So then, what's the
verdict on Harry Potter?

By Archbishop Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.

A friend, his wife and youngest child recently saw "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." Both adults are well-informed and serious about their faith, so I was interested in their reactions. I've already received dozens of letters and e-mails from parents wondering if this movie is suitable for their children.

The friend and his wife — who have not read the Potter books — came back baffled at criticism the film has received from some Christian quarters. They found it to be a terrific fantasy yarn that kept them thoroughly entertained for two hours. They then went home, had dinner and got back to the routine concerns of their lives. None of them, including their child, began tinkering with magic. None of them, including their child, developed an unhealthy attachment to Ouija boards. (How do the parents know that about their child? They do what parents are supposed to do: They keep watch.)

 

My initial reaction to the first Harry Potter book was much the same. I read it on a plane after another couple of friends had complained about it. I enjoyed it. It struck me as a better than average children's fantasy — but of course, I don't have children. If I did have children in today's culture, I might very well have found it more troubling.

I think people's uneasiness about Harry Potter comes from the same roots as our uneasiness about Halloween. When the spirit of American culture was overwhelmingly Christian, Halloween played its role in the drama of salvation — a night of tricks, treats and symbolic confusion overcome by the dawn of All Saints Day. Forty years ago, Halloween could be enjoyed as harmless fun. Many good parents still see it that way with no ill effects.

But times have changed. The background noise of our daily lives has a different tone. Today's moral environment is much more consciously non-Christian. The popularity of a television series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer may be ridiculous, but it's not insignificant. As Chesterton once said, when we stop believing in God, we don't believe in "nothing" — we believe in anything.

Human culture is never value-neutral. Our music, art, books, politics, economy, architecture and films all express who we are. They're a window on our soul. If demons and monsters populate our video games, they didn't get there by accident. We let them in, and we let them stay. Therefore, it's more important than ever for parents to scrutinize what their children read, watch, listen to and play. The trick as a parent, I suspect, is to find the right recipe of vigilance mixed with humor and common sense.

So what's the verdict on Harry Potter? That's a matter for parents, not bishops, to decide. I think Harry Potter can be happily enjoyed as a children's fantasy movie. Nothing in the film attacks the Christian faith, and good does win out over evil. At the same time, unfortunately, characters in the Potter books do sometimes accomplish good things by doing bad things, like lying.

In other words, J.K. Rowling is a very different author from C.S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien. If you're looking for Christian allegory, Harry Potter isn't it. Magic and sorcery can be harmless if we understand them simply as story-telling superstition. If we start believing in them, if we develop an abnormal interest in them, we quickly get into trouble. The Church rejects witchcraft for a very good reason. The devil is not a myth.

Parents who foster an active Christian home for their children probably have little to worry about from a film like Harry Potter. Parents who don't have a lot more to worry about than just this film. The Church teaches that parents are the primary educators of their children for a good reason. They know — or should know — their children better than anyone else. With Harry Potter, as with so much else, parents are the first and best judge.