With all the noise about Harry Potter books being evil and teaching our children to pursue witchcraft, there are still a few things that Christians can learn from him. At the very least, he teaches that words have power. Real witchcraft in the world is nothing more than an human attempt to take control of this vital principle. When God sought to change the world, he prepared his own spell: the Gospel. The similarity in the words is no coincidence. The gospel is nothing other than God’s holy, life-changing, words of power, uttered on the authority of the perfect sacrifice.
When Harry Potter is plagued by “dementors,” demons of darkness, who thrive on eating away at human hope and joy, it is interesting to note the word he utters. In his fear, he cries out in Latin, simply “Father!” And when he does, his father in heaven comes and chases out the darkness.
neumatikos 
Very good — may get you run out of church, though.
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Hmmm.
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First, I own and have read all 6 currently in print books and have watched the movies and have the DVDs in my collection. I enjoy the series as a wonderful story of fiction and fantasy and have never experienced any spiritual oppression or even depression from watching or reading the series.
I recently was in Michigan with visiting family. We all stayed at my sister’s house. One night, my brother-in-law and I were talking about movies and upcoming releases. I mentioned that the new Harry Potter movie may be delayed a bit because the actor’s mother threatened to stop him from filming if he didn’t get his grades up. The mood suddenly changed and he got very emotional and adament about condemning Harry Potter. Well, I’ve had this discussion with a few Christians in the past and generally I just toss the subject out and move on. He wouldn’t let it go, though and we got into a mini-debate over it that rather perplexed me. He’s a rather melancholy person by nature and his emotional levels over this one topic just seemed unnaturally out of character. After we discussed the topic back and forth for a few minutes, we reached a head and the conversation stopped. The whole time I had wondered what was missing. Then, after a brief moment of silence, he lowers his eyes and takes a breath and admits that he was involved in the occult for a couple years and that when he watched the first Harry Potter movie, he actually missed most of the movie as in his mind he kept going back to that time in his life. The conversation ended.
Well, now I was pondering and I prayed for understanding. Why was it so dramatic for him that the very mention of Harry Potter seemed to make him feel covered in sin when I watch the movie, get a giggle, and go on my way no feeling anything evil on my life. God brought Paul’s disertation about eating pork to mind. Then God explained to me that the movie and books were just that. There is no inherant power within them, but on the same coin, they are able to stir things in ones heart that are evil. Just like the Jews eating pork vs. the Europeans eating pork. To one group, it was no big deal, to the other it was a sin. Why was it a sin to the Jews? Because in their hearts they felt as though they had sinned. A level of self-oppression, maybe? I’m not sure. In the same regards, for him, watching Harry Potter was sinful, not because the movie is sinful, but because he linked it in his heart with sins in his past. Conversly, in my heart and mind, it is mearly a 2 hr entertaining distraction and it has nothing in my heart to attach to that gives it an oppressive or spiritual influence.
Anyway, that’s my story of the month. Maybe I should copy and paste this writeup to my blog? Hmmm…
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