The Gospel According to Harry
Well, I’ve gone and done it. I actually read the Harry Potter series. Weird, huh? My daughter Ashton decided she wanted to read the books so I embarked on the journey with her so that I knew what she was getting into. Well, here we are two months later and we have finished the entire series (no small feat considering the last four books are between 600 and 800 pages long). Consequently, my wife has also jumped in with both feet (she is on book 5) and my eldest daughter has joined in the fun as well (she is on book 4). I think my son might be coming along too; he just got into the first book and is about half-way done. So what would possess an otherwise docile family to join the throngs of the Harry Potter devotees? I’m glad you asked…
As it turns out, I find myself eating my words a bit as it has concerned this series. I had no desire to pick it up; but not necessarily because of the stereotypical Christian knee jerk reaction to anything insinuating witchcraft. My reasoning was literary. I mean, once you’ve read Lord of the Rings, all other fantasy pales by comparison and I couldn’t imagine a modern writer coming close to writing a comparatively compelling tale. Well, admittedly, J. K. Rowling is no Tolkein, but she sure spins a good yarn. After finding the first book reading like one of those old Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators mystery books I used to read in junior high school, I was rather smitten. Granted, we are talking juvenile fiction here…nothing terribly grandiose. But one thing I will grant to Rowling; she seemed to display (whether intentional or not) a knack for having her writing grow up with Harry. In the first book, Harry is 11 years old and it is pretty much written in a style any 11 year old could follow. By the seventh book, he is 17 and the writing seems to also take on a more sophisticated air. I found this to be rather interesting.
However, the more important aspects of her writing concern the content. One thing I’ve understood about fantasy writing is the symbolism of different qualities in the genre. For example, magic is always used to represent those things we wish we could control, but can’t. Or it may represent those more esoteric aspects of our lives, the spiritual things, that we can’t always understand. Well, these ideas come out in full force in this series, I am happy to report. Furthermore, Rowling is quite adept at developing characters. You don’t just have the standard good vs. evil where the good is clearly good and the evil is clearly evil. She introduces some characters that seem to lean further to one direction or the other, but display qualities of the opposing characteristic. So we see the humanity and selfishness of the heroes, as well as some estranged qualities of mercy or remorse in some of the bad guys. It’s a very interesting spin on a potentially tired genre.
The parts I enjoyed the most, however, would have to be the virtues and the politics. If you look on the internet, you will find a whole host of commentary and interpretation. Many people find Harry and Co. to be progressive, if not leftist in their ideals. Many debate the governmental roles as displayed in the books. Whole dissertations have been written on Harry Potter, believe it or not. His plight has become the subject of much literary discussion (you’ve got to give Rowling points for that too). All that aside though, I still think that these things are best left for the experience of the reader. Rowling herself has blabbed about aspects of the characters outside of the scope of the books which I find rather irritating. She has sat in lectures and spoken of how certain characters married so-and-so and this character worked in this job and Dumbledore was gay…on and on… Ultimately though, it defeats the benefits of having your imagination aroused by a riveting story of heroism and self-sacrifice. I found, for example, some amazingly poignant commentary on government involvement in everyday things when I read these books. How people allow their government to start interfering where it doesn’t belong and pretty soon, you find the strings being pulled by the highest bidder. Sound familiar? It should. But why would I want these ideas explained to me by the author or anyone else? Isn’t the whole point of creativity and art that it means something different to everyone? It’s part of the fun of imagination. Why ruin that? It’s partly why I don’t get into all of the peripheral Middle Earth books that explain everything in the LOTR stories (though at least Tolkien WROTE his back story instead of explaining it haphazardly from a stage). But I digress…
I found a plethora of Christian virtues on display in these books, just as I have found on Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia. Granted, they are not spelled out quite as clearly as they are in those epics, especially due to the fact that both of their authors were high-profile Christians. Regardless, it is a reminder that certain aspects of ethics and morality are universal, even if the author is not conscious of their Source. I was amazed at how, just as Jesus preached, things would go best for Harry when he was practicing self-sacrifice and putting others before himself. When he showed mercy to his enemies, he displayed the characteristic turning of the other cheek and loving those who persecute you. Finally and ultimately, he was willing, throughout the stories, to stare death in the face for the sake of upholding what is right and protecting others. Consequently, I find it unfortunate that he will be written off by most Christians because Rowling used the word “witchcraft” to describe the magic of the females in the story (the males’ magic is referred to as “wizardry”). Immediately, the connotations are drawn equating Harry Potter with the occult. In my opinion, nothing could be further from the truth. I don’t see any more parallels to the occult with Harry Potter than I do with LOTR or Narnia.
So what does it say about a Christianity that is so paranoid about key words that it can’t see its own virtues in the midst of a good story? How can we be so thin in our engagement of this culture we live in? Christians will bash a story they’ve never read and then think nothing of spending hours in front of the TV soaking up Godless, consumerist culture with their brains switched off. We are told in Scripture to take every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. We are instructed to love God with our minds and so if we are being responsible, we should be casting a biblical filter over everything we engage in. The problem is, it is much easier to switch on the TV and let some commentator or product do our thinking for us. We let Fox News give us our political views and Oprah teach us morality. Our notion to stand up and fight is best exemplified by some sports movie about that football team that didn’t give up and won the championship by one point from a touchdown in the final seconds of the game (perpetrated, of course, by the least capable player on the team). The music swells, the pretty girl gets a tear in her eye, and we are spiritually fed with cheap emotions and empty carbs.
Is this what we’ve become? Where are the thinking Christians? Where are the disciples that won’t allow themselves to be duped into subscribing to the latest “revelation” or trend from the latest Christian celebrity? Where are the Martin Luthers? The apostle Pauls? Where is the scandal of the gospel? I think it got replaced by the wishy-washy “family values” of Disney and Wal-Mart.
So in the end, Harry Potter has left me feeling a little irritated at the church. Honestly, this isn’t about Harry Potter though, is it? It’s about believing in a bigger God and not being afraid there is a demon behind every doorknob. It’s about standing for the faith in a way that allows us to stamp our faith on everything we touch and experience. In order to claim the culture for Christ, you kind of have to be aware of what the culture is engaged in, without falling into what it is your are trying to engage for Christ. Have I fallen into a trap by reading Harry Potter? Some might think I have. Few will likely listen or be compelled to engage Rowling’s magical world. Hey, I’m not going to force Harry Potter on anyone; but I do think that a lot of Christians are missing out on a compelling story because they are afraid that the spell-casting will thrust them into the grip of the devil himself. What are we afraid of? Even if the threat were there in the Harry Potter books, he still is God’s devil. Have we forgotten who is sovereign here?
Peace…