Harry Potter and Christianity

So the new Fantastic Beasts trailer recently came out and I wanted to address an issue that I’ve seen for years surrounding Harry Potter. I’ve read and watched through the series annually for the past several years (as you do when you’re a devout Potterhead such as myself) and something that’s always irritated me is the group of Christians that claims the franchise is “satanic” or “supports witchcraft.” If you’re one of those people, I’ve just got one question for you: Have you even read the books or seen the movies? Everyone is entitled to their informed opinion, but no one is entitled to be an ignorant flea that sucks the fun out of other people’s leisure activities.

If you’ve read Harry Potter, you know the basic plot: An 11-year-old kid gets sent to a magic boarding school and dukes it out with a dark wizard all the way through his educational career. The series is so much better and more innocent than some Christians think. While, yes, the students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (“witch” is Rowling’s term for a female wizard. Outside of the name, Hogwarts doesn’t condone witchcraft) do speak basic Latin incantations and zip around on broomsticks, the magic is really no more sacrilegious than that from your typical Disney classic. If you want to argue against magic in any and all capacities, I’ll need to write an additional post for your brand of lunacy, but most people don’t have a problem with Cinderella’s pumpkin carriage or Tinkerbell’s ability to fly. From a purely contextual standpoint, Potter doesn’t cross any huge lines in regards to sorcery.

Now, full disclosure, I’ll be spoiling some pretty major twists and events below this line, so you’ve been warned.

Alright, still with me? Now I’m going to talk about the Deathly Hallows and Horcruxes, because some people could understandably have a problem with a person aside from Jesus becoming the Master of Death and attaining immortality. If this is your case, again, I’m sorry for your unfortunate and likely incurable state of ignorance, but I hope to open your eyes to the legendary epoch that is Rowling's magnum opus. The Deathly Hallows are three incredibly powerful magical items that have been passed down for generations in the Wizarding World. They are as follows: The Elder Wand (the most powerful wand in existence), The Resurrection Stone (which can revive spirits that have moved on to the afterlife), and The Cloak of Invisibility (exactly what it sounds like; it also keeps you safe from Death). Now the Cloak and Elder Wand are pretty reasonable by most people's standards, but I suppose the Resurrection Stone could potentially be problematic for some... more sensitive individuals. Really all I can do for you if you're upset about a life-giving rock is tell you to take some deep breaths and listen to what the thing actually is and does. The Stone is only used once at the very end of the series when Harry is about to confront the Dark Lord. Harry flips the Stone three times and says "I am about to die." This causes the relic to shine and Harry is suddenly surrounded by the spirits of his parents who died when he was a child, his godfather who died shortly after getting to know Harry, and some of his best friends and mentors who had been killed defending Hogwarts. Obviously this is an emotional scene, and frankly it's kind of hard to be offended by it. The orphaned wizard's parents get to talk to and encourage him right before he heads to his inevitable death! If you don't think that's at least sort of poetic and sweet, I really don't know what to tell you. When you realize that this is as far as necromancy goes in the series, maybe you'll start to understand how misunderstood Ms. Rowling's work is.

Now on to Horcruxes, the more wicked and evil route to immortality in the Wizarding World. Horcruxes are physical, earthly items that a wizard imprints parts of his soul upon after committing an act of murder. As long as one Horcrux remains in tact, the wizard who created it cannot be killed. In the series, Lord Voldemort (the dark wizard of which most wizards refuse to speak) murdered seven people in order to create seven Horcruxes. This split his soul beyond hope of repair, but it made him invincible, allowing him to achieve tremendous power and influence. Voldemort was unstoppable and unchallenged until a mother's act of unconditional love and sacrifice caused the Dark Lord's killing curse to rebound upon himself. Although he was un-killable because of his Horcruxes, Voldemort was reduced to a mere phantom, forced to leech off of the strength and life of others in order to survive. The baby he attempted to kill, however, was unharmed aside from a lightning scar emblazoned on his forehead. In case you're a little slow, that baby was Harry Potter. Harry was able to grow up as a healthy, smart boy until Voldemort was resurrected (don't freak out, sensitive Christian) when he was fourteen. The two wizards became locked in a lifelong struggle for survival and victory. It had been prophesied (Ack! Hide from the heresy! It's too much for my good, Christian home!) before Harry's birth that "either [Harry or Voldemort] must die by the hand of the other for neither can live will the other survives." This meant that Harry would need to either kill or be killed by his archenemy. For years, Harry evaded Voldemort, but during his sixth and seventh years at Hogwarts he began searching for and destroying Voldemort's Horcruxes. Vanquishing the Dark Lord would be impossible without obliterating all seven of them and Harry's Horcrux-hunting quest came to an end during the final battle for Hogwarts. After killing countless students and teachers, Voldemort called out to Harry, claiming that he would order his armies to spare the school if Harry would come into the Forbidden Forest to surrender and die. Knowing that he would have to face the Dark Lord one way or another, Harry said goodbye to his friends and entered the Forest. Voldemort chanted the killing curse and struck the Boy Who Lived down.

This is where it gets interesting. After his death, Harry saw his old headmaster, Dumbledore, in a sort of Purgatory. The old wizard explained how Harry was at a crossroads where he could choose to move on to the true afterlife or head back to vanquish Voldemort. Dumbledore explained how the Dark Lord's original curse had rebounded when Harry was a baby, "murdering" Voldemort and imprinting part of his soul on the nearest usable vessel: Harry himself. So Harry had been Voldemort's eighth Horcrux his entire life, never knowing that he, too, was immortal. In Purgatory, Harry saw a train that looked exactly like the one that had taken him on his original journey to Hogwarts. He asked Dumbledore where it would take him, to which the old, wise headmaster simply responded "on." The ancient wizard added that it might be possible for Harry to catch a train back to his life with his friends, and Harry spotted another locomotive pulling into the station. The Boy Who Lived woke up in the Forbidden Forest, the final Horcrux in him destroyed. Harry rose to his feet and dueled with the Dark Lord, ultimately reflecting Voldemort's killing curse upon him once more. His enemy defeated once and for all, Harry was reunited with his friends and lived the rest of his days in peace (we don't talk about the pile of garbage that was the Cursed Child).

So that's Harry Potter in a nutshell. Rowling's series is a million times better than my brief synopsis, so you should definitely pick it up if you haven't yet. Hopefully I've addressed some of the concerns that like five or ten vocal Christians across the United States have with Hogwarts, the Wizarding World, and Harry himself. Thanks for reading, have a great day, and get reading. Mischief Managed.