1999: It was a hot day in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho at Camp Sawtooth. It was my first summer on staff and I was excited about working with students and making a difference in their lives. A pastor from the Boise-area was coming up to be the Dean (speaker) for the 4th Grade Camp, and I had heard that she was “liberal” (uh-oh!). On the first day of camp, we were hanging out in the staff cabin when all of a sudden, Bo ran upstairs (we all had camp nicknames, that summer we were Mutt, Jeff, Nej, Bo and Beanie: I was Mutt) and started yelling something about the game she was playing with the kids. And, once she calmed down, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing…
The liberal was playing Quidditch with the fourth-graders.
Now, not real Quidditch mind you - that would have been difficult. But her own variation of Quidditch. This was a big deal for Bo, as well as for the rest of us, as we all thought Harry Potter was basically the devil. So, imagine our dismay when at the evening campfire, she began to use Harry Potter as one of her evening analogies (gasp!) - we couldn’t believe it. I still remember sitting on the back row of benches, just being utterly repulsed.
2001: I was standing in Costco in Spokane, WA looking at a table full of Harry Potter books. An older woman standing next to me began throwing copies of the books into her cart. I figured I should at least try one. Over the next few weeks, after reading theology and doctrine all day for classes, I would get into bed with Harry Potter and just couldn’t put the books down. I was hooked. All memories of thinking Potter was the devil were immediately gone. I became a huge fan overnight.
July 19, 2007: Sarah and I went to see the newest Harry Potter movie tonight, and I thought it was great. Sarah read through all of the books prior to this movie and the new book coming out this weekend, so throughout the movie, I’d hear, “That’s not in the book” or “It didn’t happen that way…” She had some different thoughts about it, which you can read here. She’s a bit critical, but I still liked it.
July 20, 2007: Sarah and I will be heading down to downtown Princeton as they turn Hulfish Street into Diagon Alley. We’ll be able to check out Snape’s Potions Class, Herbology with Professor Sprout, Ollivander’s Wand Making and get our fortune read in Dumbledore’s Office. We’re really looking forward to it.
July 21, 2007: We get the final Harry Potter book. Sarah will be reading it first - but I hope to be able to get around to it soon as well.
So as you can see, Harry and I have had quite the history. I’m glad I don’t still think Harry Potter is the devil - it probably would have made my marriage a little bit difficult. And I know I would have missed out on some great books and movies. Anyone else out there have a “conversion” in their thoughts about Harry Potter?
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
let’s put it this way.
it’s 1 am. i’m getting up in 3 and half hours to go and sit outside my borders at 5 am so that i can be the first in line to get a voucher/ticket to be the first in line at 9pm when the party starts.
further . . . i drove up there at 11 tonight to make sure there wasn’t a line already developing.
i feel like its christmas eve as a kid. i can’t sleep. i’m typing this now in the commercial breaks of some crappy dmx/jet li movie on tbs. this is what i’m left with tonight because i can’t sleep.
oh yeah. i’m liveblogging. you need to get in on that dude. we can liveblog together.
you need to take the day off. think of it this way . . . when the great gatsby came out . . . don’t you think a lot of people would have wanted to go back in time and be at the premiere.
this is for posterity!!!!
my history with Harry Potter…
i have a younger brother who got into the Harry Potter books while he was in elementary school. and i, being the good sister that i am, wanted to share some sort of interest with him (besides a love for Dairy Queen and Survivor). so, i started reading the books, too. it started innocently enough… he would read the book and then pass it on to me to read. we would then discuss our thoughts… pretty soon, however, i was sneaking into his room and reading the books while he slept. i am hooked!!
now, i don’t want to spoil this new book for you, but i did have a dream about it last night… Harry realizes that he is the “chosen one” and rather than have to fight Voldemort, he simply realizes that “there is no magic” and bends all the spells around him… before diving headfirst into the Dark Lord and destroying him once and for all. it’s pretty intense! :)
I started reading Harry Potter to my then 9 year old son and now he’s a senior in high school. I don’t have to read it to him anymore, but I am still a reader (and we see the movie this afternoon). But I won’t be hanging out at the bookstore, because I ordered it on line months ago!!
