Well, at least according to the article I received in the mail (yes, snail mail) from an “anonymous” friend. It was a copy of an online article from One News Now.com by Ed Thomas titled “Evangelist says Bible speaks to Potter series ‘white magic'”. But unfortunately this friend who typed out my address on the envelope and left no return address had his name and email listed on one of the pages that he printed out in the comment section of this online article. So I am assuming that he agrees with the “facts” and opinions in this article and wanted to left me know how bad the Harry Potter series is.

The problem is that it is very apparent that Tim Todd has never actually read the books. According to the article Tim Todd says….

“The Harry Potter books present a Godless universe — one in which the most powerful wizard wins,” says the evangelist. “And in these books, the hero is a wizard who shows no evidence of belief in God and does not use the power of prayer to combat evil.”

And the land of Narnia sure seemed like a Godless universe as well as Middle Earth in The Lord of the Rings. In fact, I do not remember them using the power or prayer to combat evil. And one of the greatest theologians (C. S. Lewis) of recent history wrote The Chronicles of Narnia. And J. R. R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings)was a solid Christian as well.

Todd contends the church has not looked closely enough at the phenomenon of the wizard’s saga and the danger of it from a biblical standpoint. “The Harry Potter series — it promotes sacrificing animals; it’s emphasizing power regardless of good or evil; offering up blood sacrifices,” he explains.

First of all, the book series does not promote sacrificing animals. I have no idea where Tim Todd got this load of , but it definitely was not from the books.

Secondly, there is a definite difference between good and evil. It is not just about power. There is a heavy emphasis on love, it is after all what saved Harry’s life. There is also an emphasis on choices and how the choices we make are what define us. Which leads to being a responsible person. The stories are not just about power or magic, but so much more, it is just the vehicle J. K. Rowling uses. Which is the same one C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien used.

Lastly, there is no offering up of “blood sacrifices”. The only thing that can even be thought of as something like this is in the 4th book (Goblet of Fire) in Chapter 32 when Voldemort uses part of Harry’s blood to revive himself. But Harry is not a blood sacrifice nor is anyone in the series. Again, a simple reading of the books would reveal this.

The sad part of all of this is that this is typical of Christians. And I used to be one of them myself, but then I decided to read the first book for myself and se what it really was about. I was surprised to find out that it was not filled with all the evil that many Christian leaders professed, like Tim Todd. And then I read an excellent book on the subject entitled What’s a Christian to Do with Harry Potter? by Connie Neal, which is a very well balanced book regarding the subject. But instead of doing good research, most Christian leaders either hear something from someone else or go in with a presupposition and them come to a conclusion.

I can understand someone who may not like the fantasy genre and not wanting to read them, but to say that they are evil and clearly not having read them or researched them very well is poor performance on a Christians part.