Participants: David Shin and Steve Wohlberg
Series Code: BOF
Program Code: BOF000038
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00:14 I'd like to welcome you to Battles of Faith.
00:16 My name is David Shin and I'm here with Steve Wohlberg, 00:18 who's the Speaker/Director of White Horse Media, and we've 00:21 been delving into the supernatural from the Biblical 00:24 perspective, and the title of this series is 00:27 "Magic, Ghosts and the Bible." 00:29 "Potter Mania" is the topic we're going to study today 00:32 and it's a subject that's loved and hated. But before we get 00:34 into that why don't we set the stage a little bit for our 00:37 viewing audience that has just joined us at this time about 00:39 what we've been talking about up to this point. 00:41 Sure David, we're going to be discussing Potter mania 00:44 and the Potter controversy. It's no secret that the Harry 00:47 Potter books have been read and are loved around the world. 00:51 We're going to put up just quickly on the screen a cover 00:54 of a fairly recent issue of time magazine, and these 00:57 articles have been duplicated around the world, 00:59 they've been covered on major news networks all over 01:03 planet earth. That particular issue, you see a picture 01:06 of all these young people with Harry Potter type glasses, 01:09 the feature story says "Why Harry Potter Rules", and inside 01:14 that issue there's a quotation that says J. K. Rowling has 01:17 mesmerized an entire generation of kids with her story 01:22 chronicling the adventures of a boy wizard named Harry Potter, 01:26 who goes to a school called "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft" 01:30 "and Wizardry", and develops his magical abilities. 01:34 There's actually 7 books in the entire series, these are novels, 01:37 these are fantasy books that started out with a book 01:40 called "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone", and go 01:43 all the way through to the final book, the grand conclusion 01:46 called "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." 01:48 These books have sold approximately 300 million copies 01:52 around the world. Warner Brothers has committed, 01:56 this is the legendary film maker, to making every Harry 01:59 Potter book into a feature length, high budget film. 02:04 And not only the books, but movies are being watched 02:08 around the world by kids young and old, black and white, 02:14 brown, yellow, red...every skin color, every language 02:21 practically. I mean, Harry Potter is known, he's as 02:24 known as any boy has ever been. As I mentioned the last 02:29 book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" released 02:31 July 21, 2007, the photograph on the screen is actually 02:35 a pre-press copy of the final book, before the cover was 02:39 designed, but it's just amazing. The first book that came out, 02:44 "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone", the publisher 02:47 "Scholastic" printed approximately 250,000 books 02:50 for the first print run and then as you go on each book 02:53 has gotten bigger, and they printed more, and the last book, 02:56 "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", they printed a record 02:58 12 millions, which is...there's never been anything like it 03:03 in publishing history. For a hard cover book it's just 03:06 number 1. No other hard cover book in history has ever printed 03:11 12 million copies for the first print run. So, like I said, 03:15 kids around the world are reading Harry Potter and there 03:19 is a tremendous controversy going on about whether these 03:22 books are just fun, just fantasy, there's just nothing 03:25 to worry about. To Christians that are concerned people say 03:28 "Hey, lighten up, just lighten up and shut up, there's" 03:31 "nothing wrong with Harry Potter, it's just a story." 03:34 And then there are other people, a lot of people actually, 03:36 that are very concerned that these books are desensitizing 03:41 this generation, especially young people, to the dangers 03:44 of the occult, and are creating interest in real witchcraft. 03:49 So that's the controversy, is Harry Potter leading towards 03:52 magic or is it just a fun story? Is there a menace behind 03:55 - the magic? That's the issue. - I've read a little bit about 03:59 J. K. Rowling and it's a classic story of rags to riches. 04:03 She was on welfare, living in England, single parent and she 04:08 was on the subway one day and it says in her own account 04:11 that the figure of Harry Potter just walked into her mind... 04:16 - Strolled right into her head. - And rags to riches, 04:18 she's arguably one of the richest women in our world 04:21 - because of this book. - That's right, she's comparable 04:24 to Oprah, she's richer than the Queen of England. 