News Intelligence Analysis
Harry Potter and the Preachers’
Curses
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Can
the Books Be Read as a Manual on Political Warfare?
By
Katherine Yurica
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August
21, 2007
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Click to
view a Harry Potter
preacher’s
curse (From Jesus Camp)
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For we wrestle not against flesh and
blood, but against principalities, against
Powers, against the rulers of the darkness
of this world,
against
spiritual wickedness in high places.
Ephesians 6:12
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It fell upon America like a gentle summer rain from heaven, blessing the spirits of the young, refreshing the spirits of the old. It was twice blest. It blessed those who read the books literally and those who read them symbolically. Nevertheless some saw the publishing of the Harry Potter books as a threat to the churches, to institutions and to their drive for domination. While J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books have caused an inexplicable sense of elation to rise in the air—that very sense of liberty has so worried proponents of the new Domination Theology (as opposed to Liberation Theology) that for the first time in half a century book burnings came back.
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After all, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became the Pope, described Harry Potter as a potentially corrupting influence in 2005. In 2006, Father Gabriele Amorth, the Pope’s demonologist said, “Behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the devil.”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[1]
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Of course, Protestants have little popes who also deride and curse the Harry Potter books: in late 2001 Pat Robertson launched a full-scale assault on the books, warning, “God will turn his back on nations that tolerate witchcraft.”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[2] Lou Sheldon of Traditional Values Coalition, D. James Kennedy of the Coral Ridge Ministries joined the anti-Potter bandwagon, and some folks like Pastor Jack Brock of Almagordo, N.M. organized a mass Harry Potter book burning, while some school boards tried to impose restrictions upon students trying to read the books.<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[3]
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Add James Dobson to the list and Charles Colson, who praised Harry Potter in 1999 but has now changed his position saying, “Personally, I don’t recommend the Potter books. I’d rather Christian kids not read them.”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[4] What makes it worse, according to Google, there are 2.67 million web pages asserting, “Harry Potter is of the devil!”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[5]
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Even Christianity Today, an evangelical publication founded by Billy Graham, got in trouble for “endorsing Harry Potter.” A blogger wrote,
“It is sad and unfortunate that any ‘Christian’ or Christian organization would endorse such an evil invention as Harry Potter. The Bible clearly condemns any type of involvement with the wicked works of witchcraft.”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[6]
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Unfortunately that’s not exactly true, as the epigraph from Ephesians makes clear. We’re supposed to be engaged in wrestling with these powers; the Scripture assumes Christians’ participation in the war against the “rulers of darkness”—that’s involvement! And Harry Potter and his friends have joined the battle! The real question is—on which side are today’s churchgoers?
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Of course, my own computer expert summed up his attitude on Rowling’s books a few months ago when he told me, “I will never read a Harry Potter book because Rowling glorifies witchcraft.” That was news to me, and I had read every one of the Potter books (except the last one), and seen all the movies repeatedly.
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Rowling’s work has been compared to C. S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, and Rowling, herself, has said that she loved C. S. Lewis’ work so much that she decided to write seven volumes to match Lewis’ number.<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[7] Technically, Lewis did not create a secondary world held together with a consistent internal logic, however, Rowling did. As a result she is considered to be a master mythologist on the same level as J. R. R. Tolkien. Both Rowling and Tolkien have written epics, and there is a special name for the creative process that produces such a world: It’s called mythopoeia.<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[8]
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I have thought of J. K. Rowling as a genius and a Christian ever since I started reading her books. Yet I wondered if I was overlooking something.
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When in doubt I start by checking Webster’s Third New International dictionary to determine whether my understanding of key words is correct. There I found that witchcraft is a synonym for magic, and its first meaning is “an act or instance of employing sorcery especially with malevolent intent,” and includes supernatural powers such as “alleged intercourse with the devil or with a familiar.” The word “familiar” in turn means, “A supernatural spirit often embodied in an animal and at the service of a person.” Significantly, there are no familiars in Rowling’s books.<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[9] And never does she glorify evil or malevolent intent.
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Instead, the characters, led by Harry Potter and his friends, oppose malice, cruelty, and hatred. In fact, they fight defensively against the opposition leaders and combatants in a cultural and political war that spreads across the pages of Rowling’s seventh book like the dark shadow of the religious political and cultural war sweeping over America today.
