"Poor Harry Potter," The Globe's Patrick White wrote Thursday in his article Churches co-opt Potter's magic
"As if battling Voldemort, Death Eaters and Dementors wasn't enough, the boy wizard has also endured the wrath of religious conservatives in the decade since J.K. Rowling's books first found their way into the hearts of young Muggles the world over.
"There have been book burnings, book bans and even a declaration by one Catholic Church official last year that Harry Potter is 'the devil.'
"But with Potter fans already lining up ahead of the final book release this Saturday, some Christian denominations are now eschewing condemnation for praise, embracing Ms. Rowling's tales as powerful religious fables for our time."
globeandmail.com has invited an inter-faith panel to debate these issues online and to take questions about Harry Potter and religion from our readers.
Their mini-essays are printed below. We asked the panelists to address two questions: What does your religion/faith/creed say about magic, witchcraft and wizardry? How does your faith deal with the phenomenal interest among children — and adults — in Harry Potter's fictional world?
In addition, we asked them to answer a selected number of questions from our readers in response to their writings. Those answers are posted below the mini-essays.
Editor's Note: In this particular format, we will print reader comments submitted in the usual way. But, because of the nature of the topic, we will be doing something different. We reserve the right to edit comments in this case for length, clarity, relevance and matters of taste.
Lorna Dueck, evangelical Christian journalist: My creed would advise me on the subject of magic, witchcraft and wizardry that these are spiritual systems that attempt to fight against God.
The only magic that qualifies in this category is when magic is a form of occultism. When magic, spell casting, witchcraft, fortune telling, and other forms of spiritual wizardry attempt to receive information and alter events through a source other than God, the activity is condemned by God.
My belief system is based on Christianity. My understandings of this faith are rooted in the Apostles Creed (215 A.D.) and the Westminster Confession (1646). Ancient as these teachings are, they help me understand an example where early Christians faced magic, witchcraft and wizardry and asked Jesus Christ to overpower the distraction that it was.
That affected issues in the local economy — even to the millions of dollars in Acts 19 when magic and incantation books were burned in a public bonfire.
The evangelical church is still dealing with phenomenal interest among children and adults in this topic, and would have to admit many children in church have read more of Harry Potter than the Bible.
At the opening launch, the books were almost treated as contraband, and the faithful snuck quietly into the movies if they went at all.
But it was a losing battle to shut out the popular wizard.
Now, the fiction is seen as an opportunity to launch discussions about the cherished tradition of fantasy to teach about good and evil, to discuss the battle Harry has to overcome his own inner dark side and that of others, and to teach and warn what spiritual realities are involved in different forms of magic, witchcraft and wizardry.
If a Christian parent is taking seriously their faith's command to teach their children, the discoveries and discussions are closely guided by their involvement.
Rabbi Ed Elkin, First Narayever Congregation, Toronto: The Torah prohibits the Israelites from imitating the practices of their Canaanite neighbours in the Land of Israel, among them augury, soothsaying, divination, sorcery, casting of spells, and the consultation of ghosts or familiar spirits (Deuteronomy 18:10-11).
Instead of these methods of understanding the divine will, God sends prophets, who communicate God's messages to the people.
Why are magical practices like these prohibited so clearly in biblical, and later Jewish, law?
The premise of magic is that there are powers beyond the control even of God, powers which human beings can learn to manipulate in order to achieve certain desired ends.
This premise could never be acceptable in traditional Jewish theology, which has always maintained that God created everything that exists and therefore there are no forces beyond God's control.