04:27 You're right, rags to riches. She actually submitted her 04:29 manuscript to a number of publishers and they rejected it. 04:32 Finally Scholastic got a hold of it, and it just took off 04:36 from there, and there are many people that wonder whether 04:39 there's some kind of supernatural force that is 04:41 behind the incredible mega popularity of this series. 04:46 I'd like to read just a number of quick quotes here before we 04:49 get farther in concerning the influence of stories. 04:52 Here's a man named Howard Pile, he's a writer and illustrator, 04:55 and he made a classic comment. He said "The stories of" 04:57 "childhood leave an indelible impression, and their author" 05:01 "always has a niche in the temple of memory." 05:05 Childhood stories have an influence, they affect people's 05:08 lives. Here's another quote from E.N. Kirk, another classic 05:12 quote, he said "It has not been the Devil's policy to keep" 05:16 "the masses of mankind in ignorance, but finding that" 05:19 "they will read he is doing all in his power to poison" 05:24 "their books. ", quite a statement. 05:27 Books definitely do have an influence on people's lives, 05:31 so what about Harry Potter? This is our time to really deal 05:34 with this controversial subject. One of the biggest issues is: 05:40 is Harry Potter contributing to the craze, the explosive growth 05:46 of real witchcraft in our world? I think it's 05:48 significant, David, that people that are watching this, 05:51 that you keep in mind that we not only have the Potter track, 05:56 the fantasy story about a boy wizard, along with all the other 06:01 TV programs, like "Sabrina," and the "Charmed" series 06:04 that are fiction, but at the same time right on the other 06:07 track we have the growth of real witchcraft in our world 06:11 which we've been discussing here on Battles of Faith for the last 06:15 so many programs. So we've got 2 things going on, 06:17 we've got fantasy about witchcraft growing, and then 06:21 we've got real witchcraft growing at the same time, 06:24 and the question is: are they connected? 06:27 Is one feeding the other? Let me share with you a very 06:30 interesting document, I'm not going to go all details where 06:34 I got this document, but this is actually a press release. 06:38 It was released on the PR web, and it was put out by 06:42 the president of the witchcraft school, a real witchcraft 06:46 school that teaches young people, young and old, 06:48 how to practice the craft. And the title of this press 06:52 release is called "Witchcraft and Wicca, the heart of" 06:55 "the Harry Potter Controversy". Keep in mind, this is coming 06:59 from people that are practicing real witchcraft, this is their 07:02 perspective. It says "The Harry Potter has become a record" 07:05 "breaking phenomenon and is the 21st century's opening fairy" 07:09 "tale. Within the pages of J. K. Rowling's books she created" 07:13 "a world of wizards and witches, and she unwittingly exposed" 07:19 "the fastest growing religion in America to hundreds" 07:22 "of millions of people. This faith is called 'Wicca', " 07:27 "and its members are witches. It is at the core of" 07:30 "the controversy that Hogwarts school has created". 07:34 Here's a little bit more: "In 1997 a young mother wrote" 07:37 "a book called 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' " 07:40 "and it was published. Little did she know, nor could she" 07:42 "have imagined how much the world needed Harry Potter" 07:45 "and his wonderful story. J. K. Rowling created a phenomena" 07:48 "that brought magic to the forefront of human thought" 07:52 "and unwittingly reopened a new round of an ancient battle" 07:57 "between witchcraft and Christianity". Then this press 08:01 release says that "Harry Potter has rekindled interests in" 08:04 "beliefs that were already growing in the UK and the US" 08:09 "for more than 50 years, and that belief is called 'Wicca'. " 08:13 So this is, we could say, from the horse's mouth. This is right 08:16 from the president of a school that teaches real witchcraft to 08:20 young people, and this press release says that Harry Potter 08:24 has created an interest in witchcraft among young people. 08:30 So you're saying that, obviously in the press 08:35 and the media Harry Potter has been a phenomena, and for 08:38 a parent that's out there the natural thinking I would assume, 08:42 and for children alike, this is just innocuous family 08:46 entertainment, these are things that are just fantasy, 08:50 like Disney and so forth, so you're showing here that 08:53 according to witches themselves they're saying that Harry Potter 08:56 is actually advertising, or their medium for getting 09:00 the message out about Wicca, is that what they're saying 09:02 - right here? - That's what this person is 09:04 saying, and this person is not the only one, there are other 09:07 people in the Pagan community, other people in the witchcraft 09:09 community that are saying the same thing, so I'm not 09:12 the only one. I've been on a lot of radio 09:14 shows discussing this topic, and I know it's extremely 09:16 controversial, and I'm sure that there are probably people 09:19 out there watching this right now that have read the Harry 09:21 Potter books, that love Harry Potter, and if you are I don't 09:23 want you to feel like I'm condemning you, I just hope 09:26 that you'll have an open mind to hear me out, and we've got 09:28 a lot to discuss, and we'll just take a look at some more facts. 