Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings/Narnia - dangerous to children?

Fantasy or serious stuff? (Harry Potter, LOTR, Narnia)

  • All purely fantasy, should be taken at face value

    Votes: 21 48.8%

  • Narnia's symbolism should be taken seriously, not the others

    Votes: 6 14.0%

  • Harry Potter is dangerous and the others aren't

    Votes: 10 23.3%

  • other (if so please specify in a reply)

    Votes: 6 14.0%
  • Total voters
    43
Sezzie87

Sezzie87

New member
This is a fascinating debate, I could argue this for years non-stop. Some people argue firstly that Harry Potter is wrong because it's full of witch-craft and blurs the line between good and evil. However people that say it's wrong purely because of it's content (i.e witchcraft etc) have also commented that Narnia and The Lord Of The Rings, fantasy as they may be, are in the same boat and are also wrong.

Do you think there should be lines drawn for Christians regarding what we shoud and shouldn't fill our heads with, or do you think it depends on how much we actually take it seriously? Is there a difference between Harry Potter and the other 2 mentioned? Are they all purely fantasy or should they be taken more seriously on a deeper level (although I'm aware of the christian symbolism in narnia - I believe that's important) I'm actually torn between all the different ideas... What do you all reckon? :)

And just to add a bit of excitement there's a lil poll to go with this too hehe :)
 
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Yep i agree with you there.... the thing I'm stuck with si that if we argue that, then should we not argue the same for LOTR and Narnia? It has witches and wizards and evil in it... what's the difference? apart from the fact they've both bin written by christians and there's a clear line between good and evil, there's still the content issue :rolleyes:
 
Queen Swanwhite said:
I think (in my opinion) that HP is evil and small children should not read the books due to, maybe, scary things, I don't know. :D
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Have you read any of the Harry Potter books in the series yet? if you haven't then you wouldnt have known that there where any scary things in them. BUT if you have, you would know that Harry Potter himself is not evil. The books were written for small children. They are good fiction books. J.K Rowling does an extrodinary job of telling of another land that is make believe. like most stories there is usually a good guy and a bad guy. and yes bad guys are scary. for instance:
Does the white witch scare you in the Narnia books? is she evil? and should we not let small children read those books?
 
Mmm yeah I'm sure they're brilliant books... but the thing is, I do know that the author had to reasearch deep into the occult to write them...

not criticising anyone at all - just saying that my opinion is that at a born-again Christian I shouldn't be reading something which clearly has roots in things which are against what I believe in - no I haven't read the books, but for that very reason.

But I'm sure they're good stories, I wouldn't argue with that at all
 
I think we can go too far down the road with what should be censored from young people.

CASE ONE: On "The Simpsons" they had the children of Christian extremist Ned Flanders saying they wouldn't watch reruns of "Mister Ed" because they had a talking horse and that was blasphemy. SOUND FAMILIAR??

CASE TWO: There was a strange man in our neighborhood that every year would post a sign of a demon dressed in a red suit. "SATAN CLAUS!" it said. He was certain that believing in Jolly old Saint Nick was equivalent to taking Christ out of Christmas. Forget for the moment that Saint Nicholas was canonized by the Pope for his real life generosity, or that the Santa Claus we tell children about spends his whole life giving away things on the night of Christ's birth.

CASE THREE: Bambigate. Yes, they raked Disney over the coals for allowing Bambi's mother to die. He held firm. Thank God.

We should make sure that children get the full benefits of love and guidance, but we cannot wish all of popular culture away by artificially inventing a world for our kids where such things do not exist. Look at all the experimental "utopia" communities where they would reinvent the human race. "Amana" and "New Harmony." Where are they today? Why haven't they solved the world's problems? Because you can't reinvent the human race. Only Christ could do that and he did it 2000 years ago. The choice of what to do with your life in light of Christ's sacrifice is...by God's own choosing...up to our free will. He did not rigidly enforce his message through censorship.

If parents want to mitigate the "damage" of Harry Potter, they should read the books, take an active interest in them, and kindly, gently explain that there really isn't a school at Hogwarts and that some people are not born with the gift of performing spells while others are not. Just as we might remind kids that George Washington really did not cut down the cherry tree and then admit to his father, "I did it...I cannot tell a lie."

Reality checks, folks, not brainwashing. Kids should have absolute faith that we are in touch with the subjects we preach about, for once they feel we are harping on things we do not fully understand ourselves, our soapboxing becomes irrelevant and we sideline ourselves as active influences in their lives.

Imagine for a moment trying to tell a ghost story around the campfire. About the man with a golden hook for a hand. If every time we brought up yet another gruesome detail one of the parents spouted out, "Tell my Jimmy there really WASN'T a ghost with a golden hook. That's unbiblical!" Do you think it would shake the mood? OH BOY YEAH. Do you think the other kids would be shocked to know you "lied" to them? Well gee....NUH UH! NOT!
 
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Chakal said:
Do you think the other kids would be shocked to know you "lied" to them? Well gee....NUH UH! NOT!
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The thing is though, the issue isn't what they believe to be true... it's what they're getting caught up in at the same time as innocently reading these books... and I think that once everyone sarts reading them to purely 'engage with them' and understand what they're talking about more, there's a danger that those people could get caught up too.

I'm not sayig that everyone who reads them is brainwashed, not at all. I just think that as a Christian myself, I can't serve two masters, so why would I even support something which advertises witchcraft by reading it, when I know that it doesn't glorify God in the slightest, in fgact it does the opposite. I think it's just a matter of where our priorities lie...
 
