BIBLICAL BRIEFS 80
I’m delighted that you’re already reading the Biblical Briefs whilst in primary school! Your question indicates that you have good insight, and are clearly intellectually and spiritually much more mature than your peers. There are two questions on the table. Firstly then – am I allowed to do something my parents do not approve of? Col. 3:20 clearly states: “Children, be obedient to your parents in all things…” Even though parents sometimes are not right in their judgment, it is still important to obey them. You also have the advantage of praying for them to come to understand what you feel might have been unreasonable judgement or behaviour. Secondly: The series of books with Harry Potter as the main character is selling millions of copies and adults are delighted that children are prompted to read again. Yet there are serious objections to so-called sorcery and anti-Christian events in the series. Critics even label it an encyclopaedia of Satanism, but this is a little far fetched. Anyone who wants to learn more about Satanism can find out on the Internet more easily than to follow Harry’s adventures as a postmodern wiz kid. Imagination and fantasy help children to symbolically identify with that which is universally good. Young readers have a great need to experience adventure, mystery, exciting new experiences, combat dangers and risks. They are naturally hooked by foreign countries and explorations in the unknown. The eccentricity of the world of magic and the discoveries that Harry makes in his fictional world assists the young reader to relate to him in these adventures. By identifying with the characters a young reader learn to handle unpredictability and change, how to creatively manage seemingly unsurmountable challenges, how to make moral choices and how to overcome emotional problems. The Harry Potter series helps readers to handle power, especially the sense of powerlessness that adults more than often cause in youngsters. Harry touches on many relevant themes, e.g. the authoritarian power of parents and educators, dealing with emerging sexuality, as well as death and mortality. Harry learns a discipline that is part of his formation and development into adulthood. The values presented in the books address the battle between good and evil, the importance of teamwork, the consequences of being at the wrong end of the law, anti-social behaviour, individual and collective moral responsibility and gender equality. The texts succeed in stimulating thoughts and generating new questions. Harry Potter learns the value of moral courage, forgiveness, honesty, modesty, compassion and simplicity in a technological and electronic world and in that to still celebrate the wonder of life. Concerned Christian parents can use the books as an opportunity to guide and equip their child to discern and handle the increasing acceptance of pagan practices in our culture. My favourite writer, G.K. Chesterton, explains that his journey to Christianity began with fantasy stories that taught him the world is “precious but puzzling, coherent but mysterious, full of unseen connections and decisive truths”. Learners should be exposed to this kind of literature because they have an ability to distinguish between reality and fantasy. They often experience the imaginative more orderly than reality because they know that it is not real. A lack of knowledge on the fantasy genre, as well as the fear of the unknown, causes fundamentalist groups to claim that the Harry Potter series is satanic in its core. Connie Neal’s ‘The Gospel According to Harry Potter’ is a balanced view to reassure parents regarding this book series. Two great Christian writers of fantasy literature, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis’s works are especially recommended in this genre. Lastly, be at peace, for demons cannot enter the reader/viewer by reading books and/or watching movies: “there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man” (Mark 7:15).
Dr Tom Gouws