09:32 First of all, one of the main arguments in favor of Harry 09:35 Potter is that it's all just a story, it's just fantasy, 09:38 and it's not connected to the real world of the occult. 09:42 I beg to differ with that. J. K. Rowling herself has 09:44 publicly admitted that she's done a vast amount of research 09:47 and that 30% of what's in those books is actually the result 09:51 of real research that she has done in the occult world. 09:55 Now, the basic story line of Harry Potter is that there's 09:58 a battle between an evil wizard and his followers and the good 10:03 wizards, especially Harry Potter, good and bad 10:06 wizards. That philosophy, that you can be a good wizard, 10:10 is real witchcraft philosophy, that is the philosophy of Wicca. 10:14 The philosophy that you can practice white magic, which is 10:17 what Harry Potter's all about, he practices the good kind 10:20 of magic against the evil wizard, that is also real 10:24 witchcraft philosophy, it's promoted in the book 10:26 "Teen Witch" that we talked about on a previous program, 10:28 and many other books. The philosophy that's in 10:31 Teen Witch is in Harry Potter. One of the components of 10:36 the Harry Potter series is that Harry, when he goes to Hogwarts 10:39 School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he takes all kinds 10:42 of classes. He takes a class on divination, on potions, history 10:46 of magic, and he also takes a class called "Defense against" 10:48 "the dark arts" and he learns that he can use certain spells 10:54 to protect himself from the evil wizards that are out to kill 10:57 him. That philosophy is also in the book "Teen Witch", which is 11:01 a real witchcraft book promoting witchcraft to teenagers. 11:05 The lady that wrote that book, that's what she says, that you 11:07 can protect yourself by casting good spells against evil. 11:11 You can point by point and demonstrate that in spite 11:14 of the fantasy, in spite of the fiction, in spite all the goofy 11:17 elements that are within Harry Potter there are real components 11:22 that are connected to real witchcraft. And that, 11:24 going back to this press release that I referred to, it comes 11:28 right out here, and it says that "Harry Potter has many" 11:31 "components that are similar to Wicca". So the people that are 11:36 into witchcraft, many of them see it. As I've mentioned, 11:41 I've been on a lot of radio shows, I've been interviewed 11:44 on a lot of programs, both TV and radio, to discuss this. 11:47 Let me just share some very interesting information. 11:50 One time I was on a show in Seattle called "Live from" 11:53 "Seattle", and they were supposed to keep me on for 11:56 about 45 minutes, because the phones just went off the hook 12:00 I was on for an hour and a half, and during that show a woman 12:03 named Melissa, I still remember to this day, she called in 12:07 to the show and spoke to me and the host. She said "Let me tell" 12:11 "you my story, I'm a mother. I have a Christian home", 12:15 "my 14 year old daughter, she went out and read the first" 12:19 "Harry Potter book, 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's' " 12:22 " 'Stone'. And after going out and reading that book she went" 12:24 "right back to the bookstore and she began buying real" 12:27 "witchcraft books". And then she said that her daughter 12:31 began to have all kinds of spiritual problems and her 12:35 daughter came to her mother, and Melissa's telling the story, 12:38 she said "My daughter came to me and said 'Mom, I'm scared'. " 12:41 She said "I feel like the Holy Spirit has left me". 12:44 "What's happening to me? " And her mom said "Well, what's" 12:46 "going on in your life? " And then that's when she 12:49 divulged that she had been reading Harry Potter, 12:51 and then she finally got rid of those books because of that. 12:54 So there's one example, and I'll tell you a few more in a minute. 12:57 So you're saying that up to 30% of J. K. Rowling's material 13:00 is laced with real life witchcraft situations, 13:05 philosophies and so forth, and you've actually documented some, 13:09 or met, or talked with certain individuals that have evidence 13:13 of going from Harry Potter into witchcraft? 