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To forestall her critics, I wish Rowling had not called Hogwarts, a school of “Witchcraft and Wizardry.” I would have preferred her calling it just “Hogwarts,” or “Hogwarts School of Defensive Magic,” or even “Hogwarts School of Magic.” But the name isn’t important since it comes from the author’s consistent internal rules allotted to the world she has created. It’s important to make a distinction between Rowling’s world and the world we live in. Her invented world may resemble ours—but it is not our world—it is her invention, and the significant point here is that the school does not teach students malevolent magic. To the contrary, it expressly teaches “Defense Against the Dark Arts.”
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It is noteworthy to point out that the Minister of Magic, (similar to America’s president or Britain’s prime minister), at one point took drastic steps to curtail the teaching of the defensive warfare classes. His action was unreasoning and born in fear.<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[10]
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The students (as well as the citizens of Rowling’s world of magic) are prohibited from using three evil curses used as a matter of course by the malevolent villains. Casting any of the three curses without authorization could result in a life-sentence in the wizard’s prison at Azkaban. The three curses are the Killing Curse, the Cruciatus Curse (which immediately begins inflicting agony upon the victim) and the Imperius Curse (which places the victim under the mental control of the caster).
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Sadly, these acts exist as real curses in our world: murder is committed with all sorts of weapons. Torture is committed by any means, including water-boarding, deafening unremitting sound waves, light and sensory deprivation, beatings and electric shocks. Domination (or control) over others is practiced relentlessly in sick families, sick organizations, and regrettably, in sick churches.<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[11]
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All three of the curses violate biblical principles—even if they are only thought in one’s mind or spoken with one’s mouth. Perhaps Rowling’s most ingenious revelation is her vision of words as weapons. Jesus put it this way:
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“But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” (Matthew 15:18-19. And see Matthew 5:28 where adultery is committed solely by a mental thought.)
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As St. Paul tells the Ephesians, the battle facing Christians is spiritual, but nevertheless it is a battle that requires putting on “the whole armor of God.” <!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[12]
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J. K. Rowling teaches her readers how to fight defensively against the powers of wickedness in high places; she shows what armor to put on, starting with the shield of faith, which as her imagery reveals, is created by words, which in turn produce protective shields and “bubbles” that deflect assaults. She also shows how to wield the spiritual sword (which in her book is the wand).
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Consider this fact: Rowling empowers the spoken word by giving it life and death consequences. An incantation as a curse can kill, maim or injure, control, torture or stupefy another person, whereas another kind of incantation can strengthen, heal and protect someone. Hateful thoughts and words do have power, but Rowling shows that kind, loving and tender thoughts and words have the greater strength and might.
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In more than one instance in Rowling’s books, Harry Potter faces the Killing Curse and survives it. At one point Harry defeats the murdering Voldemort—not with a curse to kill back—not with deadly force—but with the simple word, “Expelliarmus,” which in Rowling’s world is a defensive command that disarms an enemy—forcing his wand to fly out of his hand.
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In short, she teaches us that we don’t have to have the largest arsenal of deadly weapons. We can fight a political war and never resort to evil. We can fight by using the power of words, language and terminology. She is not just correct, she is biblically correct!
The idea that words have power matches biblical passages; for instance, Jesus is quoted as saying, “The words I speak they are spirit and they are life.”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[13] In fact, John opens his Gospel equating the spoken “Word” as the originator, the very Accompaniment with God and the very essence of God. And there are other passages that show the Bible stresses the power of words. One of them is this: “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord...”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[14]
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Rowling also shows how each of the two warring sides use words. One side tells the truth and refrains from cursing others except in the direst of self-defense situations; the other side uses lies as a form of weaponry plus the curses that kill, maim and destroy. Normally priests and ministers try to convince their flocks to follow the Good path—(the path that Rowling shows Harry Potter has chosen)—and normally the churches proclaim that if one does make this choice—he/she is protected! Rowling repeatedly reinforces this message and shows us exactly how to do it. Moreover, Rowling has succeeded in creating metaphors for the triumph of love, faith, self-sacrifice and the power of kind words. In fact, like C.S. Lewis and Tolkien, she has incorporated basic Christian theology and concepts into her series of books and most people don’t yet realize it.
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The
Story of Cursing In the Church
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With which ye shall be able to quench
all the fiery darts of the wicked.
