Harry Potter and the Fundamentalist Christian

Rachel Curry
Ms. Kent
English 1020
29 April 2016

Table of Contents

1. Rachels Racquet Advise Column: Pursuing Potter

2. Pursuing Potter Survey
3. Pursuing Potter Poem
4. Pursuing Potter Meme
5. Graph of Pursuing Potter Survey
6. Pursuing Potter Biography/Short Story
7.

Pursuing Potter Ad/Invitation

Preface
For my assignment I picked a topic that I would like to be able to understand more. I
have been curious about this matter for a while so to be able to learn more I thought it may be
good to do some research on it. My topic is religion regarding Harry Potter, but more
specifically religious families are unrightfully banning children form experiencing the Harry
Potter series first hand for many reasons but more commonly because of its use of magic. I
know I have several friends and have heard many stories where this is the case for a lot of
families. I can understand where the families are coming from but it still does not make a lot of
sense to me because if youre a Christian then you believe that magic is make believe. If they use
the excuse of magic, then what is the difference between Harry Potter and other make believe
shows like Power puff girls or Mickey Mouse where both shows use magic. Maybe even the
difference between Harry Potter, Barney, and Winnie the Pooh? Although Barney and Winnie
the Pooh do not use magic, they are both make believe stories. In the following project, I have
read articles, surveyed Christian families, surveyed non Christian families, and expressed my
thoughts and opinions in various ways. I have written stories and poems, drawn pictures, and
created graphs with statistics to try and get my point across. Although I grew up in a Christian
home, my mother would read the Harry Potter books to my brother and I before we went to
sleep. I have seen all of the movies more times than I can count and it has not affected my
religious beliefs at all. I would like to try to argue that there is a greater story to Harry Potter
than just magic and death. The themes of friendship, trust, and loyalty are just as vital to the story
as the magic, death, and good verses evil themes.

Rachels Racquet: Perusing Potter

Dear Rachels Racquet,
My name is Brooke and recently I have been having arguments with my parents on whether I
should be able to read Harry Potter or not. I hear my friends talk about it at school and it makes
me want to read it myself. The problem is that my parents are very religious and think it is a bad
idea for me to read it. They argue that the magic will corrupt me and I argue that since I am
now 15 years old, I am old enough to make that decision for myself. Could you give me some
advice on how to handle the situation or points I could use to make my parents see my side?
Dear Brooke, I have read what you sent to me and I have a few ways that you could respond to
your parents when you are trying to convince them to let you read Harry Potter. However, first I
wanted to say, you live in their house and by their rules so ultimately you need to do what they
say but I will provide you with things you could say and show them so they may consider letting
you read it for yourself. I know it may not seem this way to you but you are still very young so
your parents not letting you read Harry Potter is them trying to keep you safe. They are not just
trying to be mean to you, but here are a few ways you could show them that reading Harry
Potter is okay. First, reading a book allows you to enter world created by another person, but
ultimately it is still what you make it to be. For example, I could describe a place to you, and you
could read about the place I described but then the place I imagine and the place you imagine are
two completely different places. I say all of this just to say the stories are what you make them to
be. If you read the books as a big deal that will corrupt you then that may be the case.
However, if you read it as a fun fictional story, then that is what it will be. Another approach you
could take is reading the books would be better than watching the movies. One reason because,

like I was saying earlier, the books are what you create them to be. A movie is an invitation to
experience a world created for you. Therefore, the difference between the books and the movies
is you can still put your own twist and images on something you read, but you cannot with a
movie because it is already visualized for you. While watching movies are all visual effects,
reading books exercises the brain. Anderson says, In reading the analyses of the Harry Potter
phenomenon, it becomes clear that reading is imagined as active, while television or film viewing is
understood as passive. In account after account, parents and teachers have praised the Harry Potter
series for turning children into active readers instead of passive viewers (3). If you are not a very
active reader, Harry Potter would be a good place to start because even though the books are so
large, the content inside is easy to read and gets more difficult as you progress. It is as if you grow
with the books.
Also, I noticed in your letter to me you said the reason your parents will not let you read
Harry Potter is because they are very religious. I also have a few tips to try to reason with them. The
first thing I would suggest would be to try to get them to view Harry Potter and its storyline aside
from their religious beliefs. I have read the books before so I can personally tell you that there is a
deeper story behind everything that goes on than what some are led to believe. The next thing I
would try to suggest to you and your parents would be to maybe try and read the books together. That
way you both know what the other is experiencing and your parents would still have control over it.
You may could try to convince them to reading it out loud to you or you read it out loud and they just
listen. Either way, you both are aware of each other and in the end you get what you want.
Thank you for writing to me. I hope my response could help you out with your situation. If
there is anything else regarding this situation or if something else comes up, do not be afraid to
contact me again. Hope all goes well! Love, Rachels Racquet.

