"Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it."--Lloyd Alexander.

Why is Harry so hot? Children's books do not normally skyrocket to the top of best-seller lists the way Harry Potter has. So what makes kids, not to mention adults, gobble up these books like Gummy Worms?

Harry, first of all, is an underdog. He rises above foul relatives, twisted teachers, and school bullies. Is anything so deliciously appealing to a reader as the underdog coming out on top? It affirms a belief in the extraordinary. The underdog theme is nothing new, however. Bible writers used it long before the author of the Harry Potter series, J. K. Rowling, learned her alphabet. David, armed with only a scrawny sling and puny pebbles as he faced the gargantuan Goliath, is one of many biblical underdogs.

Charles Colson, in Christianity Today, wrote that Harry Potter and friends "develop courage, loyalty, and a willingness to sacrifice for one another even at the risk of their lives. Not bad lessons in a self-centered world."¹

Some, however, object to the fantastic elements in the books, believing they potentially suck kids into "Druidic cults."² In contrast, Rowling said: "The book is really about the power of imagination. What Harry is learning to do is to develop his full potential. Wizardry is just the analogy I use."³

Harry battles more than evil, but struggles with the same issues any teen-ager faces: insecurity, bullies, standing up for what he believes in, building trust and friendship. While the books employ magical elements such as unicorns, a mirror that reflects your deepest desire, and a cloak of invisibility (I'd like one myself), in the end they are about the values of courage, perseverance, friendship, faith--"fantastic elements" every Christian deems priceless.
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¹ The Writer's Guide to Fantasy Literature, ed. Philip Martin (Waukesha, Wis.: Kalmbach Publishing Co., 2002), p. 13.
² Ibid.
³ Ibid., p. 14.

Soraya Parish writes from Silver Spring, Maryland.


RICHARD ABANES

THERE ARE TWO main concerns I have with the Harry Potter series. First, it cannot be denied that the Harry Potter books contain real-world occult practices. For example, they contain astrology, numerology, divination, mediumship, channeling, crystal gazing, necromancy-which is communication with the spirits of the dead. These things are condemmed very strongly in the Bible, and yet they are in the Harry Potter books that children are reading and looking to for entertainment. That's one concern.

The second concern is that we have these so-called good characters in the Harry Potter books doing some very bad things. They lie, steal, cheat, seek revenge, are hypocritical, lack integrity. One character, Hagrid, is actually drunk throughout all four books, and yet these characters are portrayed as being good. So I think there are some confused moral messages that come to kids through the books.

My main ministry is imparting information, and my book documents very clearly all of the places in the Harry Potter books in which the real occultism can be seen. I also list the places in which you see the "good" characters lying and stealing and behaving badly. I list the numbers of the pages containing profanity and off-color humor, and I also talk about how occultism is infiltrating our country and how it's becoming the latest rage among people in our culture. I suppose what I'm trying to say with my book is: People--Christians especially--get the facts. Get the knowledge you need to have in order to express concerns in rational, thoughtful ways, and then take the responsibility to stand up and voice those concerns to people who need to hear them.

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Richard Abanes is the author of a number of books on cults, the occult, and world religions, including the book Harry Potter and the Bible: The Menace Behind the Magick. His latest book is Fantasy and Your Family.

Readers: What you think? Send us your comments, but please keep them short! E-mail: letters@adventistreview.org; fax: 301-680-6638; or mail responses to What About Harry?, Adventist Review, 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, MD 20904-6600.