”

Michael O'Brien respectfully disagrees.

“I think it is a mistake to take a child to the Potter film,” said the Canadian Catholic artist and author of A Landscape with Dragons: The Battle for Your Child's Mind.

“The series uses the symbol-world of the occult as its primary metaphor,” he explained. “This has the potential of lowering a child's guard to the actual occult activity in the world around us, which is everywhere and growing.”

O'Brien argues that both the books and the film present serious threats to the moral integrity of the coming generations. “In the film, an added dimension of psychological influence is at work,” he said. “Any serious student of modern media recognizes the power of film to reshape consciousness. By using overt and subliminal techniques, it can override the mind's natural critical faculty.”

He added that the widespread devotion to the Potter phenomenon, even among Catholic parents and scholars, “is a symptom of our naiveté about the power of culture. In our modern culture we have all become accustomed to eating a certain amount of poison in our diet; indeed we often no longer even recognize the poison. Why have we accepted a set of books which glamorize and normalize occult activity, even though it is every bit as deadly to the soul as sexual sin?"

Clare McGrath Merkle, a former New Age “healer” and a revert to the Catholic faith, said she has seen firsthand that O'Brien's warning should be heeded. “We just don't understand that our children live in a reality steeped in violence, sex and the occult,” she said.

She said the problem with Potter remains, despite the explanation that the books depict an innocent, even humorous, white magic. “There is only one kind of magic,” said Merkle. It's “variously known as black magic, occultism, diabolism, or the dark arts.”

The Defense

Los Angeles film critic Michael Medved, known for his defense of traditional virtues and criticism of Hollywood's rejection of them, defends Harry Potter.

“A number of Christian organizations have objected to the whole Harry Potter phenomenon, suggesting that its benign, light-hearted treatment of witchcraft and the occult will lead young people into dangerous realms. I resisted this argument concerning the books and I reject it even more with the movie,” he said. “It's hard to imagine any child who will want to study necromancy, spells or Satanism as a result of seeing the film.”

Medved contends that the film projects a “deadly serious battle between good and evil, while highlighting humane values of generosity, loyalty, discipline and selflessness.”

“Magic,” said Medved, “remains a staple in most of the best children's literature in history, and generations of young people have indulged in those fantasies without satanic influence. In Grimm's Fairy Tales, for example, magic and witches and shape-changing and curses and incantations have always played a role.”

British Catholic home-schooling mother Debbie Nowak also believes that the film can be viewed as good entertainment.

She has seen the film with four of her eight children and doesn't worry about her children falling into the occult.

“Harry Potter has an invisible mark inside of him that his mother gave to him when she sacrificed her life for his,” she said. “This mark, unlike his lightning bolt scar, is one of love. Because he has this mark of love, evil cannot bear his touch.”

Mary Weyrich of Paso Robles, Calif., warned that, in these days of cross-marketing, much of the danger with the book is extraneous to the story.

“I recently went shopping and noticed the sold-out Harry Potter display,” the Catholic mother of eight said. “There on the same shelf was a book of Spells for Children. It looked like a cookbook, except that it was filled with the sorts of things that Harry does, in the books and movie. It was user friendly, easy for children to try.”

She looked into the matter further, she said.

On the Internet, “I went to a large online bookstore's Harry Potter site, found Harry's 'related subjects,’ which included witchcraft.” Three clicks connected her to The Witch Bible, she said.

Her conclusion: “Many will say that the Harry Potter books and movie are just fiction. Many will say that they are so glad that the children are reading again. Many will say that the movie wasn't that scary and it is no big deal. But I do believe that it is a very big deal.”

The Harry Potter phenomenon and franchise — and debate — is only just beginning. Warner Bros. was scheduled to begin shooting a sequel in November, and fans are already looking forward to Rowling's next book.

Effects of Harry Potter

http://annefeaster.accountsupport.com/potternewsletter.html

By Margaret Anne Feaster, 2007

Most people have an opinion on the Harry Potter phenomenon.  Some Christians think he is harmless; others do not.  In this newsletter, I would like to share with you some research which reveals the effect of Potter on some of our teens.

A Christian organization called the Barna Group has interviewed 4,370 teens in the U.S. from age 13 to 18 on the Potter series and their involvement in other aspects of the occult.   Their findings are alarming.

They have discovered that 84% or four out of every five teens polled have personally read or watched Potter.   77% of these are church-going teens.  Despite the widespread exposure to Potter, only 4% have received any teachings or discussions about this subject in a church.

The vast majority found it to be just a “fun to read” story.  However, ONE OUT OF EVERY 8 TEENS (12%) SAID THE POTTER SERIES INCREASED THEIR INTEREST IN WITCHCRAFT.  If this sample is applied to the general population, it would translate to millions of teens.

The Barna  report states, “The most common types of witchcraft behaviors were using a Ouija board and reading a book about witchcraft or Wicca, each of which had been done by more than one-third of the teenagers.  More than one-quarter of teens have played a game featuring sorcery or witchcraft elements. One tenth of teens had participated in a séance and 1 out of 12 had tried to cast a spell or mix a magic potion.” This is alarming because doing witchcraft or using a Ouija board can put the teen in direct contact with evil spirits, according to Fr. Amorth, the Vatican exorcist. Amorth has also said, "Behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of darkness, the devil." In addition, the teens may not realize that these practices are gravely sinful.   The Bible explains this very clearly in Deut.18:10.  It states "Let there not be found among you anyone who immolates his son or daughter in the fire, nor a fortune-teller, soothsayer, charmer, diviner, or caster of spells, nor one who consults ghosts and spirits or seeks oracles from the dead.  Anyone who does such things is an abomination to the Lord, and because of such abominations, the Lord your God is driving these nations out of your way."

Since this cute little wizard is doing white witchcraft, he would be an abomination to the Lord in real life. The Potter books send a confusing message to children.   

Of the teens who found it "fun to read", they too have been affected.  They have been exposed to and de-sensitized to some of the most sinful and forbidden practices that exist, thinking them to be completely harmless.
Testimony from an ex-Teen Witch

High school student, Jordan Fuchs, testified at a school hearing in Gwinnett County, Ga. in April 2006 that the Potter books had a bad influence on her and her friends in middle school. Her teachers had encouraged the students to read the books. She states in her testimony,   "After reading the first book, many of my classmates decided that we wanted to learn more about witchcraft.  While at school we looked up witchcraft on the internet.  We looked up how to become a witch and how to perform the Craft.   To us the Harry Potter books had made witchcraft seem mystical, exciting, and innocent".  She then stated, "We continued to search for info on how to perform spells, curses, potions, hexes and vexes just like Harry." After practicing witchcraft, she said she became "an angry, bitter, depressed, vengeful, manipulative, disobedient, rebellious person." She had become so depressed that she set out to kill herself.  Fortunately, she had confided in a friend who told her Mother who then intervened and found some help for her.  However, it took her several years to get back to where she was before.