Is Harry Potter Evil? An Exorcist's Answer

[apologiaromana]

He’s saying filter the damn books through through the Christian worldview, not that the books are bad or demonic. Calm down people.

[patback]

Very few children actually read the Bible. It is taught to them. I loved the Harry Potter books. I am a 72 year old great grandma. I interpreted them as good against evil with good winning every time.

[Cwik]

I REALLY appreciate this answer as opposed to what Fr. Ripperger said a few years back. Lampert's response does not flat out and rudely dismiss a book he's never read, while also acknowledging the dangers than can come up in overindulging in *any* fantasy. He seems to at least say that it is possible to read secular books provided the reader has a firm foundation beneath them. My favorite aspects of the Harry Potter series have very Christian undertones, for example, but I may not have appreciated them had I not been raised with my Catholic values.

[ironmikeoc]

The moral panic around HP is so overblown. It's fictional. No kid thinks it's real and if they do they have a problem far bigger than being led morally astray

[Stumme-]

I’ve never really seen magic in Harry Potter as good, but more neutral. It can be used for good, or for evil with the exception of a few spells that are seen as having no good moral purpose.

[sandra-kqmj]

This is the correct answer because all good art/stories come from the one who is Good. So if you enjoy something like Harry Potter the question is what did you find in it that was good, which is probably going to be the friendship, the adventure, the struggle between good/evil, the coming of age story etc., not the witchcraft.

[DivineKnight_]

When I was little, my mom taught me the Bible stories, I learned about them and understood them as a grew up and still am understanding and learning from them. When I was old enough to read and understand Harry Potter, by the end of the series, all I could see was the Christian influences throughout the story and how Rowling was able to inject Christian themes into a fantasy world in a creative way kids could understand. I love the Bible and I love when fictional fantasy’s like Harry Potter or Star Wars can be inspired by it, and create new ways of seeing sacrifice, love, discipline, and compassion in other ways.

[treytemplin]

My old RCIA director loved Harry Potter. He has a master's degree in theology. He wrote his final paper on how bringing back Voldemort was the opposite of the Catholic Mass. A lot of interesting Catholic / Christian in Harry Potter.

[jerryadejo]

The Harry Potter story has a lot of similarities with the Christian story eg
The fact that Harry is born with the abilities of Voldemort(evil) just as we too are born with original sin and how Harry had to die in order to rise to defeat Voldemort like Christ did to defeat sin and how we too have to die to self to be born again, and how Voldemort's works ended up working against him just as the devil killing Jesus caused his own downfall.

As a Catholic, I love this response. You need to be grounded in your faith so that no matter what, your faith will not be shaken.

[EldrickDonuts]

Fr. Vincent gives me mad Hufflepuff energy

[londonje]

I am a man who grew up in a VERY traditional Catholic household and now am head of a household of my own. Father is correct here. My brother read all of the books as they came out and turned out just fine. I also had cousins who weren’t allowed to so much as look in the direction of a Harry Potter book. I only just started reading them in my 30’s. I’m fine after reading them… Context for kids here is key, and no different than playing a combat video game. As long as they know that magic isn’t real, just like the fact that they aren’t actually part of the 1st Marine division storming Guadalcanal in 1941, they’ll be able to absorb it, compartmentalize it, and move on as normal kids.

[joelrobertsonmusic]

I was blessed to be raised by a family that had me filter everything through a Christian framework. For those reasons, books like Harry Potter actually strengthened my love for the gospel growing up.

[TheJoeschmoe]

As a Christian myself it's weird when people make a fuss about Harry Potter containing magic when books like Narnia and Lord of thr Rings also contain magic. In fact, both Narnia and Harry Potter contain the dichotomy of Light vs Dark magic, and the Dark Arts are always portrayed as evil in both.

[tarlochansingh]

I do agree with the priest here. Reading fiction for literary knowledge and entertainment is ok. But they should also know that it's bad to harm others.
He is not saying that Harry Potter teaches them to do evil. He's just giving advice to take caution, and of course he would tell your children to read the Holy Bible.
He said nothing wrong.

[patrickturner]

I disagree with this take. I wouldn’t expect a kid to know more about the book of Leviticus than different Wizarding houses.

It sounds good on its surface, but one was written for children and the other one wasn’t.

[benmcneely]

Can’t people just read fiction and like it? Lol

[marcelocovarrubias]

It helped to have a background with wich to filter these books. He has a fantastic point here

[Mickyboi]

Thinking back to when I was a kid thinking of stories of Jesus and the miracles of the saints that were real would have been so much more interesting than fiction about wizardry

[brockjones]

Pretty bad answer, this could be said for literally any other book, TV show, movie that a kid watches. Nothing is unique to Harry Potter about this argument

[brycerudge]

I think if kids know that it’s fictional, there is no harm.