The biblical phrase, “all the fiery darts of the wicked,” supplies a basis for Rowling’s imagery. She describes a fiery light emitting from the ends of wands in duels and in battles. Lights flash, leaving a kind of contrail, they pass Harry as he dodges and ducks and tries to escape from his attackers time and time again. Rowling actually expands one’s understanding of St. Paul’s imagery.
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The question I want to raise, here, is whether or not the Bible envisions two kinds of curses—those from the good and those from the evil. The issue is important because there is a false teaching going around the web—that there is no such thing as stories of a good, moral person using “good” magic to overcome “evil magic” (or even fairy tales that utilize the idea of good magic versus evil magic.)<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[15]
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So in order to discover the truth, let’s begin with the fact that the Old Testament raises the question, “How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed?”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[16] The Scripture implies that in order for a curse to work, God must agree not only with the words of the curse but the target also. In the New Testament, Jesus tells us,
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“Ye have heard that it hath been said, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy’; but I say unto you, ‘Love your enemies, bless them that curse you…for if ye love them who love you, what reward have ye?”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[17]
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So the traditional view in the time of Jesus appears to be that it was okay to hate one’s enemies and it implies that curses were commonly used! But Jesus was changing the understanding of the consequences of cursing here. He seems to be introducing a new idea—that a reward is given to those who bless others instead of retaliating with the usual curse. It appears that hidden within the passage is a new secret: curses can and do kill—but a curse and its inherent hatred just might kill the one who curses whereas loving one’s enemy may render the enemy powerless.
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Consider how Rowling begins her epic. She tells the story<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[18] of how Harry’s mother died trying to protect her infant son—this is of course love and Rowling’s genius made the mother’s sacrifice carry a “charm” (or reward) of protection over him. So that when Voldemort, the horribly twisted villain of the series, tried to kill the baby with his curse, the curse backfired onto him. Harry did not die—but Voldemort was blasted almost out of existence. The curse boomeranged and hit him! Harry received, in an odd transaction, some of the power and soul-essence of the enemy who tried to kill him. This is a brilliant metaphor that should be kept in mind. It raises the question of which has the greater power: curses or love. It also raises another question—does the Bible authorize Christians to use curses? That question takes us here:
“If any
man preach any other gospel
unto you than that ye have received,
let him be accursed (anathema).”
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Perhaps, another visit to the dictionary will help us: A curse as a noun means, “a solemn pronouncement or invoking of doom or great evil on one: an imprecation for harm” or “any utterance marked by malediction or execration.” It also means “excommunication or anathema: formal and extreme church censure.” As a verb, it means “to utter words calculated to consign to great evil: assign to an evil fate.”
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The word “anathema,” on the other hand means “a ban or curse solemnly pronounced by ecclesiastical authority and accompanied by excommunication.” Excommunication was said to be the lightest of curses because it was reversible; however, anathema was the most severe because it was a permanent removal from the Church and from God.<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[19]
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The question is how do we explain the fact that St. Paul instructs Christians to curse false preachers? Let’s start with the historical use of curses in the church. During the medieval period, a particular kind of curse was utilized. It was called a “book curse” because it was inserted in manuscripts to ward off thievery. Here is an example of a book curse from the monastery of San Pedro in Barcelona, which reads:
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“For him that stealeth, or borroweth and returneth not, this book from its owner, let it change into a serpent in his hand and rend him. Let him be struck with palsy, and all his members blasted. Let him languish in pain crying out for mercy, & let there be no surcease to his agony till he sing in dissolution. Let bookworms gnaw his entrails… when at last he goeth to his final punishment, let the flames of Hell consume him forever.”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[20]
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The fact that the Catholic Church used curses as a protection against thieves, underlines the growth of self-defensive curses within the church itself. For St. Paul’s acceptance of a curse against false preachers implies that Paul believed God allows some curses, perhaps those with which He agrees.
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So the churches got into the self-defense cursing business; however, doesn’t St. Paul’s statement also imply that misleading a congregation with false doctrines is a grave crime not only against the church but also against God? Therefore if some curses are allowed and even required by the churches, on what grounds can religious organizations and churches attack an author who writes metaphorically about an act practiced and authorized by both the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Bible? Sorry folks, the cursing preachers are sinking in the quick sand of inconsistency, ignorance and false doctrine.
