harry potter

Heather Brady 7-07-2022
A young child reading 'Harry Potter and the half blood prince' dressed up as Harry Potter

A young child dressed up as Harry Potter reads Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. James Boardman / Alamy

I was in elementary school when the first Harry Potter books were published in the United States. At the time, I was a painfully shy and awkward child; I treasured my library card and found solace in the stacks of books I carried home from our local branch. Though I was a prime target for a sensational new children’s book series, my parents — like the rest of our fundamentalist Baptist church — deemed anything about witchcraft inappropriate reading for good Christian children.

Layton E. Williams 8-09-2016

Image via Karen Roe/Flickr

In this new tale, Harry is a little bored, a little uninspired, and a little wistful for the good old days. A decade or so into my own adulthood and a few difficult years into ministry, advocacy, and activism, I have also struggled a bit with the transition from childhood adventure to the mature, painstaking reality of real work of justice.

Juliet Vedral 12-15-2015

Image via /Shutterstock.com

But perhaps the reason why the darkness cannot understand or overcome the Light is because it will not and cannot imagine reducing itself or condescend to be like its enemy in order to overcome it. Scripture describes an adversary who wanted to be like God, but doesn’t seem to understand that God’s very nature is “gentle and humble and heart.” The nature of darkness is not a generous one. It doesn’t offer light or heat or allow other things to grow. It isolates.

A man reading the Bible in church. Photo courtesy of Magdalena Kucova via Shutterstock

Three out of 10 British children have next to no understanding of the Bible and their parents aren’t that knowledgeable, either.

survey released Friday by the Bible Society, founded in 1804 to spread knowledge about the Scriptures, said most boys and girls aged 8 to 15 years old did not know that Adam and Eve, Noah’s Ark, or Jesus’ birth were rooted in the Bible.

More than a third of the 800 children surveyed did not know that David and Goliath and the story of the Good Samaritan were Bible tales.

Joshua Witchger 6-26-2012

Perhaps you’ve tried to circle the rim of a wine glass with your finger to create some high pitched tones (often times I’d be scolded for doing it in restaurants). Well, in this video, you can take a look at a rendering of “Hedwig’s Theme,” one of the most recognizable scores from the Harry Potter series, performed on a plethora of wine glasses. There’s no telling how this person stumbled upon this idea, or what potion lies in the water glasses, but if you’re a fan of Harry Potter and quirky music, do yourself a favor and press play below.   

Steve Bisset 3-01-2012

Harry Potter is no Gandhi. Though Bill Wylie-Kellermann (“Harry and the Principalities,” November 2011) believes that Harry “never kills anyone,” the whole mission of book seven was to find and destroy Horcruxes, parts of Tom Riddle’s (Voldemort’s) soul.  Harry is not opposed to the use of force, even if it reluctantly leads to his enemy’s demise.                       

Steve Bisset
Laurel, Maryland

Julie Clawson 1-24-2012

Beyond the typical objections that the Harry Potter books will turn children into Satan-worshipers and encourage them to disrespect authority, one mom complained that she found it inappropriate that at Hogwarts food magically appears on the table at mealtime. Her argument was that she wants her children to have a good work ethic and not to believe that anything in life is free. She wanted her girls to know that preparing meals is hard work and so would therefore be sheltering them from this absurd depiction of people getting something for nothing.

I think at the time I had to restrain myself from asking if she also banned her kids from hearing the story of the feeding on the 5,000 in Sunday school, but it was hard not to think about her objection a few months later as I read The Goblet of Fire and its subplot about house elves. As it revealed, food does not magically appear on the tables at Hogwarts, it is prepared by hardworking elves who in the wizarding world are generally kept as slaves.

The 10-year pop culture love affair with Harry Potter leaves questions at the crux.

Danielle Tumminio 9-28-2011
If older generations paint morality in black and white, young people's palettes are disappointingly grey.
Jeannie Choi 7-15-2011

Oatmeal chocolate chip cookiesphoto © 2009 Ted Major | more info (via: Wylio)Here's a little round up of links from around the Web you may have missed this week:

  • The changing face of AIDS.