Do the Harry Potter novels encourage witchcraft?
The only area in which the series can conceivably be construed to violate Scripture concerns the Mosaic prohibition against witchcraft. The law of Moses not only prohibited witchcraft, it also required any practicing witch among the Israeli people to be put to death. To compare the witchcraft in the Bible with the magic in the Harry Potter series is really an apples-and-oranges comparison. The witches seen in the Bible gain their powers by trafficking with spirits that are opposed to God, and employ these powers in emnity to God’s people. The people in the Harry Potter series who have magical powers are born with them, and use them for ends that are either good or evil, depending on the temperament of the magician. To fail to draw a clear distinction between an inborn ability, and one gained from disobedience to the Supreme Being, is a failure in moral reasoning. In any event, what magic is a Harry Potter fan encouraged to engage in? The fraudulent clap-trap that is peddled on the New
