What do folks think of harry potter films? I've only seen snippets of the first one. but I must say the previews seem quite beautiful visually. I sure seems odd that sorcery for kids is so popular. Could this and the easy access for so many dark things on the internet be a route for bondage for young people? It sounds very ugly to me.
Doug,
The Harry Potter films present the public with a hodge-podge of modern Wiccan practices and medieval ideas about Witchcraft. All the nonsense about broom riding, wand wiggling, talking pictures and so on is, IMHO, just fun and games. No man or boy who ever fell off his bicycle seat onto the crossbar could possibly believe in broom riding. :rofl:
Quiddage is just not possible, in any world.
On the other hand the movies are heavily laced with Wiccan practices and beliefs. Most folks think that Wicca and Witchcraft are the same thing. However, they are not. Wicca is a modern religion of fairly recent origin. It has its roots in a Hindu-Monistic worldview where reality can be altered by powerful minds or special verbal formulas known only to specially trained folks.
Medieval Witchcraft (to whatever degree it ever was actually practiced) was sort of an anti-religion, where people made pacts with the Devil who then would assign them demons to empower their spells and potions. The ideas about black masses, human sacrifices, baby's blood and such came into our culture from this "stream". You had to actually believe in the Christian teaching on Satan to believe in this, since it was so much involved in a reversal of Christian ideas.
Pagan sorcery, which is the subject of so many OT and NT condemnations and prohibitions was based in Polytheism. People believed in many gods and various subordinate powers and had a wide variety of practices designed to attract their aid or send trouble to others. Much of the content of Ephesians and Colossians is designed to free the early Christians of their fear of or temptation to dabble in this stuff.
One thing all of these have in common is that they are all forms of sorcery. Sorcery is absolutely forbidden in the scriptures and severe warnings are frequent. Revelation 21:8 comes to mind.
So, I suppose that the Harry Potter movies effect on people depends on what they do with them. I have seen a couple of them. Viewed as entertaining fantasies they are just that. But there is a real fascination with the occult in the modern world, and I would not wish to influence any child into going down that route.
I did some reading in the link you provided to the Christianity Today blog. One author told of his having been completly fascinated by the supernatural realm as a boy, reading many books, going to movies, playing games. He says that finally these "imaginary" beings in his head began actually talking to him! He was from a Christian background, and cried out to God for deliverance. He is definitely not in favor of HP books and movies now.
The CT blog also said that Rowling receives a large volume of mail that shows that many accept the movies as factual. She gets many letters begging her to tell them how to enroll in the Hogwarts School!!
Tom Maddux
