10 Arguments Against Harry Potter and Refutations
by Wednesday
I found this list at lifesitenews.com. I think the author is highly ignorant of the series; it’s obvious that she’s never read the books. Below, I refute all the points she makes.
1. Harry Potter is a global long-term project to change the culture. In this generation of youths, inhibitions against magic and the occult are being destroyed. Thus, forces re-enter society which Christianity had overcome.
The Harry Potter series has no intention of “changing culture.” The large success the book has seen comes largely from the engaging story and its appeal to all ages. “Inhibitions against magic and the occult” are rarely seen in any generation and cannot be attributed to any one cause. Christianity has never been able to fully overcome magic and the occult in society, and in any case, Harry Potter has little to nothing to do with that.
2. Hogwarts, the school of magic and witchcraft, is a closed world of violence and horror, cursing and bewitching, racist ideology, blood sacrifice, disgust, and obsession. There is an atmosphere of continuous threat, which the young reader cannot escape.
The “violence and horror” presented within Hogwarts itself is usually fairly harmless and is the result of young, immature wizards being packed together in a small, microcosmic environment. True violence and horror at Hogwarts only occur when the school is taken over by a) corrupt politicians from the Ministry of Magic, or b) Death Eaters and Voldemort himself.
3. While Harry Potter appears, in the beginning, to fight against evil, in fact, the similarities between him and Voldemort, the arch-evil adversary in the tale, become more and more obvious. In volume five, Harry is possessed by Voldemort, which leads to symptoms of personality disintegration.
This point most likely comes out of ignorance to details in the book. Harry Potter’s soul is infested with a piece of Voldemort’s which is why he has similar powers to Voldemort (such as the ability to speak Parseltongue). This also accounts for the connection between their two minds. But even if their souls weren’t connected, personality disintegration can easily arise from the knowledge that someone whom you thought was dead is alive and well again – someone who murdered your parents, is actively murdering other people and wants to murder you as well.
4. The human world becomes degraded; the world of witches and sorcerers becomes glorified.
The human world is only “degraded” by the sick, evil, racist forces of the Death Eaters and Voldemort. Whether or not the world of wizardry is “glorified” is debatable; and in any case, it’s the main world of the story.
5. There is no positive transcendent dimension. The supernatural is entirely demonic. Divine symbols are perverted.
This point again seems to arise out of complete ignorance to facts of the story. There is in fact a sort of heaven presented in Harry Potter. Wizards have two options when they die: those particularly connected to the world that cannot bear to leave it stay as ghosts (“imprints of a departed soul”), and those that are ready to “move on” do so; granted, this is not explained thoroughly in the books but is deliberately left mysterious and to the reader’s imagination. Supernatural forces – (it is hard to determine what the author means by “supernatural” here, but I assume ghosts and such) – are sometimes, but not always evil, which is true of the real world. Whether they like it or not, the author can admit that demonic spirits do exist in the real world, spirits that follow Satan’s bidding. I have as yet not noticed any divine symbols appear in the world of Harry Potter, either in the movies or the books. Important symbols that appear in the books include Harry’s scar and the sign of the Deathly Hallows. Harry’s scar is the shape of a lightning bolt, which is never used consistently to mean one certain thing in the occult and is harmless. As for the sign of the Deathly Hallows, it is admittedly similar to the 17th-century symbol for Alchemy. However, the sign is clearly explained in the book and each of its elements is given a clear meaning which makes the symbol as a whole unrelated to the Alchemy symbol.
6. Harry Potter is no modern fairy tale. In fairy tales, sorcerers and witches are unambiguous figures of evil and the hero escapes their power through the exercise of virtue. In the Harry Potter universe there is no character that endeavors consistently to achieve good. For seemingly good ends evil means are being used.
Unless the author considers other series written by Christian authors that involve good wizards (Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings) not fairy tales, this statement could not be any more untrue. Sorcerers and witches, while not always main characters, often play important and mentor-like roles in fairy tales. If being a wizard is automatically evil, then yes, no character in Harry Potter ever endeavors to be good. However, the series clearly presents its main characters (witches and wizards!) as good role models who show courage in the face of evil. “Evil means” are never used by Harry in his quest to defeat true evil, Voldemort (though it is probably important to note that he does occasionally give in to using Dark Magic in the most desperate of situations).
7. A (young!) reader’s power of discernment of good and evil is blocked out through emotional manipulation and intellectual confusion.
The fact that good and evil characters both have the same capabilities only strengthens the reader’s sense of good and evil, especially in young readers. They begin to recognize the difference between good and bad motives instead of associating specific actions with “good” and others with “bad,” which fosters an incorrect “black-and-white” understanding of good and evil.
8. It is an assault upon this generation of youth, seducing it playfully into a world of witchcraft and sorcery, filling the imagination of the young with images of a world in which evil reigns, from which there is no escape, on the contrary, it is portrayed as highly desirable.
Every child wants to make believe that there are other special powers out there. When I was young, I loved the movie The Little Mermaid and used to always pretend that I could become a mermaid. Was it dangerous to my upbringing? I don’t think so. I always knew that such beings didn’t exist; but again, children love to pretend. This doesn’t cause any ill effects on our children.
9. Those who value plurality of opinion should resist the nearly overwhelming power of this peer pressure, which is being accomplished through a gigantic corporate and multimedia blitz – one which displays elements of totalitarian brainwashing.
Does it matter whether a child is “pressured” into discovering the Harry Potter series? If the books inspire a child to read more, it only increases their intelligence and understanding of the world around them – reading is important for our children’s future and should be fostered at a young age. If Harry Potter can get our children into reading, all the better for our society.
10. Since through the Potter books faith in a loving God is systematically undermined, even destroyed in many young people, through false “values” and mockery of Judeo-Christian truth, the introduction of these books in schools is intolerant. Parents should refuse permission for their children to take part in Potter indoctrination for reasons of faith and conscience.
When I see the numbers to back up the claim that Harry Potter destroys faith in young people, I’ll believe it. I attended private Christian schools from preschool all the way through my high school education and have never seen a single case where the series has “destroyed” the faith of my schoolmates. If parents wish to deprive their children of a wonderful series, they have the right to do so and no one is stopping them. However, I would advise against it.
