Christians: Do you think it should be alright to allow your children to watch Harry Potter?

Answer 1

Short and the point:

Christians in general regardless of age should not watch Harry Potter because of its themes.

Witchcraft has strong links with demons and if one buys these movies or stuff relating to Harry Potter, it is like bringing in demons to one's home.

Answer 2

I don't think this is a call for anyone to make for someone else, other than for a parent to make for their own children. In other words, I don't think, if I decide it's NOT okay for my kids to read a book or watch a movie or a television show, that my friends need to make the same decision for their kids.

That said, we love the Harry Potter books in our house. I consider myself a strong Christian and my husband considers himself an agnostic. This isn't a compromise I've made with him - I read the books first and then he did later.

Here's my opinion: Each book/movie/tv show has to be handled individually for each individual family/child. If I am going to be a responsible parent, I need to be involved in my child's world. So when I have the occasion to tell my daughter that a movie or a book or a television show is inappropriate for her, she will know that I'm not making an unfounded judgment but a decision based on what I have seen when I have really looked.

Do *I* think is should be alright to allow *MY* child to watch Harry Potter? Yes. Do I think that the Jonses or the Smiths have to give the same freedom to their kids? That's entirely up to them.

Answer 3

I've been a Christian for over twenty years.
I love the Harry Potter stories.
The idea that there is a race of people who can preform "magic" doesn't disturb me.
In fact the first time I saw the first movie, I really saw it to be a message to modern day Christians. We Christians have access to unlimited power through our words and our attitudes, and yet so many choose to never pick up the bible, (in the movie, their wands) and learn to use it.

As for allowing my kids to watch, of course, but both of my boys have autism, so they don't quite get the meanings like typical kids. Or at least from what I can tell...

Answer 4

So what's the fuss? As the Potter books grew in popularity, concern grew among fundamentalist Christians that our children are being indoctrinated in witchcraft and Satanism.

To this we say, rubbish! (Catholics)
We Catholics stand out among Christians for our sacramental imagination. It's a belief in an enchanted universe, as Friar Richard Rohr says. Today much of our world is dis-enchanted. If we can't see it, we don't believe it.

The enchanted world that so many older Catholics grew up in was a world where you could pray to unseen saints for intercessory help in all manner of situations, a world where we could believe without seeing, where we could look at things through the "eyes of faith," accepting that much of the cosmos is out of human sight. As we pray in our Creed, "We believe in one God...maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen."

It is this worldview, what Andrew Greeley calls the "Catholic imagination," that allows us to see that "the objects, events, and persons of daily life are revelations of grace." In a sense, you could say that this imaginativeness animates the Church.

Where is our sense of imagination born and nurtured? In the stories and events of childhood, certainly including imaginative fiction. In fact, fiction feeds the healthy imagination, which is one reason this publication devotes space to it. The healthy imagination opens our minds and hearts to the possibilities of faith.

Ingenious fantasies like Harry Potter, besides being plain fun, help develop imaginations. You might say that is more the case with a book than with a film, but that's another editorial.

The struggle between good and evil, difficult moral choices, the surprise of finding out people we were suspicious of are actually on our side—all of these are themes of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

No, God isn't mentioned in this story. One doesn't look for explicit theology in every story. But goodness and love themes are there. Harry discovering the mystery of his mother's self-sacrifice is one. Call it a type of "pre-evangelization" if you must. (click on link to read more)

Answer 5

It makes for a great movie but I think children should have a discussion with parent/gaurdian about the reality of witchcraft and demons! Depending on thier ages I would want to discuss what the bible says about the subject of magic, witchcraft!

Answer 6

Not at all. It exposes them to witchcraft and satanism.

1 Thessalonians 5:22
Abstain from all appearance of evil.


Christians should remove these books,movies and things like them out of their homes.

Answer 7

Let's just say ..IF it is okay to let them watch and read this kind of filth--then why aren't all you so called christians taking them to the full moon meetings of your local satanists and witches?

Any 'christian' who would do this to their own children????

Well, Jesus gave a very explicit warning- I'll let his words convict you:

Matthew 18:6-7, "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a MILLSTONE were hanged about his neck, and that he were DROWNED in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!"

Answer 8

I'm 23 years old, and even now when I'm at my parents' house, they ask me to turn it off if it comes on TV.

My personal opinion is that it's just like any other kids movie. There's nothing evil or bad about it that I've seen (and I've seen them all!) It's a struggle between the good guys and the bad guys, just like any other movie, and the good guys always win in the end... let your kids watch it. The more we shelter our kids, the more they'll want to rebel anyway.

Answer 9

My brother watches it and were christians , but I think it matters on the line of maturity and knowing and not being intrested or thinking you are a wizard.

But also Its not really of God, I dont watch them personally, not cause of thinking its not Godly just because I am not really intrested.

Answer 10

absolutly. if your telling yout child that it represents evil then that's what it will be. now if your teaching your child that it's a childs movie then that's what it will be. I think that Christians that say harry potter is evil are just plain silly