Harry Potter works for Satan

I was browsing about the Internet the other day, and I came a across a site (I will not link to it, since I fear it will only do damage to the Kingdom of God for others to read it) that purported to be about the business of God by exposing all of the ways that Satan was trying to claim the souls of America's youth. The top contenders were Dungeons and Dragons ("Was this posted in the 80's?" I thought to myself), Pokemon, Teletubbies and Harry Potter. Especially Harry Potter.

First off, I don't want to imply that the authors of this site are not really Christians. I have no problem believing that they are. I do want to imply, however, that they are very misguided in interpreting the risks to our youth that this culture holds.

I remember when The Empire Strikes Back came out in 1980. Many Christians (my parents among them) debated whether or not their children should be allowed to see it. They had heard of this "Yoda" figure who brought in a lot of "New Age" philosophy that could entice their children to the occult. "Ghostbusters" was an easier call, it was clearly making light of supernatural forces and playing with fire: my brother and I did not see it. And did you know that Papa Smurf was a sorcerer?

More recently, I've heard the same issues raised about Harry Potter. Christians that I know and respect have raised the question of whether or not it is unwise to allow our children (or ourselves, for that matter) to be entertained by a tale that features heroes that use supernatural powers as they fight against their enemies. Is it a doorway to the Occult for our youth?

Well, let me first say that I have since seen The Empire Strikes Back (I actually did get to see it in 1980... thanks, Mom and Dad!), Ghostbusters (and Ghostbusters II, which I wish I hadn't for reasons having nothing to do with the Occult), and have read and enjoyed all five Harry Potter books (and seen the movies) and am eagerly awaiting the next one. This post is not, however, primarily about why I think that's okay. It's about whether or not this supposed threat is actually the biggest danger posed by our culture against the minds and souls of our children, and whether or not our efforts might not be better directed elsewhere.

The American church has of late (like, the last 25 years or so) been intent on labeling "evil" and fighting to keep it out of our lives, an endeavor that I think is worthwhile in principle, but too often handled poorly when it comes to execution. A lot of that has been in the political arena, with our nation's enemies being labeled "evil empires" or part of an "axis of evil," but that's not what this post is about. Another source of evil has been in the realm of personal morality, which has been highlighted in a few hot-button issues like abortion, euthenasia and homosexuality. I'm not writing about that either. I'm writing about the evil that we perceive to be the direct work of Satan and his demons. These rather overt manifestations of evil include Satanists, witchcraft, "New Age" style spiritualism, and good old fashioned demon possession.

I think that these concerns are actually valid, because I believe that the devil and demons are real, and that they actually want to separate us from God and his people (if you don't believe in them, then the rest of this post will sound like lunatic fringe raving. Feel free to continue reading, however, as most lunatics tend to be more entertaining than threatening!). I don't agree, however, that the overt manifestations of witchcraft and the occult are the primary dangers our kids face. If you've read The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, you might anticipate where I'm going with this. If not, keep reading.

We have to remember that the main objective of these fallen beings is to separate us from God, not to garner our direct worship and service as witches or Satanists. In The Screwtape Letters, Lewis invents an older demon mentoring his younger subordinate on the most effective ways to accomplish this goal. Not surprisingly, it is a lot easier to distract someone from God with something seemingly innocuous and even "good" than it is to convert them to cat-sacrificing, robe-wearing Druids.

As I read Harry Potter, I'm less concerned that kids will take away from it a desire to master the art of magic and wield power over their enemies with a wand and a pseudo-latin phrase. I think that most kids recognize this as fantasy, and are probably less convinced of the reality of the supernatural than many Christians are. The things that do concern me are far more subtle. Harry and his friends operate under the classic American (ironic, since the author is British) cultural mantra: "believe in yourself and you can do anything." When things get tough for Potter and his gang, they find that the adults and authority around them are unable to help them, and they have to rely on themselves to save the day. And, guess what, they do! They're always able to muster up whatever strength of will is necessary to strike down evil, and the message we receive is that you already have everything you need inside you, you just have to believe. This is the same message our kids hear from Disney (and Dreamworks, even in Biblical-themed films!), from Saturday morning cartoons, from after-school specials, and even in parent-teacher conferences at school (not to mention some preachers on TV). It is a sin against our national faith-in-self to acknowledge ourselves as needy in any way, and a far greater sin to teach our children that they are in fact limited and unable to even understand what they ought to want for their future, let alone achieve it by mere human effort.

The forces of American culture that are the biggest danger for our children are not those that would turn them away from God and toward Satan. Rather, they are the forces that would turn them away from God and in on themselves (Of course, this is what Satan does, too; look at how he tempted Eve). Satan doesn't need to make people witches, he just has to let them become "good Americans" and he doesn't have to work all that hard to make it happen, since it's what we start doing to our kids even before they're born.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is good news because we are desperately needy. It's not for nothing that Jesus said the rich would have an easier time getting a camel through a needle's eye than getting into heaven. It's not that they're evil, they're just insulated by their wealth from seeing themselves as needy in any way. Our children are being raised to surround themselves with resources to prevent them ever having to trust anyone but themselves for their well-being. Unfortunately, that includes God.

How are we doing this? Well, how do we make decisions about our children's education? Do they need to get into a good pre-school so they'll do well in kindergarten and (at least in San Francisco) get into the right middle schools and high schools to get into the right college to get the right job to never have to worry about anything? Have we taught them not to worry about tomorrow because God will care for them, or have we taught them to worry about the big test tomorrow because your future depends on it? What would it be like if we went into parent teacher conferences and were less concerned about their slipping grades in math than in how well they treated their peers during recess? What if we didn't ask about GATE placement or honors classes as much as about their generosity and kindness? What message are we sending our kids when we talk about their education? I have the feeling that most of them get the idea that the most important thing they can do before going to bed is to finish a report for school on the Middle East, not pray for the people living there.

How about subtler messages? Every commercial we see on TV tells us that we deserve ________. Our children get the message every day that simply wanting something equals being entitled to it. If things don't go the way we want them to, we feel like something is wrong and somebody needs to fix it (or get sued). This attitude is a luxury of the rich, and is not shared by the vast majority of the world's population. A culture that feels it's entitled to have everything go it's way is incapable of gratitude. But without gratitude, how can we embrace the gospel? Entitlement denies grace, and grace is the heart of the gospel.

Perhaps the subtlest message comes from the psychoanalyzing of our culture. We've discovered that just about everything we do wrong is the result of some wrong committed against us in the past, and we're hard pressed to accept responsibility for any of our actions. We're tremendously fragile beings, and we can't help but act out what with the ways we were scarred and manipulated all of our lives. We are the victims of our childhoods, and our life is not about the consequences of our choices being played out, it is about being swept away by the choices made by others which for which we bear no responsibility. How can we embrace the Gospel as good news if the sin that needs to be forgiven is wholly the sin of other people? God's love is meaningless if we are not needy and desperate sinners, and that's exactly what our culture is telling us we are not.

We don't need to be afraid of Harry Potter and the Smurfs turning our kids into witches and warlocks nearly as much as we need to be afraid of our culture turning them into good Americans. The gospel knows nothing of independence, only utter dependence on God and interdependence among his church, and freedom in the Gospel is found in becoming slaves to Christ and one another. The self-reliant individual that is the archetypal American is found nowhere in the Bible; there is only a new people given a new identity and called to live life together. The greatest danger to our children is to grow up learning from everyone around them that the culture of America and the counter-culture of the church are compatible, because they're not. America will not make our kids Satan-worshippers, but it will make them self-worshippers, and both roads lead to the same end.

-"Oh, ho ho! You sly dog! You caught me monologuing!"