Harry Potter

Also from the Sunday School Guide, another RCA pastor and Potter fan:

"One supposed critique of the series claimed that the first novel states there is no such thing as good and evil, and therefore teaches relativism. The novel does have a character saying that, but the character is a villain who is trying to trick Harry! In Harry's world, there is... ultimate good and ultimate evil, and characters must choose which to follow.... actions have consequences.... lessons are learned, such as: sacrificial love defeats evil; it's not the abilities one has, but the choices one makes which determine his or her value in life... one might not understnad everything, but when a supreme spiritual authority gives instructions, one had better pay attention and obey... fame and fortune aren't the important things in life... the weak things of this world can often confound the strong."

This is great. I applaud this moral worldview.

"Rowling also uses magical abilities as analogies for coming-of-age experiences, warfare and the interactions - positive and negative - between human beings."

I've only read part of the first book, and soon after it came out, so it's been a while. But I got the sense that magic was not used in Potter in the more redemptive way that Lewis or Tolkien did. But neither is the use of magic in fiction itself inherently evil. There's probably a mix of bad, harmless and good uses of magic here.

"Even when the culture does feed us truly bad things as entertainment, why should this surprise, shock and horrify us? Isn't that what we should expect from the world? Is God calling us to point our finger at the world and repeat over and over again how bad it is?... [The Bible's] main concern is not that those things exist in the world, but that they often exist in the church. The people of God are called to purify themselves, not to engage in an endlessly frustrating quest to purify everybody else."

OK, but I wouldn't want to demean the prophetic voice to the world, either. God is not willing that ANY should perish. I buy the main point, only when modified with the "point the finger" and "over and over" phrases. He then points to 1 Cor 5:9-13, which I think evangelical Christians need to read daily, in our current condition, where we often find ourselves fighting the wrong battles.