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On
Parables, Fairy Tales and Modern Stories
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From the power of darkness and
Hath translated us into the
Kingdom of his dear son.
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When examining the origins of Rowling’s work, one must return to the Bible again and again. For example, the word “translated” in the quote above from the King James Version is used only four times in the entire Bible. But two of the usages occur in the book of Hebrews (11:5) where the Old Testament patriarch’s history is boiled down to this:
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“By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.”
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Today the verb still means, “to bear, remove, or change from one place or condition to another: transport, transfer, or convey.” While I cannot say whether Rowling knew the verse or not, her religious critics need to be made aware of it. Rowling invented a word that means to “translate.” Her word is probably derived from “apparition,” which means, “someone or something unusual or unexpected that appears,” hence her words are “disapparate” (to disappear) and “apparate” (to reappear somewhere else). The significance of it is simply this—the concept did not originate in witch lore, but in the Bible. In fact, we know Rowling uses the Bible to enhance her points. There are two passages from the New Testament in Deathly Hallows that appear to hold prophetic hints for Harry, if he could only discern their meanings:
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This brings us to the origination of fables and parables and fairy tales. Take a look at the uses Jesus made of parables and consider also the wisdom of hiding or occulting their meanings. It’s a fact that Jesus often spoke in parables to his disciples and to the crowds that followed him. When his disciples asked why he did so, he explained that some things must remain occult mysteries and be kept from the masses.<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[23]
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So what is a parable? The word is defined by Webster’s Third New International Dictionary as “a short fictitious story that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle” as in “relating the parable of the prodigal son.” A fable is defined as “a narration intended to enforce some useful truth or precept; especially one in which animals and even inanimate objects speak and act like human beings.” On the other hand, a fairy tale is defined as “a simple narrative dealing with supernatural beings (as fairies, magicians, ogres, dragons) that is typically of folk origin and written or told for the amusement of children.”
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One of the problems Christians have who defend the Harry Potter stories is that most American Christians do not now and never have studied the Bible. They haven’t read it. They don’t know it. And they don’t have the intellectual skills to understand it. That’s why they are so easily led astray. Let’s look at three fantastic fictional stories:
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1. “There were once three brothers who were traveling along a lonely, winding road at twilight—
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“In time, the brothers reached a river too deep to wade through and too dangerous to swim across….so they simply…made a bridge …across the treacherous water…And Death spoke to them…and said that each had earned a prize for having been clever enough to evade him.”
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[The three brothers each asked for an object they desired and it was granted. However, the first two brothers were caught and taken by Death.] The youngest brother, however, asked for “something that would enable him to go forth from that place without being followed by Death.” [And Death gave him what he asked for.]
“But though Death searched for the third brother for many years, he was never able to find him. It was only when he had attained a great age that the youngest brother….took off the prize and gave it to his son. And then he greeted Death as an old friend and went with him gladly, and, equals, they departed this life.”<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]>
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2. “The Ass and the Fox, having entered into partnership together for their mutual protection, went out into the forest to hunt. They had not proceeded far when they met a Lion. The Fox, seeing imminent danger, approached the Lion and promised to contrive for him the capture of the Ass if the Lion would pledge his word not to harm the Fox. Then, upon assuring the Ass that he would not be injured, the Fox led him to a deep pit and arranged that he should fall into it. The Lion, seeing that the Ass was secured, immediately clutched the Fox, and attacked the Ass at his leisure. Never trust your enemy.”<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]>
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3. “Once upon a time the trees came to anoint a king, and they said to the olive-tree: ‘Be king over us,’ But the olive-tree answered: ‘What, leave my rich oil by which gods and men are honoured, to come and hold sway over the trees?’
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“So the trees said to the fig-tree: ‘Then will you come and be king over us?’ But the fig-tree answered: ‘What, leave my good fruit and all its sweetness, to come and hold sway over the trees?’
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“So the trees said to the vine: ‘Then will you come and be king over us?’ But the vine answered: ‘What, leave my new wine which gladdens gods and men, to come and hold sway over the trees?’
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“Then all the trees said to the thorn-bush: ‘Will you then be king over us?’ And the thorn said to the trees: ‘If you really mean to anoint me as your king, then come under the protection of my shadow; if not, fire shall come out of the thorn and burn up the cedars of Lebanon.’”
