Is reading Harry Potter books a sin?
Interesting story about Christians and Harry Potter:
ChristiaNet.com (http://www.christianet.com), the world’s largest Christian portal with twelve million monthly page loads, conducted a new poll by asking the question, “Is reading Harry Potter books a sin?” The participants were given three choices; “Yes,” “No” and “Unsure.” Bill Cooper, President of ChristiaNet, says, “Christians need to be prepared to protect their children from evil being passed off as an acceptable form of entertainment.”
Out of 3,126 participants, 41% responded “No” to the poll question. Most in this group felt the Harry Potter books were merely fictional stories about good versus evil read only for entertainment. As one reader stated, “It’s no more a sin than reading other fantasy literatures.” Many compared the books to stories such as “Lord of the Rings” or “The Chronicles of Narnia” where the use of magic and sorcery exists. Others acknowledged that witchcraft is a sin, but as long as the reader was not reading for the purpose of acting out the principles of witchcraft then reading the books would not be considered sinful.
Because the books encourage witchcraft and expose the occult to its young readers, thirty-five percent of those polled felt reading Harry Potter books is a sin. Many Believers expressed their concerns with comments like “The Bible says that witchcraft is a sin.” While others quoted Scriptures like 1 Thessalonians 5:22 that states, “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” Some in this group were extremely animated in their responses such as “Harry Potter is one of the vilest pieces of literature unleashed on our children today.”
The remaining 24% of the Christians polled were “Unsure” if reading such books is a sin. The majority of them were not familiar with the Harry Potter books; either had never heard of the series or just had no motivation to read them. The rest of the “Unsure” group leaned toward it not being a sin with comments like “It’s just entertainment” and “If God convicts you, then it’s a sin for you.” With almost two-thirds of the Christians polled believing it’s okay to participate in entertainment that does not glorify God, ChristiaNet asks the question: “Are Christians really any different than non-Believers?”
As a Christian myself, I can say with a clear conscience that NO, I do NOT believe that reading Harry Potter books is in any way a sin. I think that’s utter bollocks, actually. What do you think?
Tags: christians-and-harry-potter, Harry PotterRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Harry Potter, Harry Potter Books
3 opinions for Is reading Harry Potter books a sin?
Sarthak K
Jul 26, 2007 at 10:04
Of course its not a sin to read and enjoy Harry Potter - whichever religion you might be! It does not glorify witchcraft, but rather constitutes a fight between good an evil…and as those who have read the final book know, good has definitely triumphed over evil. If it was the other way round, then it might have been different!
bethany
Aug 7, 2007 at 20:11
no it is not a sin, only if you go arond in robes with a stick saying ‘there is no god i am magical’ and start muttering weird words
Moriarty Matheson
Jan 8, 2008 at 08:51
One wonders if it has ever occurred to these nice, wonderful, “good” Christians, to ever read the books cover-to-cover. No? Well, lets see then, Harry is a LIGHT wizard; he repelled a DARK wizard when he was a baby, through the POWER OF LOVE. Before I go any further, one must point out, that the bible clearly states “and the greatest of these is love.” Now, Harry fights against EVIL, and eventually triumphs over EVIL, thus saving the world from these DARK wizards and witches.
In addition to this, the poor child does NOT flaunt his wealth but in fact CONTINUOUSLY tries to share it with his poor friends. Harry has stated several times that he does not like being famous or the fact that he has to kill somebody, (due to a prophecy, kinda like the ones in the Bible).
In short, this story does NOT encourage children to be evil, it does NOT encourage cultists to rise up against you paranoid people, and it is NOT a sin to read Harry Potter for entertainment and an escape from this world for another. Oh, btw, I’m a Christian too…
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