Why do SOME religious people (not all) protest fiction books that include witchcraft?

Question

The "magic battle" between Moses & Aaron and the Pharaoh's sorcerers beat anything in Harry Potter.

Answerers that have said bad things about the "occult".....what was the difference in the sorcerer's magic in Exodus vs Moses/Aaron/God's magic?

They did the same magic tricks........

Answer 1

Because religious people are already accepting myths, legends, and superstition to be factual it's not that much of a stretch for them to believe magic is real, and of course the fact that religions tend to demonize everything that they feel has the potential for taking members away from their churches and therefore money from their coffers as well doesn't help matters. For most churches you're not allowed to just read something and consider it fiction. After all, they don't want you to perhaps consider books like the Bible fiction either and it's filled with magical sounding nonsense.

Answer 2

I used to be on the "Harry Potter is Evil" bandwagon fairly blindly, though I am less convinced now. Still, I am not convinced it is good either. I stopped blindly clinging to what the church at large says quite a while ago, but it is still worth considering in the light of the Word of God. I'd like to examine the Harry Potter books/movies for myself, but alas, lazyness and lack of it being a critical issue to me has prevented me! I believe the main problem most Christians have with the books is that they believe they closely mirror real occultic practices. Many Christians read other books, watch other movies, and play video games with magic of sorts in them. Examples being the Lord of the Rings, Final Fantasy games (thats me right there), and the like. The key is 1 Corinthians 6:12, which says- "All is permissable for me, but I will not be brought under the power of anything". Are these things leading you into sin?

As for Moses and Aaron and Pharaoh's sorcerers, and their "magic battle", you have to understand just what was going on, and what exactly the sin of witchcraft or sorcery is.

There are two main differences between what Pharaoh's lackies did, and what Aaron and Moses did. One is the source of their power, the other is the focus of their hearts. Whether the sorcerers were using sophisticated tricks or some kind of demonic intervention I do not know, I would suspect the former. But Moses and Aaron were doing what they did by the authority of the creator, master, and owner of the universe, God almighty. This was not magic, it was direct intervention by an infinite power, which is completely natural and intended for the universe to respond to. The source of the power, however, is incidental compaired to the second difference.

The focus of the heart is where the sin of sorcery lies. The sorcerers were either exalting themselves, Pharaoh, their gods, or some combination thereof. They were, one way or another, comitting idolatry. Moses and Aaron were exalting God in His rightful place, as supreme master of His creation. They were not glorifying themselves or anyone else except Him. Sorcery, simply put, is idolatry in action (idolatry meaning exalting someone or something to a level equal to or greater than God).

Moses and Aaron, therefore, were not using sorcery, and it was not a magic battle. It was human arrogance being confronted by the Supreme Authority over the universe, and said Authority asserting Himself in His rightful place by showing human power to be what it is- finite, limited, and capable of failure.

Answer 3

I know that most protest them on a basis of children's books. I don't know any Christians that oppose Lord of the Rings. Many of them become concerned when dealing with media that targets children and exhibits witchcraft because children emulate their TV heroes. The vew is that it is one thing if a child emulates a ninja turtle and swings cardboard swords around, but it is another thing entirely if they are pretending to cast magic spells. Why the concern? Well, witchcraft is something that is actually practiced by people throughout the world, and many Christians are concerned about the influence it can have over their children. Most of those who oppose books like Harry Potter aren't really bothered by the books, rather they are bothered with the idea of their children emulating the characters, and thus they do not allow their kids to read them.

The devil wishes to corrupt every human soul and keep them from God, and it can be dangerous to give him footholds such as pretending to play at magic.

I personally find many such books very interesting, however I would probably not allow my children to read them before they reached the age of 12 or 13.

God's power isn't really to be considered "magic", it is His power over all creation. Thus it is natural for things to do as He commands. It was God working through Moses. However, yes, the Pharoah's sorcerers were using magic, it was an example of how God's power overcomes any type of magic that others might possess.

Answer 4

I enjoyed the first two H Potter movies tremendously. The last one went a little to much past "small children watch this" and since I am a small child at heart, I hope that the next one is kept upbeat and fun.

All this good battling evil for good stuff is too real for me. I need a little Harry Potter and Pink Panther mixed up together.

Even a book such as "One Foot in the Grave" by WM. Mark Simmons kept it upbeat.

Donald Duck
Donald Duck
Don't get stuck

Harry Potter
Harry Potter
We're starting to shudder

Vampire
Vampire
Don't make it too dire.

Goofy
Goofy
Fuzzy's gone to the dogs.

Marbles
Marbles
Fuzzy's lost his marbles.

Answer 5

Attached is a long list of banned and/or challenged books many about religion...I feel that they don't want their kids to read that stuff because they want their brainwashing to settle in first...

A quote "Zen Buddhism: Selected Writings. D.T. Suzuki. Doubleday. Challenged at the Plymouth-Canton school system in Canton, Mich. (1987) because "this book details the teachings of the religion of Buddhism in such a way that the reader could very likely embrace its teachings and choose this as his religion." The last thing we need are a bunch of peaceful Buddhists running around. The horror."

This is funny but its not...kids dont get to choose their religion, they are forced into it...it should be against the law...

Another quote from Thomas Edison, "he believed that education should provide the average citizen with the tools of reading and writing and that political and religious beliefs would be formed through the exercise of reason."

Since religion isn't based on reason at all, that is why religious wierdos whine and cry about books like Harry Potter

Answer 6

While I am a fan of Tolkien, CS Lewis, Stephen Lawhead, George McDonaldson, and have even read the Potter books (they have gone downhill over the series), I understand the concern of the parents. Many of those books glamourize the occult and can encourage children to want to fool around with things that the Christian religion forbides. Just as they would not want their children exposed to literature that glamorized drug usage or glamorized prostitution or glamorized serial killing, so they do not want their children exposed to literature that glamorizes the occult. As a parent, they have the right - even responsibility - to protect their children against things that they perceive as dangerous or damaging to them.

The Exodus incidence between Moses and Janus is an excellent example of why a parent would want their children protected from Potter and similar material. It shows the stark contrast between the power of God and the trickery of the occult.

Answer 7

The religious people who do protest fiction that includes witchcraft such as the "Harry Potter" series fear that their children will be seduced into witchcraft or something like it and eventually fall away from their faith. These people DO NOT have strong faith. Instead they, much like people who want to ban the old "Bugs Bunny" cartoons because they are too violent, fear anything that they are uncertain about. I'd say that a good portion of these types of people have never even read the "Potter" books or "Eragon" or anything like that. They simply see demons, witches, dragons, etc. and immediately fear it.

Answer 8

I'm a Christian and have no problem with Harry Potter in fact there is a lot of good morals in the stories . Also Lord of the Rings is fine written by a devout Catholic and of course Chronicles of Narnia by C S Lewis one of the greatest Christian apologists of the 20th century.

Answer 9

I have the same question... there is a mom at my son's school who will NOT let her children read "The Magic Treehouse" books but has no problem letting them read the "Magic Schoolbus" books... go figure THAT one out.

When I asked her, she stayed with the magic theme... no magic, against god. Um... MAGIC Schoolbus? Anyone? Anyone? Color me confused.

Harry Potter is a book about the classic struggle between good and evil... and good continues to win (though they have suffered some mighty huge losses). You'd think a Christian would appreciate that.

Answer 10

Many such people, rightly or wrongly, see references to the occult as a presentation of an alternate religion. Not allowing their children to hear about other religions is like not talking to children about sex, if you don't talk about, you know with certainty that they will never think of it on their own and experiment. Right?