I became a born again Christian on January 27, 2007. It was literally and figuratively being a new person. I am a new Christian, a toddler if you can call it, so I have a lot more learning to do.
As I walk with Lord, I have come to face my past. One of my past is being quite the Harry Potter fan. I remember getting involved in heated discussions with "narrow-minded" parents who have strongly opposed reading HP in the English class. I remember a lot of things from my old life, and I just shake my head and laugh to myself. Now back to "the one who lived." I remember reading the 7th book in record time, 7 hours and 10 minutes. I read the book within 24 hours. I', sure I'm not the only one with such fanatic tendencies.
But since becoming a Christian, I just felt a natural ebbing away of my enthusiasm regarding anything Harry Potter. I have not even had a recent viewing of any for the 5 movies (all of which I have on DVD) OI have all 8 books in on my shelves, but for some reason, the excitement is not there.
I am glad to have read Chapter 5 of Convergence Culture. I can relate to the dilemma of which side to take. What is a Christian to do?
I was enlightened that some Christians are taking different approaches to deal with Harry Potter and how huge it has become in our culture. I agree with some christian groups who have taken discernment as an approach to look at HP and use it as a means of
strengthening our faith and evaluate the book from a Christian standpoint. I still give credit to JK Rowling for creating readers in a generation of computers, TV, and video games.
I am not going to burn my copies of HP. Maybe on of these days, after grad school, I will read it again and look at it from a Christian discernment standpoint, and maybe share something with my students in Sunday school.
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It's unfortunate that well-meaning people can cast such strong judgments on things for which they have no direct experience. If HP were only about occult powers than it'd be pretty understandable why Christians would stand against the series. But that's not all what the books are about. Rather, it's about doing the right thing with the powers (gifts) you've been given in life and that you are going to be tested as to whether you are really willing to stand up for what is right. Hmmm, I wonder who else has called us to do the right thing in the face of whatever difficulties life presents to us?
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