(If a handful of televised preachers can say that they speak for all of us, why can't I?)
I'm reading the Harry Potter series, again, for the I-don't-know-how-manyeth time. I'm nearing the end of book 5, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. As it continues to challenge my faith and light up my imagination in new ways, I'm reminded of the controversy that once unnecessarily surrounded this series and my blood boils once again.
This delightful series was accused of influencing children toward evil, encouraging them to make poor choices and dragging them away from faith in God in favor of faith in magic. It could not have been more misunderstood. The magic is engaging and clever, but that's not what has kept me reading (and re-reading) the series. The characters, who feel like old friends, guide me through scenarios that force me to imagine what I would do if I had to choose, as each one of them eventually must, between what is right and what is easy. I must imagine whether I would choose faith in Dumbledore, who offers reckless second chances to dangerous people, or try to make my own way. Would I use fire to fight fire? Would the end justify the means? Would I save my own skin? Would I follow the authorities into unethical action? You must see that these themes cause people to grow, not shrink, their faith.
As events unfold, characters take every path. Some choose evil, some choose good, some choose denial, some choose power, some choose fear. It's the complexities that make this fictional story so very true.
So I am here to say, as a card-carrying Evangelical Christian, thank you J.K. Rowling. Thank you for Harry and Ron and Hermione and Hagrid and Dumbledore and the Weasleys and Dobby and all of the complicated choices that you've laid bare in such a beautiful way for me and everyone else who reads these books. Each time I read them I leave, not just entertained, but different. And even a little better, I think.
2 comments:
Thank you for so perfectly stating the many things I've felt about not only the Harry Potter series but many of the books that the "Evangelical Right" feel are unduly influencing young people. The thing that we must remember that we need to encourage kids to read and flex their imaginations because this will influence them in the future to be more imaginative.
Well said, Alyssa! Anyone who could find these books to be offensive or corrosive to their faith needs to re-examine said faith, as it's not strong enough. I, too, am drawn to the choices the characters make and the roles some are willing to bear for the greater good (read Snape).
Children must learn to imagine, internalize, think, and choose for themselves, with guidance from their parents and leaders. When we remove the element of choice, we take away the very moral agency that is God's greatest gift to us.
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