Well, it’s been a really exciting Banned Books Week, as I’ve managed to get up just one post. I got completely buried in work this week, missed both of my classes as well as both of the assignments for those classes.
As Banned Books Week wraps up, I’ll toss out another interesting conversation for discussion: Why has Harry Potter been so frequently challenged? (By “challenged,” I mean, “attempted to ban”). Is it really a genuine belief that the books are going to lead kids into the occult? Or is there something underlying that belief? Here are a few suggestions on my part. You can run with these or suggest your own.
- Culture-War Christianity – There is a certain segment of Christianity that seems to always be at war with something in culture. They tend to be defined primarily by what they’re against, as opposed to what they’re for. These moral crusaders need a cause, and the popularity of Harry Potter made it a prime target.
- Spiritual-Warfare Christianity – There is another segment of Christianity that tends to find evil spiritual forces dangerously at work in everything. Harry Potter became something that would not just negatively affect the minds of young children, but something that would actually put them in contact with demons.
- Anti-Sacramentalism – I think lying beneath these two is a loss of belief in a relationship between the physical and the spiritual. In other words, gnosticism. Because symbols don’t really communicate spiritual grace in an anti-sacramentalist belief system, the Christian symbols of Harry Potter were never enough to convince them of its Christian content. They are biblical literalists in the strictest sense of the term, leading to the belief that the “witches” and “wizards” in Harry Potter couldn’t have been anything other than the magicians condemned in the Scriptures, because those words have “objective” meanings. For Harry Potter to have been approved by an anti-sacramentalist, Harry would have to have been an explicit Christian in the story, with a gospel conversion and all, and Voldemort would have been the leader of some Satanic cult.
Your thoughts on these or other reasons and much appreciated!
Arabella Figg on 
korg20000bc on 
Red Rocker on 
Travis Prinzi on 
PotterMom05 on 
Joivre on 
Loading ...
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree with your points above, Travis. I would also add that there is a real spirit of fear among many Christians. This is particularly true among Christians I know who opposed the Potter books. These people tend to be afraid of anything that might have a negative influence on their children and there is a real sense that children (and even adults) must be protected from anything vaguely resembling sin at all costs. Along with this comes a lack of critical thinking. They see the words witch and wizard and make a judgement without further investigation. Among my aquaintances, this fear is the most prevalent reason for opposing the Harry Potter books.
Blessings,
Catherine
Just some quick thoughts: I don’t think it’s primarily culture war Christianity reacting against Harry Potter. There may be some of going on but I think it’s a small part of the negative Christian reaction against the books. Besides, cultural war Christians tend to end up just as faddish as the culture itself, because cultural phenomena tend to be very fleeting & are always looking for the next big entertaining thing.
Spiritual warfare Christians tend to be more persistent in their criticisms & assaults, mainly because they are, in a sense, reacting to a very real problem. The Bible, especially the New Testament, is very clear that the devil & his angels are engaged in spiritual warfare against Christ & His Church. This isn’t just an isolated passage but found in all four Gospels, the writings of St. Paul, St. Peter, St. Jude, & St. John, in particular.
But the problem the Spiritual warfare Christians run into is an overreaction against anything relating to the word ‘witch’ or ‘wizard.’ They can’t get past it. And so simply because HP has the words witch & wizard associated with them, they must be occultic!
Now, I’m not absolutely positively sure since my Hebrew is a bit rusty, but I’m fairly sure that the prohibitions against occultic practice in the OT & even in the NT don’t translate directly into the words ‘witch’ or ‘witchcraft.’ Explaining occult practices to my confirmation students comes under the study of the 2nd Commandment, “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.”
Part of Luther’s Small Catechism explanation of this commandment is that we should not use “witchcraft or satanic arts.” What is witchcraft or satanic arts, Biblically speaking? It is attempting to play God by obtaining access to information or powers not given to you by the use of occultic rituals or calling on spirits. Attempting to know future events or to influence others, either positively or negatively, by calling upon other powers than God or even by trying to manipulate God to do things not ordained in His will. In a sense, it is trying to go outside of God’s created order to achieve things not given to us to have or to do.
John explains this much more clearly & succinctly in “How Harry Cast His Spell.” But it’s quite clear that if you examine what’s going on in Harry Potter, that the magical system is inherent to the wizarding world. It’s a mechanistic, technological aspect of the world, to which everyone in that world, except squibs, has access to. It really is not comparable at all to what is being forbidden in the Scriptures. An unbiased reading of the series would show that.