13:17 Yes, I have a friend of mind who is a good friend of mine 13:20 and he has a daughter that works at a Barns and Noble in 13:23 Nashville, Tennessee, and this man told me that his daughter 13:27 said, she's standing at the cash register, she's selling 13:29 the books, ringing up the orders. And this daughter 13:32 said that whenever a Harry Potter book comes out 13:36 and the young and the old, they just line up to get the book 13:39 she said that many of them not only grab the Potter book, 13:43 but they also grab real witchcraft books, right there 13:46 on the shelf, and they bring them both to the cash register 13:50 and they buy them both. There's another experience 13:53 that I learned about, it was shared with me from a friend 13:59 that lives in Paso Robles, California, where I used 14:02 to live. She goes to Paso Robles High School, she's a 16 year 14:05 old girl. She forwarded to me a dialogue between her and a young 14:11 man in an Internet chat room where they were just discussing 14:14 things, and this girl's on fire for the Lord, and she is 14:17 witnessing wherever she goes, so she was dialogging with this 14:20 young man, she forwarded to me the dialogue. She asked this 14:24 young man about the star that he said was on his neck, 14:29 he wore a pentacle. And he explained it, he said: 14:31 "It's a 5 point star with a circle around it, it's called" 14:34 "a Pentacle. Most Wiccans wear a necklace with one on it," 14:37 and she said "Oh, you're a Wiccan"? 14:40 And he responded and said "Yes I am". 14:42 Then she said "Did Harry Potter spark your interest" 14:45 "in witchcraft", and he said, you can see the answer right 14:48 there, he said "Yeah, it did." Now, let me clarify that I'm not 14:52 saying that every boy or girl that reads a Harry Potter book 14:55 is going to rush out and join a covenant, and become 14:58 a [solitaire] or a witch. Obviously that's not true, 15:01 but for anyone that has their eyes open, it is a fact, 15:05 and I can tell story after story after story, and this 15:08 is just a few stories, that many young people have become 15:11 interested in witchcraft because of Harry Potter. 15:15 Even though it's full of fiction, even though it's 15:16 full of fantasy, and there's all kinds of things in there 15:19 that are not real, there are things that are real. 15:22 There's real places mention, London is mention, there's 15:25 a subway station in London that is mentioned, there's countries: 15:29 America, Africa, Egypt; there are places, there are people, 15:32 like Nicolas Flamel, there's a lot of real witchcraft things 15:36 that are in there. J. K. Rowling has a Master's degree 15:40 in Mythology from the University of Exeter, and she, again, 15:43 has publicly admitted that 30% of what's in those books 15:47 is the result of her research into real witchcraft, so there's 15:51 a lot in there. And as I mentioned, when you look 15:53 at the Harry Potter philosophy and the story line you've got 15:56 good wizards, you've got them practicing white magic, 15:58 you've got Harry Potter going to school and learning how 16:01 to protect himself from evil by casting spells. 16:04 That is the philosophy of real Wicca today, and if people don't 16:08 see it, they just don't know what's happening. 16:12 It's my my conviction without a question 16:17 that Harry Potter is contributing to the Wiccan 16:21 craze, the Wiccan interest among young people. 16:25 I have another friend of mine that took a camera and went 16:27 to one of the Harry Potter movies, and he interviewed 16:29 people, he and his wife interviewed them as they were 16:31 coming out of the film, and there was a mom that came out 16:34 with her 2 kids, and they were asking them questions: 16:36 "How'd you like the movie? " And the mother said 16:39 "Oh, it was great, it was fun. " And the kids said "Yeah, it was" 16:42 "really cool". Then she started asking the kids whether they 16:44 could possibly become interested in casting real spells, 16:48 and the girl, the daughter, looked at the interviewer, 16:52 this woman and was nodding her head, and her mother looked 16:55 at the daughter and said "Don't you dare, this is just" 17:00 "a story", and the girl just kind of clamped up and just 17:03 looked back the interviewer and didn't say anything. 17:06 But you know, there's just a simple example right there, 17:08 and there's a lot of examples that I can mention. 17:12 I have a few statistics here that I picked up, it says 17:14 "The 6 books to date have collectively sold more than" 17:18 "300 million copies, and have been translated into more" 17:21 "than 63 languages", this is a phenomena that is sweeping 17:25 across our world, and it illustrates, like you've said, 17:27 the power of the medium of story that is becoming the agency 17:32 through which it's connecting with witchcraft and the parents 17:36 are saying "Hey, this is just innocuous entertainment," 17:39 but you've seen that it can lead to something deeper. 