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The question I pose to my readers is this: Can you identify which story came from Aesops Fables, which came from the Bible and which from Harry Potter? I’m hiding the answer in this footnote.<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[24] The point I am making here is simple: The Bible is filled with imagery, poetry, fiction, art and truth and so are J. K. Rowling’s books. In fact the Bible is the progenitor of much of the world’s greatest literature.
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What
Shall a Man Give in Exchange for His Own Soul?
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For whosoever
will save his life
shall lose it; and whosoever will
lose his life for my sake shall find it.
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain
the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Or what shall a man give in exchange for
his soul?
This verse is embedded in one of the most stunning of Rowling’s metaphors. After Voldemort lost his physical body in trying to kill the infant Harry, he had to take some blood of an enemy. He chose to take Harry’s at the end of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. In this way, Harry’s blood, in effect, saved Voldemort—but this act also tied Voldemort to Harry. He had some of Harry’s blood in him. The only way to break the connection was for Harry to allow Voldemort to kill him.
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Harry slowly reaches the point of comprehension and complete surrender: he became willing to die. However, as he walked through the valley of the shadow of death, something strange happened.
Without giving the plot away, I believe it is impossible to deny the Christian antecedent to Rowling’s story without twisting the facts beyond recognition. Consider another momentous decision in the Deathly Hallows: trapped in a burning room, Ron, Hermione and Harry are flying through the air on broomsticks to safety when Harry heard,
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“[A] thin, piteous human scream from amidst the terrible commotion, the thunder of devouring flame.
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“‘It’s—too—dangerous—!’ Ron yelled, but Harry wheeled in the air….he saw them: Malfoy with his arms around the unconscious Goyle…” (page 635)
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Risking their lives, the three of them pulled their enemies out of the fire and barely escaped to safety. If that isn’t an act of love, what is.
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Harry
Potter: A Handbook on Political Guerilla Warfare?
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There are other ways of attacking literature than on the basis of one’s religious beliefs. Should a work of art have political as well as religious connotations, one can be sure that those threatened by the political ideas will also begin attacking the work on different grounds but in no less of an intense manner. In Rowling’s case, perhaps one of her greatest achievements is the unfolding demonstration of political guerrilla warfare.
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A starting place to consider is Dumbledore’s Army, (D.A.), which was a student organization founded originally by Harry Potter, who secretly taught the student members Defense Against the Dark Arts. Similarly, other essentially secret organizations existed: there was Dumbledore’s Order of the Phoenix, which opposed Voldemort’s Death Eaters. Both groups (Dumbledore’s and Voldemort’s) utilized guerrilla warfare tactics but each side played by different rules. One side was moral—the other immoral. Rowling takes her readers through the stages of the war. Voldemort’s group seems destined to win. They not only gain control of the press and media but Voldemort and his followers also take control of the government. In the Deathly Hallows, almost all the power in Rowling’s magical world was transferred into the hands of the cruel villains.
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However, Rowling wasn’t done. She painstakingly takes us through a step-by-step journey that reveals how the apparently weaker, disarrayed, scattered and weary warriors of Dumbledore’s Army win the war. This is a treasure beyond words.
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In the end, with the political implications uncovered, Rowling gives us an insightful look at how easy it is for even good people to become enthralled with the idea of Domination Theology or Domination Political Theory. She reveals in a flashback of sorts—that even the venerable Professor Albus Dumbledore entertained Domination Political Theory. Rowling quoted a letter Dumbledore wrote to his then friend, Gellart Grindelwald, who was the darkest wizard before Voldemort. The note, written by Dumbledore at the age of seventeen, reveals he too justified taking control of the world—for the world’s own good! The young Dumbledore wrote :
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“Gellert—Your point about Wizard dominance being FOR THE MUGGLES’ OWN GOOD--this, I think, is the crucial point. Yes, we have been given power and yes, that power gives us the right to rule, but it also gives us responsibilities over the ruled...We seize control FOR THE GREATER GOOD. And from this it follows that where we meet resistance, we must use only the force that is necessary and no more...”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[25]
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Rowling here exposes how the idea of domination can sound so reasonable that even “the very elect can be deceived.”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[26] However, Dumbledore discovered his error in time and went on to defeat Grindelwald in a duel in 1945.
