Harry Potter + Personal Conviction
Author’s Note:
This is probably going to make some people feel some things. Before I get into this, I want to say that I am always up for discussion and debate. Respectful discussion and debate, and usually the type that are led in truth, logic, and facts. I won’t engage in emotional arguments. Please know that I am not trying to attack anybody or judge anybody. I’m sharing my experience, my understanding and am issuing a challenge to those who call themselves Christians. I do know that personal conviction is a thing and many things can fall under the umbrella of personal conviction. However, take the time to read this, take the time to read the words and see the points I make. Don’t just write it off based on the title and because you don’t immediately agree. Christians today are too busy only following those who tickle their ears or make them feel good or affirm their decisions and not enough of us are listening to truth and allowing ourselves to be challenged.
Second note: I did write about this in 2020. I no longer have that blog post and the video I linked in that blog post is no longer available.
I’ve said many times how big of a year 2020 was for me and my faith. 2020 was the year I started reading my Bible and actually studying it instead of just taking whatever my Pastor said on Sunday for all my biblical knowledge. When churches went online and the world shut down, my best friend and I decided to get our families together and do our own family Bible studies. We started watching videos and reading the Bible together. It was a very fruitful endeavor in terms of understanding Biblical truth.
After watching the documentary, American Gospel, we started watching videos by Doreen Virtue. Doreen is an ex-new age follower who was saved by Jesus and pulled out from her false beliefs. Her videos were (and still are) very beneficial because she sees how the new age has been infiltrating society and churches. In 2020, we watched a video where her guest said that Christians shouldn’t be watching Harry Potter.
That comment, that stance really threw me. I knew plenty of Christians who loved Harry Potter. I knew pastors who loved Harry Potter. I knew a few people who were against letting their kids read or watch Harry Potter and I saw others claim those stances were a little extreme. The guest on the video continued to explain how J.K. Rowling used Occult and real witchcraft to come up with her world building and magic building in the books.
Well, I don’t just take random people online at their word. We finished the video, we discussed it a little bit but (if I am remembering correctly) all decided it would take more research to understand. Well, Harry Potter was my favorite book. It was my favorite fandom. I once spent an entire summer re-reading books one through six, out of order, over and over again. I think I read each book a minimum of four times that summer. My first tattoo was a Harry Potter themed tattoo. I had spent large chunks of money on coffee table sized books about the movie making progress. I had the wands from Universal. Harry Potter was practically a culture I brought into my life.
I decided to do some research. I wasn’t going to wait around for the information to walk up to me. Was this guy even telling the truth? Where was the interview he mentioned? I can’t even tell you what this guy’s name is today and I don’t think I would have been able to tell you if asked back then either. I hopped onto the internet and got to digging.
Well, I found the interview. (I found it and shared it on the original blog post, but alas, finding it four years ago was hard because it was an old interview even in 2020. It is even harder to find now due to all the J. K. Rowling press that has been going on over her stances on transgenderism, upsetting society. While I cannot point you to the interview right now, I will continue to look for it and if I find it, I will update this post.) I read, with my own eyes, the article where she admits to using up to 70% of her magic and world-building inspired by Occult and witchcraft. I took that information and struggled with it. Eventually, I came to the conclusion, after much wrestling, that Harry Potter had to go from my life.
It is important to mention that I have spent most of my life plagued by nightmares. I had nightmares as a child, (five and six years old) that were so vivid, so terrifying that I remember them very clearly to this day. I can tell you about them as if I had the nightmare last night. I’ve had dreams where I figured out that I was in a dream,(because being chased by a T-Rex in your own house isn’t actually possible) so I would scream at myself to wake up, in my dream, as if I could force myself out of the dream that way. I trained myself to fall asleep with the TV on, selecting animated movies and shows because the animated movies and shows didn’t trigger more nightmares. There was a lot of Spongebob in my life so I could sleep, trying to not have a nightmare. The early days of Spongebob, just so we’re clear. Children’s movies, filled with bright colors and jokes were the best ones because if the movie ended up in my dream, it wasn’t as terrifying. I was able to reconcile it as a dream and let go of it quicker. I never went to sleep in the dark, without the TV or else I would have nightmares. Sometimes, I found myself in a situation where I had to sleep without a TV and I had to find new tricks to help keep the nightmares not so intense or terrifying. As I got older, it was such a normal part of my life that the goal wasn’t to not have nightmares. The goal was to have tolerable nightmares, ones that didn’t make my heart race and make me wake up in a cold sweat. My goal was to not have nightmares that haunted me. I discovered that if I listened to Dane Cook (yes, the comedian) on my iPod, I could sleep without intense nightmares. It was how I got through my senior year when I lived with my best friend growing up and we didn’t have a TV in our room.
I had all the little hacks and tricks in order to get some sleep. Even then, the sleep would never be great. I still woke up a bunch throughout the night. I still had nightmares. They were just tolerable. I was achieving the goal. Once I got married, I trained my husband to fall asleep with a TV on because there was no way I was changing. I couldn’t risk it.
I say all that because I really want you to understand what I went through with these nightmares. These weren’t nightmares that happened occasionally. For most people, nightmares are rare. For me, not having a nightmare was rare. It was extremely rare. What do my nightmares have to do with Harry Potter though? Great question!
I decided that I had to let Harry Potter go. I wrestled with the decision but I got the place of where it didn’t matter what Harry Potter meant to me. It didn’t matter that it gave me hope or cured boredom or helped me through some hard times because I had a place to go and distract myself with fictional problems. If what I read and heard was true and there was real witchcraft in the book, it goes directly against God. The witchcraft in Harry Potter goes directly against what God tells us, to stay away from witchcraft.
