Episode 15 - On Location in Scotland: Oprah and Harry Potter Author J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter Author J.K. Rowling

Recap
Hearing J.K. Rowling's accolades really is quite impressive. She's the first self-made billionaire author in history; her Harry Potter books have sold 400 million copies, are in 69 languages, and 200 countries. The final Harry Potter book, The Deathly Hallows, is the fastest selling book of all time, and the movie franchise has made $5.3 billion--and that's without what is sure to be a mega-blockbuster in the final two movies (The Deathly Hallows was split into two movies, and if you have read the book then you know this is for good reason!). The movies are already the most popular franchise of all time. The numbers are just staggering.

Oprah sits down with Jo in Scotland. Interesting tid-bit there: her name is Jo, and she has no middle name. Her first publisher thought the books would appeal to boys but less so if they knew a woman wrote them, so they asked to use her initials. Since she has no middle name, she used her favorite grandmother's name, Kathleen. Ergo the the famous J.K. Never knew that! They joke that her being a woman sure didn't hold her back.

Oprah and Jo discuss the difficulty of finishing the last book, saying good-bye. Jo says she loved writing the books and can't promise she'll never write another. She thinks she's done, but she can't ever say for certain that she's definitely done with Harry Potter. She isn't done writing, however. She describes the craziness of going from utter obscurity to insane stardom, likening it to being like one of the Beatles, only they had each other and she was alone.

Later, Jo addresses the criticism from the religious world (if we're honest, it's primarily evangelical Christians) about the books being too dark for children, that wizardry is evil, etc. Oprah says she loves that she read somewhere how Jo had said somewhere that she was not trying to convert people to Christianity when she wrote the book; Jo agrees with the quote and says she's not pushing any belief system. She says that there is Christian imagery, an allusion to a belief system in which she was raised. Jo says that the dark and scary aspect, she thinks it would be amazing if a parent found the books a bit "old" for their child and chose to sit down and read it together, to work through some of those issues.

The witchcraft side, saying you can never address it in a book, she finds non-sensical. She feels that the magical world has a draw to humanity that will never go away; she even denotes a quote that she considered using in the books, loosely paraphrased as, "In magic, man has to rely on himself." She notes that in religion, you're looking to a force outside yourself. She says she doesn't believe magic is real, but the appeal is the idea that we can look to ourselves to shape our world.

Oprah says the Potter theme is love, and asks Jo if she's made peace with god, if she'd call the greater power god. She says that she is in the process of making peace with god, and that she would call the spiritual force god. She later discusses her deep, deep depression that inspired the dementors, characters in Harry Potter who cause such despair that they literally suck out a person's soul. It was her utter lack of hope that led to the idea; she was only able to push on because of her young daughter.

Toward the end of the interview, Oprah asks Jo how she would define her dream of happiness. She quotes Dumbledore, speaking to Harry in the first book, saying, "The happiest man alive looks in the mirror and sees himself exactly as he is." Jo says she's pretty close to that.

The show ends with Oprah and Jo talking about seeing such a huge part of each of their lives come to a close, and how the only truly tough part is knowing what the ending does to the readers and viewers who walked with them. Jo closes with telling how a girl seemed to apparate out of nowhere and said to her recently, "You were my childhood." Jo is clearly still humbled and moved by this and we fade out.

Gospel Filter Review
The biggest piece that stood out to me is one I have wrestled with personally, and that is how Christians should handle the Harry Potter books. I myself remember telling a friend that the books were evil and that she had to throw them away. Not donate them, not hide them--destroy them. I was convinced by my church at the time that anything even referring witchcraft is pure evil and should be absolutely avoided, primarily because of this passage:

When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.
     Deuteronomy 18:9-14

I absolutely agree with God's Word that witchcraft in any form--any sort of spell, appealing to spirits, formal religions such as Wicca, religions that don't worship Jesus as God (Islam, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Buddhists, Hindus, Zoroastrians; every religion other than Christians who worship Jesus), tribal practices appealing to the spirit world (including nature, ancestors, and the like), god and goddess worship, fortune telling, horoscopes, astrology, the endless list of looking for answers, power, hope, etc, in anything other than the Trinitarian God--is evil.

The spirit world is real, but it's divided into two distinct teams. God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one team; everything else is another team, a team whose captain is Satan and whose goal is to trick people, frequently masquerading as an angel of light, to lure them into their own sinful desires that ultimately leads to death. Since I'm doing this episode as catch-up a week late, I can refer to a future episode that deals with these issues, the one that aired Wednesday, October 6 and seemed to me to be a manifestation of demonic presence. Read it for more about Satan and his influence through demonic forces.