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With fundamental political propositions bared in her book, it was surprising to find that The Nation magazine recently published an attack on Harry Potter that started out with a denial that the Potter story is an epic. The article goes on to make not only absurd statements about the literature, but sinks to the misrepresentation of facts, which raises the question of whether or not the author read the literature. The article asserts:
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1. The Potter books suffer from “moral fuzziness.”
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2. Then contradictorily insists, Voldemort, the villain, is merely “a Hitler wannabe,” and is “a cardboard imitation of Tolkien’s Sauron.”
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3. Rowling’s “take on evil is politically evasive.”
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4. Falsely states that Harry Potter “hates Hermione for breaking his wand” and “hates Dumbledore for leaving him in the lurch.”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[27]
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The author, Lakshmi Chaudry, lacks literary judgment, and makes me want to know how many epics she has actually read. For as C. S. Lewis put it, “I want to know how well [her] palate is trained in detecting them by the flavor.”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[28]
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It may well be that Rowling’s description of the techniques of political guerrilla warfare represents the greatest threat to both religious and secular dominionism that has yet been penned. I should add that attacks on the Potter books tend to obscure their political importance as well as the political lessons they teach. For Rowling understands that democracy is a target to be destroyed.
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Consider the role of the Dementors—the evil soul-sucking creatures whose presence drains every joyful memory—every ounce of happiness from their victims. As Rowling demonstrates, depression is a weapon that is ultimately utilized by Voldemort just as fear is used by psychologically knowledgeable regimes as a weapon to suppress a populace and discourage the brave.
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However, Rowling doesn’t allow the Dementors to win—she shows her readers how to send a Patronus charm, conjured up from joyful memories, to scatter the fear mongering Dementors!<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[29]
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In addition, Rowling underscores the dangers of isolation in political and spiritual warfare and how to combat it. She describes how depression, resentment and even paranoia can consume the isolated individuals who are defending freedom in lonely way stations. Here are a few astonishing quotes that reveal Rowling’s awareness and that she understands the role of the web and the role of liberal radio talk show programs in recapturing the ground taken by Voldemort or real world dominionists. It begins in the Deathly Hallows, with Ron Weasley telling Harry of a discovery he made:
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“There’s this one program,” he told Harry in a low voice, “that tells the news like it really is. All the others are on You-Know-Who’s side and are following the Ministry line, but this one...you wait till you hear it, it’s great. Only they can’t do it every night, they have to keep changing locations in case they’re raided, and you need a password to tune in...” (p. 393).
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“Potterwatch, didn’t I tell you that’s what it was called? The program I keep trying to get on the radio, the only one that tells the truth about what’s going on! Nearly all the programs are following You-Know-Who’s line, all except Potterwatch. I really want you to hear it, but it’s tricky tuning in....” (p. 437)
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“I’ve got it, I've got it! Password was ‘Albus!’ Get in here Harry!” (p. 438)
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We “...apologize for our temporary absence from the airwaves, which was due to a number of house calls in our area by those charming Death Eaters.” (p. 438)
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“But before we hear from Royal and Romulus,” Lee went on, “let’s take a moment to report those deaths that the Wizarding Wireless Network News and Daily Prophet don't think important enough to mention. It is with great regret that we inform our listeners of the murders of Ted Tonks and Dirk Cresswell.” (p. 439)
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“Silence fell, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione did not speak. Half of Harry yearned to hear more, half of him was afraid of what might come next. It was the first time he had felt fully connected to the outside world for a long time.” (p. 440)
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“Harry had become so used to their isolation he had nearly forgotten that other people were resisting Voldemort. It was like waking from a long sleep.” (p. 444)
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Harry
Potter’s Seven Principles of Political Warfare
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As I reflected on the character of Harry Potter and his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, I tried to understand the qualities Rowling endowed them with because those virtues make her books exemplary. Beyond character traits, however, it is also possible to detect rules of political warfare that should be incorporated into the playbook of every one who is even thinking about running for office. And they are especially important for those who are engaged in the political-cultural war that is being waged across the American continent, and spreading itself to other nations around the world. The rules of engagement are these:
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1. The perception of power is illusory. Do not place your faith in an illusion. It isn’t what the press and media assert you are—it’s what you actually are that counts.
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2. Be calm, resolute, and fearless. Throw your enemy off with logic and knowledge and by taking unanticipated positions or stands on issues that have built-in defensive power.