I understand your concerns, and yet I beg to differ on two points:

First, I don't think Harry Potter "advertises" witchcraft. First off it points out witches as being an actual different SPECIES from humans. That's not my take on it, it's what the books themselves say. So a child is never going to think they could "become" a witch any more than they might "become" a rabbit from reading Peter Cottontail. That, I believe, is one of the most commonly overlooked points by non-readers of the series.

Second, the witchcraft of Harry Potter acknowledges and celebrates Christian symbols such as Christmas. In this sense it is not real witchcraft in the books, but rather people with powers similar in ways to Superman or Captain America. There is no real qualitative difference between x-ray vision and the ability to see through walls using one of the "spells" in Harry Potter. They are both "super powers" in that sense. And nowhere in the entire series of books are spells referred to as some sort of prayer or a religious belief. They are treated like skills to be mastered, not doctrines to be incorporated into any sort of relationship with the universe, sacred or profane.

That makes Harry Potter somewhat of a special case because witchcraft has been clearly taken out of its original religious context. To that degree, it cannot proselytize for Wicca or any other pagan religion.

Just my thoughts. I am a fan of the books, but also a deeply conservative Christian. I don't see this as a Doctor Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde split. It's fun once in a while to read fantasy. That's all.
 
Do you not think it blurs the line between good and evil though? The way I see it is that the wizardry that Harry Potter uses himself is being used to fight another type of evil... basically just saying that the type Harry Potter uses is good and the other is not... when clearly both are wrong... just my opinion though
 
Let's please set down an understanding between us. There is no "force" of evil, only evil use of force. Satan was in the presence of God and he used the strength God gave him and the mind God gave him to eventually work against the Almighty. That is like your father giving you allowance money and you using it to do drugs. You take his own money to work against his will for your life and in doing so you invite destruction. Satan would be altogether flattered if you gave him credit for his power, but he is only misusing Daddy's credit card and he will have to pay the bill at the end of the month, TRUST ME ON THAT...the wages of SIN are DEATH. The belief in a separate power of evil is unchristian and comes from zoroastrian dualism or gnostic dualism. Look in John 1. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among men. All things were made through him and without him was nothing made. And that includes the so-called "forces of evil." There is no negative energy in the universe, only hatred and malice.
 
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Yes but we still have a choice to go God's way and not Satan's way... there's 2 very different paths we could take...

Satan is a separate entity, and he doesn't glorify God, so he's a separate force... regardless of where the evil originated from

I agree that God created everything, but the lack of God or lack of obedience to God made way for evil... which is very definitely a force

why else would the Bible talk about the battle between God and the devil so much...? Why would God be fighting against something which came 'from Him'?
 
For the same reason David fought against Absalom. And Absalom did not possess an opposing force, just an army of misguided people.
 
Lillee said:
Have you read any of the Harry Potter books in the series yet? if you haven't then you wouldnt have known that there where any scary things in them. BUT if you have, you would know that Harry Potter himself is not evil. The books were written for small children. They are good fiction books. J.K Rowling does an extrodinary job of telling of another land that is make believe. like most stories there is usually a good guy and a bad guy. and yes bad guys are scary. for instance:
Does the white witch scare you in the Narnia books? is she evil? and should we not let small children read those books?
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Actually, the books weren't written for small children.
They are marketed towards children.

-Austin
 
she-elfwarrior19 said:
I voted Harry Potter for as follows reasons:

~I hate it
~I think its witchcraft and to me witchcraft is evil.
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what a shame to be so narrow minded. oh well too each is own.
 
Young children i dont think would be reading the HP books because they are so long, but would want to see the movies because of the wasy the are advertised on TV and in mags etc. and the influence of older siblings would encourage them, but in my opinion the HP movies arent as bad as the books in themselves, the movies arent as gorey as JK Rowling describes in the book.
Narnia is a different cause because in a way it is in christain terms like Asland being Jesus and Edmund as Judas, and the White Wistch as, in someways, the devil tempting Edmund with Turish Delights......
Lord of the Rings is the same, but parents would probably not allow little children to see LOTR is the cinema because of its content, but they may allow the kids to watch it on dvd at home, because its a very different atmosphere ie. you can skip through parts you dont think are suitbale and can turn it off if you dont want to see it without wasting a whole lot of money on the cinema prices.

Hannah :)
 
It's my belief all are fantasy stories and can be enjoyed as such. In the HP Fantasy world, there are people, as Chakal says, a separate specied of people, who are gifted with magic. There are people like them in the other fantasy stories: Gandalf and Saruman (one good and one evil), for instance. Because they practice magic in a fantasy world doesn't make the books evil.

Some people say HP is more evil because children are learning to practice magic whereas Gandalf (and, apparently Saruman) were created (like angels) with the magical power, so magic is okay for them but not for humans. But then we have Lucy in VDT reading spells (and being heartily thanked for it by the Duffers) and Dr. Cornelius in PC doing some small magic -- neither of them was created like an angel, a magical being. They are humans (or half-humans) who learned to do magic, same as HP ...

It's all a fantasy. And as long as parents monitor what their kids read and discuss it with them, there is no danger.

And if you say the dividing line is that Narnia has Christian symbolism and HP does not, you are mistaken. You can find Christian symbolism in HP. Harry's mother laid down her life for her child, just as Christ said, greater love has no one than this. Harry was scarred by his encounter with evil as a baby: a lightning bolt scar on his forehead. Jesus said he saw Satan fall like lightning. In early church symbols, the stag was a symbol of Christ (after St. Eustace encountered a stag with the crucified Savior in its horns). In HP, the patronus which protects Harry from the dementors is a stag. There's more ...
 
Harry Potter is evil because the magic in it is bad and is said to be OK. Chronicles of Narnia, the books at least, are good because the GOOD magic is said to be GOOD, and the BAD magic is said to be BAD. I don't know about Lord of the Rings beacase I've never read it.
 
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