As evangelicals, we're always on the look out for things that might lead us astray. We're even more vigilant when it comes to our children; that's just sensible. We know the world has got a whole lot of bad stuff to throw at us – and we need to be especially wary when it comes to young minds. There are films, video games, TV programmes, websites, apps and much more that wouldn't be appropriate for young people to look at.
But as evangelicals, we're really good at dying in the wrong ditch. We often seem to be the first to fall for any kind of Moral Panic that hits the tabloids. People of my age might remember the weird scare over bits of audio cassette found near roads. Apparently it was some sort of Satanic attack. Or maybe just people throwing tapes out of their window when they broke... (Ask your older cousins, kids – we used to listen to music on things called cassettes, records, CDs or Minidiscs. I know. Crazy times.)
How about the fear that any music heavier than The Carpenters was composed by Beelzebub himself and was certain to see our souls toasting for eternity for so much as sneaking a listen on our tinny 80s earphones? *Shudder*
In this context my heart fell when I read that a familiar antihero had flown back into view. Dear old Harry Potter is such an Establishment figure that he's probably now parking his broom outside the Carlton Club and going for high tea at The Dorchester. But for some evangelicals, he's still the very essence of danger, discord and even diabolism itself.
This week Tom Bennett, the Government's 'behaviour tsar' (Orwellian, much?), reported that some parents had been objecting to the use of Harry Potter books in schools. He claimed, "There are many parents who are uncomfortable with their children discussing or looking at or reading anything at all to do with the occult... We're talking about evangelical protestants, non-indigenous expressions of Christian faith [like], imported Afro-Caribbean Methodism."
I felt like I'd been transported back in time 15 years to when the books and films were a novelty and evangelicals were objecting to the boy wizard the first time around. A Christian toy shop owner said he wouldn't stock any Potter merch, lest it lead children into the occult. From film reviewers to teachers, the hysteria over Harry Potter became a story in itself.
I felt a bit embarrassed really. Harry Potter is certainly about the very real temptations we all face to embrace the darker side of our nature. But it shows the very real consequences of that. It's also a story about good overcoming evil (spoiler alert!) It's about friendships enduring, about teamwork and about self-sacrifice. Like thousands of fictitious fantasies before and since, it tells a simplistic story, but one with a lot of value to it.
To ban children from reading and engaging with it seems just lazy. Almost as if those parents can't or don't want to engage with the story and help their children to find the truth and goodness contained within.
The Bible rightly warns us away from engaging in sorcery. In Galatians 5, Paul makes it very clear that to practice it is a very bad thing indeed. But it's absurd to suggest that just because someone has watched Harry Potter they're going to try sorcery for real. By this logic, someone who's watched Star Wars will try Jedi mind tricks, someone who's watched Saving Private Ryan will try to re-enact a World War Two battle scene or someone who's seen Casablanca will inevitably start flirting with Ingrid Bergman.
Christian writers who have used vivid imagery and allegory would never have got started had their Christian readers dismissed their attempts to use folk legends to paint the Christian story in a new way.
CS Lewis' Narnia books (or his less well-known Space Trilogy) would have been lost without legend and myth. JRR Tolkein's masterful Christian allegory The Lord of The Rings is stuffed full of wizards, orcs and assorted other supernatural sorts.
There are real malevolent forces in the world and I don't want anything to do with them. I especially don't want children to be anywhere near them. I'm glad my parents warned me off having anything to do with séances, and I'm pleased they wouldn't let me go to a Masonic gathering. I'm really glad they didn't let me watch movies that were meant for those over the age of 18 while I was still too young and impressionable.
These things can be genuinely damaging. But there's a risk that if we try to ban everything that doesn't conform to a puritanical morality, we'll miss out on so much good, and just end up cutting ourselves off from the world without anything to show for it. So when I'm in front of the TV this Christmas and Harry, Ron and Hermione are on, I'll settle down with a mince pie and enjoy it.
