Ignorance is bliss

Warning! HP spoilers ahead!!

Today is the fifth day since I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that I have picked up the book to read again some of the story and hear Rowling's powerful narrative of hope, faith, love and redemption. It has gripped me these last few days.

Tonight I remembered a silly article by Lev Grossman in Time titled, "Who Dies in Harry Potter? God." and looked it up to re-read it. It ticked me off then, but I tried to consider if fairly. I just couldn't get there, even after having read only the first six books. Now, after book seven, I wonder if he has any second thoughts about the analysis he applied in that article...

From that spot in the blogosphere, I managed to find far too many bloggers who are convinced that Harry Potter is a threat to Christendom. I am fairly certain that most of these folks have not actually read any of the previous HP books. They were, for the most part, doing an excellent job of quoting other people such as Mr. Grossman, and not actually any of the books or Rowling. And my guess is that most of these folks certainly have not read this last book. Uninformed though they may be, they are quite sure that a crystal gazing ball and the casting of spells and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah are the direct work of Satan.

Poor JK. I think she is owed one heck of a spectactular apology by the Christians who have been skewering her over the last 10 years. She won't get one, of course. But, thankfully, there are many evangelicals out there of a differing opinion who are speaking their appreciation for Harry openly. There's this relatively unknown guy named Rick Warren, for one. And then there's this great article from Christianity Today. An excerpt...

"When C.S. Lewis started out to write The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, he didn't have Christianity in mind. "Some people seem to think that I began by asking myself how I could say something abut Christianity to children; then fixed on the fairy tales as an instrument, then collect information about child psychology and decided what age group I'd write for; then drew up a list of basic Christian truths and hammered out 'allegories' to embody them," Lewis once wrote. "This is all pure moonshine. I couldn't write in that way at all."
"Everything began with images," Lewis continued. "A faun carrying an umbrella, a queen on a sled, a magnificent lion. At first there wasn't anything Christian about them. That element pushed itself in of its own accord."

It seems to me that where Christ wants to be presented, there's not a whole lot that can stop it. And it certainly makes sense to me that a book that sells 8.3 million copies the first day might be an ideal vehicle. And, obviously, to me, at least, He's there in this book. Pretty much everywhere. Which makes it very worth reading, by pretty much everyone. Me. You. Lev and friends, too.