(This article originally appeared in The Wanderer and is reprinted with permission. To subscribe call 651-224-5733.)
My own children are too old for me to worry about the movie’s possible effect on them. But I helped my brother and his wife escort their ten-year old son and a group of his friends to the opening day showing of the movie in Connecticut. I would take my other nephews and nieces to see it without thinking twice. When my grandchildren are old enough to enjoy movies I will rent the tape from the local Blockbuster for them.
But don’t I realize the movie is about a school for wizards and witches; that young children caught up in such fantasies can be drawn into the occult; that Christian parents in many parts of the country are boycotting the movie? I do. But I respectfully disagree with those parents. I think the movie harmless.
Would I feel the same if one of my children were drawn into the occult after seeing the movie? I would. I would not blame this movie for the child’s confusion. I would look elsewhere for the source of the problem. At the opening day showing I attended, there were many children scooting about the lobby with magic wands and wizard hats. There was no black magic at work. It was goofy good fun, much like the children wearing black Hopalong Cassidy outfits back in the 1950s. If Norman Rockwell were still alive there would be a Saturday Evening Post cover exploring the Harry Potter phenomenon before the end of the month.
I know, I know, there is a difference between glamorizing a Hollywood cowboy and a schoolboy wizard. Wizards and witches are central figures in the world of black magic and the occult. But, come on: Western civilization has incorporated these fantasies into our children’s tall tales since the Middle Ages. If we are going to deny our children access to every story that includes these characters we are going to have to deny them access to – well, where to begin? To The Wizard of Oz, the stories of King Arthur and Merlin the Magician, Cinderella’s fairy godmother, the witch in Snow White, and Irish legends about leprechauns and their pots of gold.
After that we’ll have to go after C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia. Lewis’s Narnia is an imaginary parallel universe that does not fit within the framework of Genesis; neither do his science fiction stories. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings are full of imaginary creatures with magical powers. (We should keep in mind that J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter stories, is said to be a great fan and admirer of the work of Lewis. That says a lot about the “message” of her books.)
And while we are at it, we’ll have to prohibit our children from seeing Sabu in The Thief of Baghdad and cartoons about Aladdin and his magic lamp, as well as reading the Grimm’s fairy tales that feature magic elves, fairy princesses, witches, trolls and dragons. And make sure they don’t see any of the television reruns of Bewitched or I Dream of Jeanie. You know, there won’t be many books left in the children’s section of the library if we begin down this road.
I can’t pretend that I made an extensive scientific survey of the reaction of Catholics who saw the new Harry Potter film. But I asked around. My mother accompanied two of her grandchildren to an opening weekend performance. She said the movie was “fun,” “a fantasy,” “like a fairytale” and that “children know that.” In fact, she thought the message of the movie was implicitly Christian, one that focused on the importance of love and loyalty to friends. She is planning to take her other grandchildren to see it if she gets a chance.
I also asked a woman named Joan who waited in line with her granddaughter for nearly an hour to get into a theater in Connecticut. She said she was a practicing Catholic who had read all four of the Potter books, as had her granddaughters Loren and Samantha. Was she worried about the influence of the movie’s witches and wizards on her granddaughters’ moral development? Not in the least. She and her grandchildren loved the books and the movie. She was confident that no child who “experimented with magic and the occult” would do so “solely based on the Harry Potter series.”
Joan went so far as to describe Harry as a model for Christian children, as a young man “who did what he was told even when he was treated unfairly,” who “stood up for himself when it was appropriate,” who was not “bullying or uncaring and who had great empathy and sympathy for his friends and classmates.”
What can I say? Maybe some very impressionable and troubled children will be adversely affected by this movie. I don’t deny that. If you think your children are at risk in this regard, don’t let them see the movie. But, seriously, if you are willing to let them see The Wizard of Oz and Disney’s The Sword in the Stone, I can’t see why there should be a problem with Harry Potter.
