Harry Potter, Read of Requirement

Harry navigates free will with courage, Rowling resists the petty trans-tarians

I know, I know. I’m 25 years too late to have a hot take on Harry Potter. When the books were first published, I was finishing high school and not interested in children’s literature. As the stories took the US by storm, I was living in Ukraine (then Mexico) as a missionary. To the extent that I paid any attention to the books, I had the stereotypical evangelical response: why would anyone want to encourage children in witchcraft? Like anyone who has been a missionary for long enough, I have stories of spiritual darkness that you might not believe. I take it all quite seriously.

Then I became a parent. I do not “ban” my children from reading good or great books. Instead, I want them to wrestle with challenging ideas with engaged parents while they are still in the protection of our care. There are, however, parameters. Firstly, they must be good or great books. The library is full of sexually subversive garbage books that don’t come home with us. Secondly, that does not mean any great book is fair game at any age - I’m not handing Nietzsche to my nine-year-old. I will delay books as needed until my children have the maturity and resources to handle the content.

Several years ago, as my oldest neared Harry Potter interest age, it was time to read them for myself. Rather than fearing child witches wearing striped scarves, I wanted to be able to speak intelligently with him about the books. (I don’t know who needs to hear this, but you aren’t qualified to have opinions about books that you haven’t read.) One weekend, I needed a book to take to the beach, saw it on the shelf, and thought, “Now is as good of a time as any.” Truth be told, I wasn’t blown away by the first book. But something about the imaginative world that Rowling created made me want to return for more. The advantage of being decades late to the party was that I could binge-read the books, which I did. Book Three was outstanding, and when I reached the end of the series, I can confidently assert that the series will stand the test of time. They’re fabulous. And Harry Potter is reading of requirement for my children before they leave home.

Why?

Because they need to learn to recognize the various faces of evil and to know how, even as children, to stand with courage. If there is anything that Christians need right now, it is courage. Especially in June. School is finished, and my mind is tired. I want to veg in a way that will be restorative, and I can’t focus my mind on, say, a re-read of The Brothers Karamazov while scanning the neighborhood pool to make sure my children are alive. But now I need to add something to the pool-friendly qualifications: a book that can take me through the horror of pride month.

I did not pay attention to pride month until this year when I read about a trifecta of haunting evil deeds. First, Target’s release of women’s “tuck-friendly” swimwear as well as their ill-fated collaboration with Satanist (?) transgender designer, Abprallen. Second, the Transgender, Gender-Diverse, and Intersex Youth Empowerment Act, a proposed California bill that would make a parent’s refusal to affirm their child’s gender confusion grounds for losing custody of their child. And, most recently, the New York City pride parade, in which colorful folks chant, “We’re here, we’re queer, we’re coming for your children.” (viewer discretion advised)

Back to Abprallen. Erik Carnell has a charming collection of rainbow-colored pins that can be viewed on his (?) Instagram. They include the following cheerful slogans: Heteronormativity is a plague. Burn down the cis-tem. Sorry you’re cis, get well soon. Trans witches for abortion. And, my personal favorite, Satan respects pronouns. Here are some of Carnell’s insightful thoughts on Satan and pronouns:

Satan loves you and respects who you are; you’re important and valuable in this world and you deserve to treat yourself with love and respect…Satanists don’t actually believe in Satan, he is merely used as a symbol of passion, pride, and liberty. He means to you what you need him to mean. So for me, Satan is hope, compassion, equality, and love.
So, naturally, Satan respects pronouns.

Indeed.

Ahem. Ahem. Umbridge coughs. Voldemort is not back. Satanists don’t believe in Satan. Satan is hope and love.

Harry went to detention for telling the truth. He named evil for what it was and wore a second physical scar as a cost for naming the truth. Each time he wrote a line, “I will not tell lies,” it appeared on his hand, written in blood.

My children are coming of age in a time when more than detention potentially awaits those telling the truth. I can’t protect them, but I can prepare them. They need this story. They need an imaginative pathway to what it looks like to tell the truth. They need an imaginative pathway to what it looks like to have courage. They need to know what can happen when the narrative of the wicked minority prospers in the silence of well-intentioned men and women.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

It is not only the evil without that my children (and I) need the courage to stand against: it is also the evil within. In Gulag Archipelago, the good Zek Solzhenitsyn famously said,

If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

Harry Potter. Harry Potter is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart.

The dividing line in Harry is visible in a lightning-shaped mark on his forehead. It is a mark that separates him, marking him for greatness. It is also a mark that directly connects him to evil. The tangible physicality of this mark as it burns and enlightens shows us what it means to live subject to the dividing line. But it is not the mark that is the ultimate thing; it is his response, his choice. Like us all, he has the complexity of good and evil inside of him. Within that complexity, his story reveals what it can look like to walk that line.

How? By choice. The Harry Potter series is the most accessible consideration of free will that I have ever read. The prophecy? All a choice. Voldemort believes in the prophecy, choosing the chosen one. It was only by believing the prophecy and choosing to take a particular course of action that Voldemort caused the prophecy to come true. But Dumbledore knows that the prophecy did not predetermine events. He says to Harry,

You see, the prophecy does not mean you have to do anything! But the prophecy causes Lord Voldemort to mark you as his equal…In other words, you are free to choose your way, quite free to turn your back on the prophecy!

My children were born with the internal dividing line in all its beauty and darkness. They have a family legacy of a failure to walk this line. There is a ripple effect from my father’s choice to circle the drain of self-fulfilling prophecy, refusing to believe that these prophecies were a choice. Harry Potter will tell my children a truer story about evil in its many forms and the choice available to stand with courage. When the rubber meets the road, it is stories that will show us the way to go. They help us to imagine what is possible.

In a tragic twist of irony, Rowling is in detention for “telling lies.” Like Saturn, the revolution devours its children. The same woman who made a superfluous claim that Dumbledore was gay now receives death threats because of her commitment to stand against trans-tarianism. Though she is not an exemplar of a biblically orthodox sexual ethic, she has drawn a line. While I would draw a different line, I admire her bravery.

Carnell’s company, Abprallen, released a pin with a new slogan several days ago: I transitioned to annoy J. K. Rowling.

She was just getting so worked up over something that had less than zero impact on her life…So I thought I’d just get really petty with it and transition just to annoy her more, I got a real kick out of that.

Imagine mutilating your body, God’s image, out of pettiness. Because you can.

These are disturbing advances by the petty trans-tarians. Aside from Harry Potter, I do not know of any other quality books suitable for children that can give them an imaginative framework to prepare them for this type of fight. Many stories show how to take up a sword - few stories show how to fight a war of truth, a war of words. Rowling describes a people largely asleep to peril. It couldn’t happen here. We’re not really in danger. Her story teaches children to pay attention. And when they do, they will see that Carnell is the one who must learn not to tell lies.