Perusing Potter Questionnaire

1. Do you practice religious beliefs?
Yes
No
Prefer not to answer
2. Do you identify with any of the following religions? (Please select all that apply.)
Catholicism
Christianity
Judaism
Islam
Other
Other (please specify)
3. Have you ever read any of the Harry Potter series?
Yes
No
4. Have you ever watched any of the Harry Potter movies?
Yes
No
5. Would you allow your children or loved ones to read/watch Harry Potter?
Yes
No

I chose to do a survey for one of my entries because I thought it would be a good way to tell the
opinions of other people I know and not just my own opinions. The survey asks questions about
their religious beliefs and if they have ever watched Harry Potter or would let their loved ones
watch Harry Potter. I got people to take the survey by sharing it on my personal Facebook page
and some of the results were unexpected. I have listed above every question with every possible
answer. The majority of the answers were similar but a couple of them were almost split 50/50 in
answers. Some of the reasoning behind each question is fairly obvious. For the first question, I
needed to know if you were religious to see if this topic even applies to you. If you are not
religious, then religious aspects of Harry Potter should not matter to you. The majority of the
answers were yes that the people who took the quiz were religious. Which is expected because I
live in the Bible Belt and a lot of my Facebook friends are people Ive met from church.
However, not every single person answered yes to that question. There were a couple who
answered no. The next question was just choosing which religion or denomination you identified
with. Once again, the majority of the people chose Christianity, but that was also that was not the
only choice chosen. The next two questions are very similar. They are important because if you
have never watched or read Harry Potter than how do you know if it is okay for your loved ones
to watch or read it? Which is a little crazy seeing as how only half of the people who took the
survey have read Harry Potter but 99% of people also said they would not keep their children or
loved ones from watching it their selves. Halford says, Cries of Satanismfrom Christian
parents worried that their children would be lured into the occult. But no book has been
defended as vigorously by a religious group as the Harry Potter books have (1). This may be
the reasoning behind all of the mixed answers. Parents who are religious have their worries and

their doubts but there are also many things within the books that can be beneficial for children to
learn as they grow such as friendship, love, and persistence.

Perusing Potter Poem

Life without Harry
Would be so scary.
Dumbledore, Snape, Hagrid too.
Preachers kids might say, who?
When you face a day without Potter,
It would be the same as if we had no water.
You say the Bible is the cause
That children experience Potter Pause.
Potter Pause is the disease
When parents put Potter on cease.
How sad a day it would be,
If Harry was something we may never see.

For this entry I chose to write a poem. When deciding which entry I should chose next, I looked
through all of the choices in the creative writing genre and decided a poem would be best so that
I could try to tell a story. Although it is not very long, it still has a lot of meaning in it. When you
read the poem, you can see right from the beginning what it is about. It is about children who
have not seen Harry Potter because their parents do not allow them to and how sad it would be
for me if I had never been able to watch the movies or read the books. The majority of the poem
just says that life without Harry Potter would be sad but there is a line that says you say the
Bible is the cause. Some believe magic is make believe and some have convinced their selves
that Hogwarts, Harry Potter, and magic are all real places and people. According to Versal,
Magic does not exist, nor does religion. What does exist are our definitions of these concepts
(par 1). He is basically telling us that neither magic or religion have definite proof that either of
them exist and that they are both what we make of it. He believes that it is all in our head and if
we choose to believe in either religion or magic then it becomes what we perceive as true and
false. For example, I believe magic is fake. I have never seen someone cast a spell and it actually
work, but there are others out there who believe they are witches. Just like there are also people
out there that do not believe in religion at all and that what they are living now is all life has to
offer. Petre says, Christians have been divided about the books, with some claiming that their
popularity should be exploited to spread the Christian message. Others, however, have
demonized them for what they claim to be occult content (par. 14). He says that within the
group of Christians who have read the books, the Christians are torn between praising them for
sharing the message of Jesus through Harry Potter himself, and criticizing them for practicing
paganism. Ultimately, it is a great story, with an amazing message, that shows core values such
as loyalty, trust, and friendship but are torn between the message and the actions.

