Hands off Harry Potter
Iyov observes the strange phenomenon of the religious connections people make with Harry Potter, and provides a listing of some Jewish ones. There are no odunt an equal or greater range of Christian ones, though like Iyov, I’m too weary to track them all down. Far too many of them are ignorant rants like this. Then there are those that try to claim Harry Potter for the faith, whether Jewish or Christian (this page provides a whole lot of links).
All sorts of people seem to be joining in with reviews of the film – and I can’t help but feel that some of them are just trying to show they’re in touch. There’s a scene in (the book of) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, where Ron accuses Cho Chang angrily of only supporting the Tornados at Quidditch because they’re doing well (and thereby ruins a potential romantic moment for Harry). I must confess I felt rather like Ron in reading Ben Witherington’s review: Have fun counting the errors, there are some real howlers1 there (wish I could send him a howler!).
I nearly called this post “See a passing bandwagon, and jump on it..” So many of the attempts to claim the books and films for Christianity treat them as fodder for apologetics, and seem to lose all sight of the story being told: the fun, wit, imagination and wonder of the narrative. What is it with the religious approach to popular culture that is always trying to produce a “Gospel according to … ” It started with Snoopy more than 25 years ago, and shows no sign of abating. Why can’t we take things as they are, read/see them for what they are, and appreciate them as they are?
Notes- Sirius Black is Harry’s godfather, not some sort of relative; Fudge is played by Robert Hardy, not Edward Hardy; Malfoy is indeed a pun, but it’s not spelt Malfoi; far from having a first kiss with a girl we’ve not met before, Harry already tried to go to the Yule Ball with her in the previous film; (he also has difficulty with the name of the school) [↩]