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3. Choose your defensive weapons in advance of the attack. Never allow curses to go unanswered without blocking them or creating a protective shield or other means of escape.
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4. It is important to anticipate your opponent’s moves and then act faster than he does.
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5. Defensive power is greater than offensive power. All the offensive weapons piled up against you in an attack do not outweigh the power of defense. Strive to be a truly noble, kind, loving and inspiring person.
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6. Truth is a greater weapon and has greater power than lies. Dedication to truth has its own rewards. When you need it most the Gryffindor sword of Truth will be placed in your hands.
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7. Liberation and freedom are greater goals than domination and the drive to control others, and what is more, liberation and freedom have the greater power. Political domination is doomed to fail.
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The Republican Party has donned the habits, robes and collars of religious bullies. The Democrats have donned their cloaks of invisibility. But when the war is engaged—the good and the brave must come out of hiding and be seen fighting the enemy. The more the Republican Party curses their enemies, the more evil they will appear to those watching the fray. The more they bully and the deeper they dig ensnaring pits, the deeper they will fall. If you want to know how to discern between good and evil, read J. K. Rowling. She shows the Scripture is true: “By their fruits you shall know them.”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[30]
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J. K. Rowling is not a genius and one of the greatest epic writers of all time because she has written a series of books on political and spiritual battles and a manual on guerrilla warfare for everyone to understand. No! She has reached the top rungs on the ladder of greatness because she has written all these things and then she has successfully hidden them within her imagery so only the discerning few will see and understand. When all the critics have written down their thoughts, the judgment of time will say: the Harry Potter stories are truly a Christian epic. Cheers—and applause and a “thank you” to Joanne Rowling. I can hear the angels singing!
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[1] Linda Morris,
Religious Affairs Writer, “Devil in the Detail: Vatican
Exorcises Harry Potter,” The Sidney Morning Herald,
September 1, 2006
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[2] Sam Felder,
“Christian Harry Potter?” Americans United for Separation
of Church and State, July 27th 2004. At: http://blog.au.org/2004/07/27/christian_harry/
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[3] Ibid.
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[4] Terry Mattingly,
“Final Harry Potter Wars? Part I” Terry Mattingly’s
Religion Column, for the Scripps Howard News Service, August
1, 2007 at: http://tmatt.gospelcom.net/column/2007/08/01/?printable=1
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[5] Type the following
phrase in Google Search: Harry Potter is of the devil.
And click on this link to see a clip from the documentary, Jesus
Camp, on how Harry Potter would have been stoned to death
if he had lived in Old Testament times. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOIYsGVyg8M
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[6] David J. Stewart,
“Beware of ‘Christianity Today,’” Jesus-Is-Savior.com
at: http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/beware_of_christianity_today.htm
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[7] Alan Jacobs,
“Harry Potter’s Magic” First Things, January
2000. Perhaps the best essay written about the phenomenon of
Harry Potter and J. K. Rowling’s literary artistry.
http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=2502&var_recherche+Harry+Potter
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[8] Ibid.
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[9] However, there
are two instances that resemble a supernatural spirit
residing in an animal or human but which fail to meet the criteria
of a divine entity’s participation in Rowling’s creation.
For under the logical rules of Rowling’s secondary world,
the events she describes are not outside the laws of nature,
whereas supernatural phenomenon in our world is by definition
outside the laws of nature. The first instance involves the suddenly
disembodied Voldemort, who lost his body and nearly his life
in attempting to murder the infant Harry. Until Voldemort’s
physical body can be reconstituted, he is forced to share the
bodies of others. First he invades the body of a snake named
“Nagini,” who becomes devoted to him, and holds part
of Voldemort’s soul and also does his bidding. The second
instance is when the still desperate Voldemort chooses to reside
in the body of Professor Quirrell sharing Quirrell’s body,
apparently with Quirrell’s consent in the first of Rowling’s
books.
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[10] Dolores Umbridge,
the Senior Undersecretary of Cornelius Fudge was appointed to
Hogwarts in Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of the
Phoenix. Fudge, operating under groundless fear of the students
and the head master, issued a decree installing Umbridge as the
Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Umbridge then essentially
stopped teaching the all-important course. And Harry Potter began
teaching the class in secret. Umbridge was soon appointed the
one and only “Hogwarts High Inquisitor.”