While I agree with the Bible that we should abstain from all forms of evil spirit worship, I no longer maintain the position that Christians should boycott Harry Potter. I actually really liked the distinctions that Jo made. First, if a child is reading the books, I think a parent should read it with them. Secondly, this is because a parent can glean the redemptive themes and talk with their child about what God has to say. It's true that magic, as presented in the books, is all about what a human can do to look to themselves for wisdom on how to make the world better, or, in Voldemort's case, to use magic for his own evil glory. A parent can talk a child through that. A parent can talk their child through the fact that what's not evident in the books is that the real "magic" world in our day is one in which Satan reigns and a parent can talk to a child about why God says to avoid it.

A mother can walk through things like the potion in book 6, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, that makes a boy crazy for a girl. I remember reading some books my mom had about astrology and wondering if I could make my crush like me when I was in middle-school, if the stars would tell me we could marry. If there had been a spell book in my home I might have dabbled in that and tried to make my crush fall in love with me. These types of things appeal to most all young girls, and I would embrace the opportunity to talk my young daughter through the truth as we read the series together.

Similarly, Harry seems to constantly defy authority yet it's ok because Dumbledore always knows, in a God-like way, what is best and somehow Harry ends up doing it despite having a horrible disrespect for authority figures. I would talk with my child about this, seeking what God's Word says about authority, and whether or not that's the way it works in the real world, whether my child should look to Harry's example as one to model and why or why not.

To be clear, anyone who is tempted by the magical world should prayerfully abstain. Nor am I saying parents have to read them with their children. It's a matter of conscience. I no longer ascribe to the Christian view that says culture is evil so stay completely out of it, because I do not see that being what Jesus taught nor how He lived. But, for example, while I find the Bible giving freedom to drink without getting drunk, never would I encourage a former alcoholic to hang out at the local pub and witness to people if it tempted them. Similarly, I wouldn't tell someone who finds the magical prowess portrayed in the Harry Potter books to read them and seek God's redemptive truth. The individual Christian, or Christian married couple, should always prayerfully consider what they are ingesting from culture and ask the Holy Spirit to always keep them sharp and aware of their own motives. Our hearts are deceptive and quickly lead us astray, and again, there is a real enemy who hopes to lure our hearts away from God's will.

Personally, I like the Harry Potter books. I think they're masterfully written and leaving that world always makes me a little sad when I choose to read through the series (I've done so 2-3 times). I do love how they encourage imagination and creativity. I think that themes of selflessness can be redeemed, seeing how selfless Jesus was and how that's pictured in Harry's example of consistent sacrifice of his own desires for those he loves, but how Jesus is the one whose example is perfect and how Harry is actually an intentional allusion to Christ-like themes of laying one's life down for his friends. I don't think the series should be burned, and I wish I would have never told my friend to throw hers away. I guilted her with scripture without asking God what His heart on these matters are.

See, Redeeming Oprah wouldn't exist if my view hadn't changed. I believe that it's important to be Spirit led in engaging with culture, seeking what Jesus has to say about what humanity is putting out there. That's the entire point of Redeeming Oprah--what do we receive? reject? redeem? from her shows? There are still some things I stay away from. I would never practice witchcraft to try and redeem it somehow. I don't need to go commit adultery with another woman to know the Bible is true when it condemns adultery and homosexuality. But I can filter aspects of life and culture around me, as God leads, through the Gospel and enjoy the creativity of others, even those not living for His glory, while pointing to Jesus and hoping to see Him glorified in my life. The best part is doing a blog like this that encourages others.

So, ultimately, I am thankful for J.K. Rowling. I am grateful for her books, for the enjoyment I have had in the Harry Potter series (including the movies, which I also very much enjoy). I'm most grateful for the chance to see how the Gospel of Jesus' love, death, burial, resurrection, and redemption of those who belong to Him can be seen through her creative work, even when she doesn't intend it. I pray that she wouldn't have peace, or almost peace, with a nebulous spiritual force that she calls god; I pray that she and her family would know the ultimate, true, lasting peace of being forgiven of sin and reconciled to God through Jesus Christ and His redemption.


Up Tomorrow
Ultimate Amazing Animals: The Ape Who Has Conversations With Humans