Perusing Potter Meme

For this entry, I thought this meme I created would be perfect because it unveils the grey, blurred
lines that preachers have as standards sometimes. It is as if some things are okay in one context
but the exact same thing in a different context is wrong and shameful. This meme is a perfectly
good example of that. Some preachers tell their children that they can not watch Harry Potter
because of the magic that is portrayed. Then they turn around and plan a vacation for their
children to Disney World who has an entire theme park named Magic Kingdom, The Most
Magical Place on Earth. It is as if not all magic is held to the same standards, even though it is
all the same thing. Maybe people like to think there is good magic and bad magic but at the end
of the day it is all magic. According to James, God is clear in Scripture that any practice of
magic is an abomination to him. God doesnt distinguish between white and dark magic
since they both originate from the same source (par. 11). What he is saying in this quote is no
matter the reason or circumstance, all magic is abominable because of who created it, the devil.
Jacob says, there is no strict boundary between good and evil; rather, there is a constant tension
between what we perceive as good and what we perceive as evilthis allows each person to
define good for himself (par 27). Although my argument has been there are greater themes to
the story than magic, Im not saying magic does not or should not affect the viewers at all. I am
trying to get parents to determine a clear basis as to when magic should be tolerated and when it
is unacceptable for children to experience whether that be visual, physical, or through their
imagination. Some parents raise their children on Mickey Mouse, others hardly let their children
watch television at all. If it were my house I would say the rules would be the same for all shows
and movies across the spectrum and they would be able to watch whatever they wanted, within
reason, as they matured. However, I would also not be a parent that would mind it if my children

watched Harry Potter due to the magic or not. It is all about the bigger picture and the deeper
meanings.

Harry Potter Survey Answers

Yes/Christianity

No/Catholicism

Other

Graph of Pursuing Potter Survey Answers

For this next entry I decided it would be interesting to display my survey answers on a graph.
Above has each question, possible answers, and the answers people who took the survey chose.

In the results, it does not tell me specific names, it tells me the answers chosen for which number
person took the survey. For example, the thirty seventh person who took the survey, is a
Christian, has never read any of the Harry Potter books or movies, but would let their children or
loved ones read. The majority of the answers for the first question were the same. 95% of people
said they do practice religious beliefs such as going to church, praying, and worshiping.
However, three people answered they do not practice religion therefore, some skipped the second
question. Not everyone answered the second question. Two people skipped it because they do not
practice religion so this question does not apply to them. 100% of people who answered the
question, marked that they were Christian but two people marked that in addition to being
Christians, one said they were also catholic and the other said they were also a Mormon. The
next two questions are similar but I needed to ask them both because some people have read the
books and not watched the movies and others have watched the movies and not read the books.
Out of fifty-nine people who took the quiz, over half have never read the books. Only 46% of
people answered that they have read the books. However, almost three fourths of the people who
took the survey answered that they have watched the movies. 70% of people say they have seen
the movies and 30% of people say they have never seen them. I, personally, have never read the
books but they seen all of the movies multiple times. For the last question, I asked if they would
allow their loved ones to read or watch Harry Potter and 99% of them said yes. The most
interesting fact about these results is that half of the people surveyed answered that they have
never seen Harry Potter but they do not mind if their loved ones watched it. How can you know
for sure if it is okay to watch if you have never watched it yourself? More specifically, the fiftyeighth person who took the survey answered that they do practice religious beliefs, they identify

as a Christian, they have never read or watched Harry Potter but they would allow their children
or loved ones to.

Pursuing Potter Biography

Joseph Falcione is a Freshman Student at Auburn University of Montgomery. I met him in one of
my first semester freshman classes and began a conversation with him. Since then weve grown
to become good friends. While spending almost every day in the library together, we began to get
to know each other more and more. During a conversation one day he began to tell me about his
family. He said his mother is a Mary Kay representative and his father is the pastor of his church.
Joseph was born into a Christian family which was great because so was I. This way we could
talk about things together and not have to avoid the topic in regards of the fear we would offend
each other. One day I was in the library talking with him and he asked me about Star Wars. I
knew the new Star Wars movie would be coming out soon but I did not really care because I had
never seen any of the movies. He asked me if I was going to go see the new movie coming out
and I told him no and I told him why I was not. He was quite astounded when I told him I had
never seen any of the movies. Then from Star Wars the topic moved to Harry Potter. I ask
Joseph if he had ever seen any of the Harry Potter movies and he said no. Then I asked him if he
had read any of the Harry Potter books, and he said no. I was curious why because with the Star
Wars movies, you would have to go out buy then to watch them but Harry Potter movies are on
Freeform television at least once a month. I asked Joseph why he had never seen Harry Potter
and his response was, my parents never let me watch them. Now I was astounded! I never
thought someone would not be allowed to watch it. I always figured that if they chose not to
watch it, it was their own choice, not because someone else said no. When I was a child and the
books were still coming out, my mother would read the books to my brother and I before we fell
asleep each night. The near fact that a parents would not allow their child to read or watch Harry
Potter was unheard of in my house. Then the more I thought about it and the more I asked
Joseph about it, I realized that a lot of religious families do not want their children reading Harry