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[11] As Cheryl
Forbes put it in 1983—in her extremely important book for
Christians, “At a certain point, a Christian must say no
to maneuvers and manipulations, to politics and pretendings.
The price of power is too high.” The Religion of Power,
Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1983.
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[12] “[T]hat ye may be able to withstand in the evil day…. having your loins girded about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, with which ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God…” Ephesians 6:13-16. KJV.
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[13] John 6:63.
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[14] Isaiah 54:17.
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[15] See for example Berit Kjos’ essay, “Bewitched by Harry Potter” which has been picked up as authoritative by churches and excerpts posted on web sites. His essay is at http://www.crossroad.to/text/articles/Harry9-99.html
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Kjos’ asserts, in referencing “old fairy tales,” that “The good hero would win over evil forces without using “good” magic to overcome evil magic.” But Kjos’ assertions are nonsense. One has to ask, what was Cinderella’s Fairy God-mother—if not someone who practiced “good” magic? What was the story of Jack And the Beanstalk if not a story of good “bean” magic versus the evil troll? (And where do you suppose we got the saying, “Don’t kill the goose that lays the golden eggs?) I should also point out that America’s kids, from the 1930’s through the 1950’s grew up reading comic books and listening to the Golden Age of Radio. The Shadow, for instance, was created by Walter B. Gibson in 1931 and was a popular radio series that opened with the famous line, “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!” Each week the announcer would repeat that The Shadow “possessed the hypnotic power to cloud men’s minds so they could not see him.” (This ability is very similar to Harry Potter’s Invisibility Cloak.)
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Then there was the long-playing children’s show, Let’s Pretend, which was broadcast by CBS national radio and entertained children with fairy tales from 1934 to 1954. The web site broadcasts three episodes actually played on the show, including a version of Jack and the Beanstalk:
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http://www.freeotrshows.com/otr/l/Lets_Pretend.html
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To read three English versions of Jack and the Beanstalk, click here:
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http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0328jack.html
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[16] Numbers 23:7-8.
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[17] Matthew 5:44-47.
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[18] At page 55
of the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
Scholastic Inc. New York.
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[19] From Christian
Apologetics and research Ministry, CARM, “Anathema,”
in the Roman Catholic Church. At http://www.carm.org/catholic/anathema.htm
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[20] From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia on the web at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_curse
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[21] At
page 324 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Scholastic
Inc., New York. The quote is from Matt. 6:21 in the KJV
and is also found at: Luke 12: 34.
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[22] Ibid at page
328. The quote is from 1 Cor. 3:26.
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[23] See Matthew
13:10-18.
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[24] The first
tale is from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Scholastic
Inc., New York at pages 406-409. The second is from Aesops
Fables at:
http://www.aesopfables.com/cgi/aesop1.cgi?sel&TheAsstheFoxandtheLion
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The
online collection of Aesops Fables can be seen at: http://www.aesopfables.com/aesopsel.html
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The
third quotation is from the Bible at Judges 9: 8-15. (New English
Bible version)
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[25] J. K. Rowling,
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Scholastic Inc.,
New York, at page 357.
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[26] Matthew 24:24. The quotation is mine—not Rowlings.
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[27] Lakshmi Chaudhry,
“Harry Potter and the Half-Baked Epic,” The Nation,
August 13/20, 2007, page 5. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070813/chaudhry
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[28] C. S. Lewis,
Christian Reflections, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand
Rapids, Michigan, reprinted in 1978, at page 154.
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[29] In the Patronus
Charm, the caster must draw upon positive emotions regardless
of the situation. Since the castor is fighting extreme duress
and fear—the charm is difficult to master. Harry Potter
masters it by remembering the happiest moments in his life in
the moments of his greatest fear. The happiness must be the stronger
emotion and overwhelm the fear and depression, which is an extremely
difficult feat to accomplish, but is a sound psychological and
emotional solution.
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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]>[30] Matthew 7:15-16. “Beware of false
prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly
they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits.”
Katherine Yurica was educated at East Los Angeles College, U.S.C. and the USC school of law. She worked as a consultant for Los Angeles County and as a news correspondent for Christianity Today plus as a freelance investigative reporter. She is the author of three books. She is also the publisher of the Yurica Report.
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