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Q&A Home > H > Harry Potter There are 7 questions in this category.
- Although Harry Potter seems to conflict somehow with the Orthodox dogma; can not our children enjoy watching it as a fun program like any other fun programs; knowing for sure that one day they will outgrow those characters just like all other fiction characters; for example Santa Clause and Easter Bunny? Or is there something about Harry Potter’s films and books more serious which I am not aware of?
- How could the Coptic Church people conclude that Harry Potter is bad without having read the books? The movies show a very small portion of the books themselves.
- I don't understand why it is so wrong to watch Harry Potter's movie if we watch it with the conviction and understanding that it is simply fiction.
- I read Your Grace's article "Who is Harry Potter" and I actually would like to read the book for myself. Is it appropriate if I read it? My understanding is that Harry Potter is a good magician trying to overcome bad magic with good sorcery.
- Regarding Harry Potter, I was taught that we should not read it or watch the movies because the book is based on wizards and magic and the Bible tells us in the Book of Deuteronomy and in other places to abstain from anything related to sorcery and magic.
Recently, one servant stood against this in our servants? meeting. She was saying we should let our children expand their minds through literature (with which I do not disagree), but then, she specifically mentioned Harry Potter (she also is a mother of one of the boys in the Sunday school class that I teach).
Her defense for Harry Potter was is as follows:
1) You are able to find Christ and the story of salvation in the book. If we train our children right, they can see the salvation story and our redemption in any book, including Harry Potter.
2) While growing up, Pope Shenouda read many kinds of literature and secular books, and he would read many different kinds of genre, including 'some which we might see as surprising' (I am not sure what the servant meant by this). She mentioned that Pope Shenouda memorized poems that were secular etc. She also mentioned Fr. Pishoy Kamel as being a literature major.
3) There is a book like the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, which has a fairytale perspective, but C.S. Lewis is a Christian writer who literally put the salvation story in a fairytale format with the lion representing Christ and dying and coming back to life. If we condemn Harry Potter, why not this book as well?
What is the Church?s view of this whole matter?
- What is wrong with Harry Potter?
- Why is Your Grace not in favor with all the classic Fairy tales, all of which do not have the elements that a caring parent would not allow their child to be exposed to?
Black Magic - Cinderella, Snow White, Little Mermaid, Something Wicked this way comes.
Magic - All of them but Oliver Twist
Children (or young adults) in peril - All of them
Children subject to cruelty from their caregivers - Cinderella, Snow White, Oliver Twist
Children overcoming evil with the caveat that the 'Where the Wild Things Are', the evil is the little boy's own bad behavior. This list of course does not include, but it could Peter Pan, Wizard of Oz, Pinocchio and other stories by Hans Anderson and Brothers Grimm.
It seems to me that the main themes tying these books together are: Your choices have consequences that you may not predict, so be careful of the choices you make, since you will have to live with the outcome. Overwhelming evil can be resisted and overcome if one has faith in their convictions, does not give up, and/or is willing to make the sacrifices necessary to keep evil from spreading.
You are what you make yourself, blaming your shortcomings on circumstances of birth and rearing is a cop-out. Your inner strength and willingness to make your own opportunities will determine what you become, not where you were born, or how you were treated.
Keep in mind that most classic stories were originally told to children as teaching aids. They taught values, personal responsibility etc.
Like it or not, Harry Potter is already one of the new classics. And as a long, long time fan of children's classics, I assure you, it is not going to fade with time. There are NO elements in the series that have not been in classic children's literature for centuries.
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