JRHS Writing BLOG

Potter: As Bad As Everyone Thinks?

The latest news has been released, and is causing an uproar in churches everywhere. Dumbledore, a beloved main character of the famous Harry Potter Series, is gay. This is just the type of thing needed to throw some people over the edge about the book series. Christians have been saying for a long time that the book series is bad, and promotes witchcraft, and now, homosexuality. Now books are being banned left and right in Christian schools, but is this the right choice?

Personally, I don’t agree with this. I know as well as everyone else does, that witchcraft is wrong, and it says so in the Bible. But I don’t necessarily agree that the Potter books are promoting witchcraft and homosexuality. Most of the Christians that are fighting so hard against the Potter books have never actually read them themselves. In my opinion, the books are entirely about life lessons, and, in short, they are fantasy books, just like Star Wars and Lord of The Rings, and Christians don’t have anything against those series. It’s the typical battle: good versus evil. Just like everything else. There is no proof in any of the books that JK Rowling is actually trying to get anyone to practice witchcraft. People know that the books are fantasy, and not real. They enjoy them because it takes them to a place where they can escape reality, not because they enjoy practicing witchcraft.

Also, by admitting that Dumbledore was gay, I can see how this could cause an outrage. But the fact that there were no gay relations or incidents in the books, or no indications that Dumbledore was at all gay shows that he could have just been straight the whole time, and no one would have known. Personally, I am slightly disturbed by this fact, and I don’t think JK Rowling should have released this information. But that was her choice to do so, and I respect that.

In an article I read, they spoke of how Christian parents aren’t stepping up enough to stand united against the Potter books. I think parents should be aware of what their children are reading, but not to try and choose for them every book their child picks up. The choice of a child over what book to read definitely expresses their creativity and individualism. If you take that away, how will today’s youth express individualism?

The following was the source for my article:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58299

You raise a good argument, even though I didn’t let my kids read Potter books - we had no need for them.  However, I take issue with your point about Christians not concerned about Star Wars and Lord of the Rings.  I think that if you looked a few years back, you would find that Christians did get upset about Star Wars, Tolkien’s books, and also C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, when they came out. 

So, it may be that over time, the ire wears down and these literary works become accepted by our society.  Could it be possible that the witchcraft and homosexuality in Rowling’s books become accepted as integral parts of young children’s literature because of the young audience that Rowling has addressed?  It seems that this is the heart of the issue - the corruption of young minds to accept the “abomidable sins” of witchcraft and homosexuality, as a valid thought, whether it is fantasy or not. 

Or could the objection be that “Harry Potter” is an average boy, in any town, so that anyone could identify with him, mixing reality witchcraft with fantasy witchcraft?  Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and even Narnia, take place in worlds that don’t exist.  There is no chance that a young person could actually enter those worlds, like Rowling allows young minds to enter Harry Potter’s world.