I hadn’t heard of Harry Potter until I became a Christian in 2000. Then I heard charismatic types like John Paul Jackson denouncing Potter.
Then I heard some other Christians say that Potter was actually excellent and not evil. Then I began to think that it was just irresponsible to let other people decide for me. So, I read the books and was instantly hooked. It may have been about the same time that I moved away from the “charismania” that so routinely found a devil behind every door…
Now I have family visiting this weekend, so I won’t have time to dive right in. I think that I might have to stay away from the internet until I’m done lest someone inadvertently let the cat out of the bag for me.
I grew up amongst folks that were also pretty crazy anti-Harry Potter and the ‘witchcraft’ he would lead people into, but never could figure out why it was so different from Narnia or Lord of the Rings, as I hadn’t read any of them at the time. My mom is the principal of a Christian elementary school, and was constantly dealing with parents trying to keep it away from their kids. I think the hype almost made me want to read it more.
The summer that the fifth book came out, I was working with a youth group in which one youth pastor and most of the kids were stoked about the new book, so I decided I should give it a try and see whether it was great or evil. I was instantly converted, and read the first five books in 9 or 10 days.
I went to see the movie at the midnight opening last Tuesday, and I liked it. Of course it’s not as amazing as the book, but the movies are quite fun!
I am so jealous about Diagon Alley… of all times not to be in P-ton! Will you post pictures?
Oh, and how do you play ‘muggle’ Quidditch like the one at camp?
My experience as a huge fan has been that most the “conservative” christians I know love harry potter and use it a lot to illustrate gospel talks (aka, young life uses it a lot).
On the other hand, many liberal “christians” tend to shy away from the polemical good vs. evil, call a spade a spade attitude of the books…
/Just the other side of the coin. People on both sides of the isle love harry potter….so excited for the final book tonight!!!!
This is Bo…
As the partial subject of this entry, (Harry is the star) I must speak.
I feel terrible but I don’t remember having that organic of a reaction…? Was I just being drama (this is a likely explanation, it was camp, I was 19, and the drama was flowing freely).
I’ve never considered myself at all conservative/charismatic so I believe my reaction was in regards to the silliness of the whole thing. Mutt from your account, it sounds like I was wigging out about Harry Potter, irritated that the pastor was using Potter as a basis for her talk and playtime.
If your account is the case, I regret that I lacked tenderness. Heck it was a fourth grade camp: full of kids bonkers about Harry Potter, right when the mania started. It’s a natural connection to use Potter themed talks at chapel…I’m sure the kids loved it. Perhaps I was being judgmental because I didn’t understand the
Flash forward nine years and my husband has converted me (we are picking up the book at midnight… on hold at Borders). I’m excited to start reading the series, it looks adorable and well written.
Thanks for the moment to reminiscence Mutt!
Hi Ringo.
“I would get into bed with Harry Potter ”
TMI, dude, TMI…
Dave - yikes.
Love HP, and read them to our boys when they were 9 and 10. It is still one of my favorite mom moments. We now have family HP rules and own 2 books for the sake of family peace. It’s been a quiet day.
I read the 6th books again today so I’d have something to do. Not preaching Sunday, thank goodness.
I love JK Rowling for lots of reasons, but especially because she has a heart for children with dead mothers, classical mythology, and the power of love. The boy who lived. Amazing.
Hi Ringo.
Hello my dear. Glad to hear you and your hubby are enjoying the books. They are son well written.
It would seem it is time for Harry Potter to penetrate the halls of Princeton, from an academic/faith perspective. I would really like to see what the big boys would say about it (particularly Drs. Hunsinger and McCormick)
I can’t believe so many can make a mockery of some people’s desire to “abstain from all appearance of evil”. If you don’t see it as evil, then that’s fine. However, if more Christian’s devoured the scriptures the way they do HP books, then I doubt the American church would be so spiritually impoverished! I wonder if there would be the same hunger to attend a midnight prayer meeting, as there appears to be for a showing of some trashy, unedifying, fictional claptrap!
I have four current posts on my blog to prove it… so yeah, count me as growing in my Potter paradigm.
While I have seen the movies to keep up, though, I wouldn’t call myself a fan… rather, an observant of it all.