Deuteronomy 18:10-13: There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, a soothsayer, one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who consults the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord; and because of these detestable things the Lord your God is going to drive them out before you. You are to be blameless before the Lord your God. (NASB)
I choose God. There is no neutral ground when it comes to this world. Jesus makes this clear in Matthew 12:30: The one who is not with Me is against Me; and the one who does not gather with Me scatters.
I started going through my house and throwing away every single Harry Potter object I owned. I got rid of my movies, my books, my wands. I got rid of the expensive coffee table books. I was like a tornado, searching everything and eliminating all Harry Potter related items. I repented of my tattoo and asked for forgiveness. I asked God for for forgiveness for allowing this sin in my life. I asked God for forgiveness for whatever hold it might have had on me, allowing me to view it as an idol. I wasn’t sure of the extent of my sin so I was just asking God for forgiveness.
The nightmares stopped that night.
When I first wrote about this, I was a few months away from giving up Harry Potter and I had a few months of no nightmares to boast about. Today, I can tell you that I haven’t had a nightmare in four years. Not a single one.
Let’s take a little bit to unpack this. I think I know what some arguments might be for this. I want to attempt to address them. I know when I first shared this story the words “personal conviction” were thrown around a lot.
Was Harry Potter an idol in my life and causing the nightmares?
In short, no. Could Harry Potter have been an idol? Absolutely. Could I have loved Harry Potter as much as I loved God? Possibly. Was I putting God where he should have been in my life at this time? Possibly not but at the same time, I did believe that God was first in my life during this time. It was because I wanted to know him better that I even started studying my Bible. I don’t think Harry Potter being an idol is as important of a question as the question of whether it was causing the nightmares. While I don’t claim to have a perfect memory, I know I had nightmares as a child that was young enough to go running to my parents and their bedroom every time I had one. I was at the young age where mom and dad’s bedroom was safe. There were many nights my dad would come home from work and find me on the floor of their bedroom and put me back in my own bed. I also have key points from my childhood that tells me that my nightmares started at a really young age. My mom got sick when I was seven and eventually had to sleep in a hospital bed that was set up in the living room downstairs. When I got freaked out, I would sleep in the Lazy Boy chair adjacent to her bed. I started reading Harry Potter after my mom was in her hospital bed. My nightmares predate my ever opening a Harry Potter novel. It is hard to believe that the nightmares were caused by something I hadn’t “idolized” yet.
Is this a matter of personal conviction?
This one is tougher to answer. I mentioned earlier that the original video I watched is no longer available. However, a year ago, Doreen Virtue interviewed a man who created a documentary about Harry Potter and how Christians should stay away from it. While parts of the video might seem like extreme thinking, something that really stood out to me is that both these people have been rescued by Jesus from the New Age movement and beliefs. They only sound extreme to us who haven’t been exposed to that darkness. They’re not willing to deal with anything that might have a centimeter of similarity of the Occult or witchcraft because they know how harmful it is. I refuse to let Harry Potter near me or my family because I know what it was like to be plagued by nightmares. I was plagued by nightmares and I never once thought to mention it to someone or even seek help for them. I just learned how to tolerate them and make them barrable.
Even when I have shared this story with others in conversation, I have been told that I’m getting into legalistic territory and that personal conviction is a thing. Personal conviction is a thing but everything in the modern world cannot be a matter of personal conviction. The world of Christianity is terrifying right now when you look at statistics of people who claim Christianity but will also say that they don’t believe the Bible. What we see in Christianity today could very well be a product of letting everything be a matter of personal conviction and letting everybody else figure it out themselves. Can we speak truth? Can we look to the Bible and see what the Bible says?
The Bible is clear about witchcraft and how it goes against God. I already shared Deuteronomy. Let’s look at what Paul says in Galatians.
Galatians 5:19-21 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: sexual immorality, impurity, indecent behavior, idolatry, witchcraft, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Does that sound like a personal conviction issue? It is starting to sound like something we might need to consider seriously.
Without the interview link, this is just speculation. Maybe J. K. Rowling didn’t use Occult or other pagan magic systems for her books.
Okay, maybe she didn’t. That’s a big maybe, especially when you consider how in the third book of Harry Potter they start a divination class and it goes in depth on how to read tea leaves. Harry and Ron read their tea leaves, being instructed on how to understand the images and symbols through the teacher and textbook. It would be quite a feat to create an entire magical system from your brain, yet it similar to what Wiccans and pagans practice.
“ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
I’ll end with this. If it is true and she did use Occult and other pagan magics to create her world and her magic system— this is something Christians should stay far away from. God tells us to steer clear of witchcraft and sorcery.
If it isn’t true and she didn’t use Occult and other pagan magics to create her magic system—why should it be okay for the Christian? It still talks about witchcraft and magic as if we have powers that we can unlock and use for our own power. What about Harry Potter glorifies God or points us to God? What part of scripture welcomes the things in Harry Potter?
“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by people.”
As I said in the beginning of this post, my goal is not to judge anybody who likes Harry Potter or has enjoyed it. I don’t know why my nightmares stopped when I decided to get rid of Harry Potter. Perhaps that was the moment of my true conversion to Christ (which I have talked about). Perhaps it was an idol and my memory is faulty. One thing I cannot ignore though is that I don’t have nightmares and I live in a world where a lot of false beliefs are seeping into Christianity. So, I want to speak truth. I want to point the Christian woman back to the Bible. I want to encourage others to turn away from sin. Sometimes, we have to give things up in order to follow God. In fact, if the Bible is anything to go by, giving things up is required in order to follow God.
P.S. The Bible is always the thing to go by.