Potter. I asked Joseph why he was not allowed and he said, because of the magic that is
involved throughout the entire story. When I thought about it I guess that made more sense
seeing as how children are easily influenced by things they watch. The thing I was most
concerned about in Josephs case is that he is nineteen years old and is still not allowed to watch
Harry Potter. I asked him if shortly after our first conversation about Harry Potter if he asked,
would he be allowed to watch it and he said, I probably would now since I am older but still I
do not know for sure if I would be allowed to or not. I would definitely have to ask and I would
not just go watch it on my own. I thought this was crazy because I do not ask my mother if I
could watch any movie, I just go and do it and if it effects me then I suffer the consequences and
learn from my mistakes. I think Josephs story goes well with my topic because his story matches
my argument. I think Joseph would like the Harry Potter story if he watch it but since he is not
allowed will not get to know if he would enjoy it or not. I believe if Josephs parents watched it
for themselves then decided if it was acceptable or not then they would not mind if Joseph
watched it also. There are a lot of biblical references in Harry Potter. When Harry is raised from
the dead so that good conquers evil is a biblical reference to the Bible when Jesus is raised from
the dead three days later and conquers all evil. Voldemort is basically the devil, Nagini is the
serpent which is also a horcrux that is part of Voldemort, and Harry is like Jesus who is sent to
save the day. Although there is witch craft and wizardry in the Harry Potter storyline, there are
also plenty of things that should be taught to children like how much Harry values his parents
since he never got to know them, and his love towards them, his friendship with Ron and
Hermione, and his confidence with Voldemort.

Pursuing Potter Ad

Where:
Time:
Diagon Alley
12:00 P.M.
What:
When:
Book Fair for
July 31
Children To
Learn More
About the
Harry
Potter
Books

For this last entry I did an ad that invites children to a book fair where they can learn more about
Harry Potter on a deeper level. Since many families do not know much about the books, I have
created a book fair where families can come to learn more about Harry Potter and what the
books have to offer. Espinoza says, Religious parents at state schools have complaint Harry
Potter glorifies witchcraft and want it banned from classrooms (par.1). I think the reason for
this is that the parents and they families do not know enough about the books to know any better.
If they do no want their children reading Harry Potter, then they obviously have not read Harry
Potter either. What they have read has been online about Harry Potter and they will read what
they want to hear. They are either going to read they the books are marvelous and a great story to
tell or they are going to hear that they story is good but the magic is a little worrisome. With this
book fair, we would go through each book and tell the pros and cons of each book to educate
parents to which the children would be exposed. Espinoza quotes Tom Bennett in his article that
says, If a parent confronts a teacher and says I don't want them exposed to witchcraft, a good
teacher will reassure them that exposing children to a broad range of cultural influences is the
schools responsibility and we can't shirk that (par. 14). When parents have concerns about the
content their children are receiving, they will talk to the teacher about what the teacher is
presenting. The teacher will most likely reassure the parent, in a respectable way, that they have
their classroom under control and know what is best for the students. He says the teachers will
respond and say the different cultures are very influential to the children. There is reasoning
behind everything presented in the classroom and the teachers know what is best for their
students. The teachers learn just as much from the students as the Students learn from the
teachers. The student teach the teachers the best way for them to learn and if the teachers see
something that works good for them, then they will keep teaching that way. If the teachers see

something is not working out too good and they do not think the students are really learning the
material, they need to then they will change it up and try to present it in a different way.

Works Cited
Andersen, Kara Lynn. Harry Potter and the Susceptible Child Audience.
Comparative Literature and Culture. 7.2 (2005): Web. 21 March 2016.
Espinoza, Javier. Religious Parents Want Harry Potter Banned from the Classroom because it
'Glorifies Witchcraft'. Telegraph. Web. 24 February 2016.
Halford, Macy. Harry Potter and Religion. The New Yorker. Web. 28 February 2016.
Jacobs, Cindy. Whats Wrong with Harry Potter. Charisma. Web. 24 February
2016.
James, Ken. Is The Harry Potter Series Truly Harmless. Christian Answers. Web. 24
February 2016.
Petre, Jonathan. J K Rowling: Christianity Inspired Harry Potter. The Telegraph. 24 February
2016.
Versnel, H.S.. Some Reflections on the Relationship Magic-Religion. Numen. 38.2 (1991):
177197. Web. 24 February 2016.