The American Family Association is going nutsy with its anti-Hogwarts op-ed spree:
It is no coincidence that a Christian ministry has updated its comic book parody of the “Harry Potter” series in time for the latest Potter movie and book releases. Evangelist Tim Todd, who heads up Revival Fires International, says both the church and the secular world need to understand the danger for children and teens in embracing occult literature.
Todd acknowledges that no book series in recent years has achieved the success of the “Harry Potter” series, which he describes as well-written — but whose spiritual nature and philosophy is in opposition to scripture, he points out. Many young readers, he surmises, are often simply drawn to the drama and fantasy of the Potter series, without realizing the spiritual nature of the books.
“The Harry Potter books present a Godless universe — one in which the most powerful wizard wins,” says the evangelist. “And in these books, the hero is a wizard who shows no evidence of belief in God and does not use the power of prayer to combat evil.”
I don’t want to issue any spoilers for people who haven’t finished reading all the Harry Potter books, but I think it’s fair to say that Tim Todd either hasn’t read the Harry Potter books, or hasn’t read them openly. It’s not just that statements like “the most powerful wizard wins” are inaccurate, but also that there are loads and loads of Christian images and ideas and characters in the book. In my opinion, the last book is the most Christian of them all, right down to the… oh, I can’t tell you, right?
I don’t understand how fundamentalists can embrace the Narnia series with all its magic, and wands, and so on, but have a problem with the messianic Potter series.
Have you seen it, too?
Yeah, I found the last book felt rather religious too… It was pretty mediocre and dull if you ask me, which is a shame, along with the silly things in it that I won’t mention here on account of spoilers.
Still, I guess he just wanted something to complain about.
“understand the danger for children and teens in embracing occult literature”
Occult Literature huh … like that book, uhh, whats it called , draws all its premises from obscure astrological signs, you know, just a bunch of weird zodiacal references and some mythology. Ohhh, I remember the b’ something, hmmm the babble , nooo , the babel, nope, the beeble … Ohhh … what is it …
As for myself, I found that there were some places where you could interpret the symbolism as Christian, if you wanted to, but it wasn’t as clumsy and over the top as with The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Really, looking back at those books, I think that the Christian agenda is the only reason they’re still in print. The stories are actually ham handed.
The whole thing about Harry hiding under the invisibility cloak even as he worked in mysterious ways, helping people, until his second coming in which he triumphed over evil, and the King’s Cross station scene over and over and over mentioned with a HM by Dumbledore, combined with the Trinity nonsense that just didn’t fit in the plot at all – these items were certainly over the top, and made me roll my eyes. That stuff wasn’t in the other books and was unnecessary to the plot – did Rowling decide to shove them in in a fit of piety?