But therein lies the problem, many of the Spiritual warfare people don’t give the series an unbiased reading, if they bother to read it at all. It has the word ‘witch’ in it; people are able to do magic, therefore it’s evil, occultic, satanic. There can be nothing positive about it, & the only way Harry & friends can be redeemed is for them to renounce witchcraft, burn their wands, & profess Christ as Lord & Savior.
It really is an egregious overreaction & distracts people from true occultic threats.
Excellent points Travis. I think the culture-war Christians who were against Harry Potter often have an underlying anti-sacramentalism, though they are typically unaware of it.
Some of my charismatic friends fall into the 2nd camp, but not the third. They tend to believe that something mystical really is happening during baptism, Lord’s supper, public confession and such. Along with that is the heightened possibility that Satan may be lurking in the pages of a book.
In both groups I knew families that enjoyed the books. They just kept it on the down low. Along with the wine in the back cupboard.
Catherine, yes! I was hoping someone would pick up on the underlying fear which is often present in reactions to things like Harry Potter. It seems to me that a sort of Peretti-style demon-around-every-corner mentality is too prevalent. Many Christians need to re-read Job a couple times and note the part where whatever The Accuser gets to do, he needs God’s permission first. Then, after reading Job, a few verses of “This is My Father’s World” would be in order.
revgeorge, you’re right. There’s a knee-jerk reaction which prevents any reasonable reading of the series. I have family members in that camp who are still repeating the claim that Rowling is a witch. Oi.
Matt J., very good points. Yes, the culture war Christians are much more often the anti-sacramental types, and charismatic Christians do tend to be a bit more willing to accept a physical action communicating something spiritual – though there is a strong element of gnosticism present in much of the charismatic movement (not to get into a huge theology debate here). But, I will say this much – at the last two HPEF conferences I’ve been at, a Pentecostal woman has given presentations on the Spirit-imagery in the series (I’ve missed them both). So, there certainly are those in the “spiritual-warfare” camp that don’t have a problem with the series.
In re-thinking, “Culture-War” Christians is just as difficult a label as “spiritual warfare” Christians, because certainly there are a lot of culture war-minded Christians who approve of HP. In reality, I was trying to avoid using the term “fundamentalist” again, because I’ve taken some flack for that. But “fundamentalist” Christians was really the idea I was getting at there.
Good points, Travis. What I didn’t put into my previous post is that a lot of Christian seem to have what you call that Peretti type fear of spiritual powers. They forget that the devil is God’s devil & that for Christians Christ is the stronger man who has bound the strong man. And that where the Gospel is being preached, the devil falls like lightning from heaven.
But many Christians seem to have an almost morbid fascination with the occult & see the devil & his angels as so powerful that they can do almost anything. Whereas the Bible portrays the devil & the demons as very real & powerful enemies but also as limited & circumscribed enemies. But some Christians almost have a superstitious belief in the occult, that even reading or watching something relating to witches or the occult is going to somehow magically drag them into becoming devil worshiping child sacrificing sky clad witches.
It’s the opposite reaction to those in Christianity who don’t believe in the supernatural at all & who think the devil & spiritual forces are just quaint reminders of how ignorant people used to be but now we moderns know better.
Excellent question and discussion here at the Hog’s Head, as usual.
I’d add two things.
In all three groups of Harry Dissenters if not full blown Harry Haters that Travis lists we see a failure to be able to distinguish the psychic and spiritual realms. This is a consequence of the materialist focus of all our thinking that all other realms than the measurable quantities of energy and matter become a subjective category that includes no distinctions. That Rowling’s magic is incantational, hence spiritual and sacramental (i.e. requiring a Christian logos-centric cosmology) and never invocational, which is to say psychic or occultic, is necessarily lost on them. The first chapter of ‘How Harry Cast His Spell’ is devoted to these distinctions, as RevGeorge was kind enough to say, and it is the heart of undersanding how literature works on the human person. I’d suggest, in its fostering a sacramental vision, that books like Harry Potter are the ones Christians should be celebrating not banning, but that would assume all people professing Christ understand the Mysteries (“sacraments”) traditionally. Few do so that’s a non-starter!
My question is, the war largely having been won and the Harry Haters banished to history and dark corners of parishes or to ghettos of true believers, what happened? When was the battle won or turned? We know that Connie Neal opened the engagement by fighting on the biblical playing field and was mauled. I shifted the terms of engagement to literature which made a dent in some circles of serious readers able to follow my arguments. But what caused the host of book banners to retreat or drop their weapons and surrender?
I think it was the movies that broke the back of the banners. I’d like to read what you all think.
