Tonight at Midnight the last book in the Harry Potter series will hit the stands.  The series is an international phenomenon with over 300 million copies sold.  However, the Christian community is divided over how parents should treat the series.  Should we avoid it like the plague?  Should we embrace it and simply enjoy it for its entertainment value?  Or should we teach our children to read it with discernment?  What’s a parent to do?

 

I cannot make such a decision for other parents.  As for my children, we have not been involved in the Harry Potter phenomenon.  I have seen the first movie and trailers, reviews and excerpts from others.  However, we never jumped on the Harry Potter bandwagon, nor have we allowed our children to partake.  We have done so for at least three reasons.  

 

First, this literature introduces children to a glorified view of the Occult (arguing that children should never read about occult practices would eliminate portions of Holy Scripture 1 Samuel 28).  Second, there is better, more wholesome literature available.  Finally, I disagree with those who argue that children need exposure to such material in order to be effective witnesses.  This last point was the crux of the argument put forth by Connie Neal in today’s BreakPoint.  Mrs. Neal is a Youth Minister and mother of three, and author of What’s A Christian to Do With Harry Potter?  I have not bothered to write about the Harry Potter phenomenon before, but today’s article struck a familiar chord.  Like many proponents of government education with whom I dialogue, Connie sees the Harry Potter material as a means by which our children can become Salt and Light in the culture.  Moreover, she finds biblical grounds for her argument in the biblical account of Daniel:

 

Daniel had immersed himself in his culture’s pagan literature in order to understand it. But, because of his deep devotion to God, he didn’t defile himself. As Connie Neal told BreakPoint, “God put Daniel in Babylon to be a light in the darkness—and he was. He was not afraid to read literature that resounded in the hearts of the people with whom he lived. He used his familiarity with this pagan literature to reveal the true and living God.” And Neal knows some kids who have done the same in our own post-Christian culture.

 

This is a familiar argument to those of us in the homeschool movement.  Many parents use this same biblical event to justify sending their children into anti-Christian government schools (Ironically some of those same parents take issue with government schools being referred to as “anti-Christian” while failing to realize that if they were anything other than anti-Christian, the Daniel reference would make no sense).  However, is Neal making the right point?  I think not.  There are several problems with this  proposed parallel.  

 

First, Daniel’s educational experience is narrative, not normative.  The book of Daniel tells the story of a man who was delivered by the hand of God through a horrible situation.  It is not a roadmap for the education of Christian children.  Thus, like with all narrative, we have to ask, “What are the timeless principles of this particular narrative?  Is the message of the book of Daniel, “If you want to reach the Pagan world, learn as much about Paganism as you can?  Or, is it, “Even if you are taken into captivity and forced into Pagan schools, the sovereign God of the universe can redeem you?

 

Second, Daniel was a captive slave.  Israel was taken into captivity in Babylon.  Daniel’s parents did not voluntarily sign him up for Nebuchadnezzar’s educational program.  They did not rush out to buy the latest Babylonian textbooks as soon as they came off the presses so that their son would be ‘up to speed’ when the kids in the neighborhood began to revel in Paganism.  Nor did Daniel look through a catalogue of schools and decide that his best bet for influencing the powerful Babylonian culture was to get his education in an environment that would undermine and attempt to negate his faith.  He was a captive slave who made the best of a bad situation.  

 

Third, allowing our children to be exposed to a favorable view of the Occult (or to ungodly schools) on the basis of Daniel’s experience is tantamount to “Putting God to the test” (Deuteronomy 6:16; cf. Matthew 4:7).  The fact that God protected a captive slave who was forced to submit himself to a Pagan educational system does not give us reason to do the same voluntarily!  That would  be like me saying, I was raised by a single mother and I turned out to be a minister of the gospel; therefore, it is acceptable to ‘pursue’ single parenthood in an effort to be more effective for the sake of the Kingdom. How absurd!

 

To those who argue that exposure to such material is necessary for our children if we want them to be ‘relevant’ and ‘effective’ in the culture war, I have only one question… Why stop at the glorification of the Occult?  What about combating child pornography?  Do they need to be exposed to kiddy porn in order to speak out against it, or avoid becoming victims of it?  What about Domestic Violence?  Do we need to drag our children into homes where men are slapping their wives around in order for them to learn that such things are wrong?  What about drugs?  Do we need to take them into crack houses and have them watch people freebasing in order to prevent them from becoming addicts?  

 

I want my children to be effective culture warriors.  I teach my children to evaluate films and literature from a worldview perspective.  We do not live under a rock.  Between my oldest two children, they have seen some 30 States and 8 countries.  We keep up with the news and current events.  We live a far from sheltered life.  

 

However, I have come to realize that I cannot prepare them for everything through exposure.  But that’s ok, because I believe the Bible when it says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God* may be competent, equipped for every good work.” (2Timothy 3:16-17)  That’s right; if I give my children a firm foundation in the word of God, they will be equipped for every work to which God will call them.  We need to give our children less World and more Word.