Response: Wicked Witchcraft?

This is a response to an blog post by Oh My Blog!

What an interesting read! I had never thought to deeply analyze the meaning of death in Harry Potter, even though it is evidently one of its most prevalent themes. J.K. Rowling, the author, validated this in a 2006 interview: "My books are largely about death. They open with the death of Harry's parents. There is Voldemort's obsession with conquering death and his quest for immortality at any price, the goal of anyone with magic. I so understand why Voldemort wants to conquer death. We're all frightened of it."

Although most of their subject matter is condemned by the Christian society, interestingly enough, once one digs a little deeper, they are able to find an array of pro-Christian values in these books, especially ones regarding death. Rowling explicitly stated that Christianity was one of her inspirations in a 2007 article.
*(To be noted, the books are filled with an numerous amount of similarities to biblical stories. Example: Harry Potter is compared to Jesus by many scholars–he is pegged as the chosen through his actions: he overcomes temptation, fights evil with good and even undergoes resurrection.)

Magic, wizardry and witchcraft are all very dominant as topics throughout the series, however, like you said: "Even with all the power that these witches and wizards have to repair broken glasses and drinks to make them temporarily look like someone else, never should one use these powers to commit a crime against nature; killing is wrong, and even more so is the idea of bringing someone back from the dead." This has to advocate for some moral character? Like Dustin Kidd aimed to prove, although many groups find the matter and content in these books anti-Christian, they in fact illustrate a very Christian conception of the world. The power of evil, the triumph of love over bad, the essence of friendship, are all subjects that are dealt with in these novels. What I believe to be a very significant question in this debate, is why Christian groups have not attempted to alter the way in which they view these books solely due to their popularity and influence on the youth? A potential pro-Harry Potter attitude could be taken on by such groups and greatly increase the message clearly being sent out by Rowling.


On another completely different note, I wanted to point out the significant role Harry's archenemy, Voldemort, plays, from a Christian point of view. He draws a parallel with the devil! This is seen through many clues:
-He is known as, He-Shall-Not-Be-Named or The Dark Lord. This is similar to the hesitance today's society has when it comes to speaking of Satanic beings.
-He has a forked tongue in some of the movies and speaks Parseltongue (meaning he can converse with other serpents). This evidently symbolizes his being evil (snakes in culture, especially Christianity, are synonymous to evil) and his congruency to the devil figure.


Furthermore, relating to the past class, and the effect of monsters in popular culture, Voldemort is just another figure with whom people can drastically relate. This is seen through his name itself, which emphasizes the fright each one of us has of death- ‘Vol de mort’ is French for ‘flee from death.’ J.K.Rowling in a 2006 interview, mentioned that his worst fear in fact, was death.

Arina

Note: Here is an interesting article that exhibits a Christian's point of view in this debate.