I can’t closely follow the argument with regards to the incantational/spiritual/sacramental vs the invocational/psychic/occultic, being untrained to know the differences (and too lazy to take the time to learn). I do, however, have an observation about the movies.
I would suspect that their sheer popularity overwhelmed the barricades of the culture war and spiritual warfare Christians. I mean, if millions of people, including your friends and neighbours, are going to see the movies, can you reasonably conclude that they’re all bound for perdition?
I’m personally watching an Evangelical family struggle with HP as we speak. He thinks the movies are too dark and violent for seven year olds (he’s probably right). She is curious about the books, having been a fan of fantasy fiction earlier in her life, and is reading them as I lend them to her, one at a time. All their seven year old wants is to see the same movies as his friends.
I would agree that the “Spiritual Warfare” Christians that object to Harry Potter are hung up on the words “witch” or “wizard”. They do not realize that “witchcraft” and “witch” are loaded terms. There is a great deal of baggage that accumulated with those words over time. Much of what people think of when they hear “witch” would be from the excessive paranoia over “witches” and fear of an imaginary secret group that worshipped Satan and threatened European Christendom in the late Medieval/Renaissance periods. The concept of witches flying on bromsticks came from an early Medieval belief that certain women rode at night with the Goddess Diana. They were the wild women of Artemis and a 10th century document titled the Canon Episcopi called this belief a delusion. However it didn’t stay a delusion and eventually the idea of witches flying on broomsticks emerged, mixed with other stories of orgies, secret groups of Satan worshippers, leading to the witch trials that commenced mainly in the so-called Renaissance period.
It was during that time that the King James translators used the words “witch” and “witchcraft” in the places in the Old Testament they thought should be translated as such. A closer look at these relevant passages show that it is not so cut and dry. These were different times and you do not have to be a Hebrew scholar or have studied the beliefs and practices of ancient Canaanite or Egyptian religious practices (some of which included what we call ritualistic magic) to know that just placing the words “witch” or “witchcraft” onto those passages is anachronistic. Was the “witch” at Endor really a witch or was she more accurately a necromancer, i.e. one who contacts the dead? How about those magicians who challenged Moses in the court of Pharaoh? The point of these passages were not that magic is wrong (let me rephrase to avoid confusion here: any power besides God’s is wrong, but that’s not the sole point here), but that they paled in comparison to the power of the God of the Israelites. Scripture is ultimately a story of creation, how humans went wrong, and what Yahweh was doing about eradicating evil in this world by choosing one family (that of Abraham) through whom he would “set the world to rights” if I can borrow a phrase from N.T. Wright. These people were called to seperate themselves and eradicate all forms of evil. The biblical prohibitions against “witchcraft” or whatever name you want to call it must be seen in light of this story, of God choosing a people through whom the world will be blessed through the coming of Jesus Christ. Creation and covenant come into play here. There is the power of God and then there is the parody. That is the point of those prohibitions.
“Spiritual Warfare” Christians do not understand this. There is of course fear behind their objections, but God has not given us a spirit of fear. Perhaps their notions of good and evil (as well as overemphasizing Satan, which C.S. Lewis warned us not to do in The Screwtape Letters) are at best dualistic and could lead to Gnosticism, although I have suspected that this already has taken place since many Christians focus on Heaven as our final goal instead of building for the Kingdom in anticipation of our own future resurrection and ultimately Heaven and Earth coming together in that great Union in Revelation 21-22. But that’s another story.
Great discussion.
As far as the war being ended, I’ll suggest this: Culture War Christians have much more pressing concerns at present, namely, it’s election time. Wait till the release of HBP film, and we’ll see another round of attacks, if less severe than previously.
I’m with Red Rocker on this one. The sheer popularity of the books (even more than the movies — the books are the phenomenon with staying power) simply overwhelmed, I think, the “culture-war Christians.”
It’s all about going along with the crowd. Most of the “culture-war” folks I know would like to believe they’re standing up against the prevailing culture, but in fact they know remarkably little about the prevailing culture, and their passion for this particular cause runs very shallow. The bottom line: They are in fact going along with the crowd — their own “culture-war” crowd.
But then another HP book comes out, and the midnight parties are all over the news, and everyone their kids know is reading the book, and their kid is going to be left out of things if they don’t, and after all, the kid is a couple years older than the last time one of those books came out, and you know, they’ve gotten some good reviews, and we’ve moved on to being offended by “The Da Vinci Code” and whatnot… And before you know it, our “culture-war” crowd has simply been swept away by a bigger crowd, the Harry Potter crowd, and the arguments, which most of them never cared deeply about anyway (since they were just going along with that particular crowd) just don’t seem to matter….
And popularity wins the day again.