17:42 That's right, and people say, "David, it's just fiction. " 17:45 But the fact is that fiction is a powerful communicator 17:50 of ideas that do influence people's lives. Here's a little 17:55 quotation about fiction, and it says here, this is from 17:58 a British novelist named Virginia Wolf. She said: 18:02 "Fiction is like a spider's web, it is still attached to life" 18:05 "at all 4 corners". It's very interesting, I'd like 18:08 to share a Bible text at this point from Matthew 13:34. 18:16 And this is talking about the primary method that Jesus Christ 18:19 used when He taught. Verse 34, the Bible says: 18:24 [text on screen] 18:39 Jesus Christ, when He was teaching, primarily used 18:43 stories, parables are stories. And the reason why He did that 18:47 was because Jesus knew, He was the master teacher, and He knew 18:51 that stories communicate ideas, and that they're a very powerful 18:57 way of teaching people things, and that's what Harry Potter is, 19:02 it's a story, and parents that say that just because it's 19:05 a story we don't need to be concerned about it, 19:09 that is just modern ignorance, honestly, it is. 19:13 Stories are powerful, Jesus used stories. Here's something else 19:16 to consider, I was holding a meeting on this somewhere 19:19 in Northern Washington, and a woman came up to me and she 19:23 drew my attention to something in the Bible that I hadn't 19:25 previously thought of. She said "I've been thinking about" 19:28 "the name Harry Potter. What is a potter anyway? " 19:34 And I thought about that and I thought "A potter is someone" 19:37 "that molds clay", and then she reminded me of a Bible text. 19:42 There are a number of texts, there's one in Jeremiah, 19:44 there's one in the book of Isaiah 64:8 where God said 19:48 "I am the Potter and you are the clay". So God uses the term 19:54 "potter" to illustrate that He wants to mold His people. 19:59 So here you have a story line of a boy wizard who practices 20:03 magic, who's cool, and who mixes potions, and uses 20:07 white magic, and the kids all around this world are just 20:11 fascinated by, mesmerized by, absorbed by, 20:14 and what's happening is that this generation is slowly 20:18 and subtly being molded They're being molded, not just 20:21 by Harry Potter, but by a lot of other TV programs that are 20:25 making witchcraft out to be cool and fun, and exciting 20:30 for kids, and is it any wonder that we're seeing at the same 20:33 time that Hollywood is putting out all these stories about 20:37 witchcraft that we're seeing real witchcraft on the rise 20:42 all around us. There's a connection, 1+1 still equals 2. 20:48 So you're saying that the Harry Potter phenomena is contributing 20:51 to the growth of Wicca world wide. Let's go to this concept 20:56 of story, Jesus used stories. Now, let's say that there's 21:00 a parent out there that has Harry Potter in their house, 21:03 what would be your advice to that parent that has some books 21:07 laying around the house with Harry Potter, is it okay 21:09 to keep, or is it okay to read sometimes? Or what would your 21:13 recommendation to that individual be? 21:16 Yeah, I would say don't let your kids read them at all. 21:18 Obviously when people get older they make their own choices, 21:22 but I have a little boy named Seth, he's 2 years old, and when 21:24 he gets to be 5, 6, 7, 8, I'm not going to be buying him 21:27 the Harry Potter books. Now, when he gets to be older 21:30 than that, if he chooses to read them, that's up to him, 21:33 but when a child is young enough to be under the influence of 21:36 their parents, I don't want my child reading books that make 21:40 witchcraft out to be fun, that plant seeds. 21:43 Also I've mention this previously, I've recently gotten 21:45 into gardening and one thing you do in gardening is you 21:47 prepare the soil, and then you plant seeds, you put the compost 21:51 in, you [?] to till it up, and then you put those seeds in. 21:54 Harry Potter is preparing the soil and it's planting seeds, 21:57 and Wicca is reaping the harvest. The president of 22:00 a witchcraft school acknowledged that that is exactly what's 22:03 happening. Now, let me just kind of shift gears a little bit. 22:06 Apart from the whole witchcraft issue, when you 22:09 look at the character of Harry Potter himself, as portrayed 22:13 in the movies and as portrayed in the books, Harry Potter, 22:18 he's not really a role model for kids, at least for Christian 22:22 kids, at least for kids that really want to follow this book. 22:26 If you read the Potter books or look at the movies, 22:29 Harry Potter as a character, he lies, he lies a lot, he lies 22:34 many, many times for supposedly good reasons. He curses, 22:38 he swears, he has temper tantrums, he drinks fire whiskey 22:42 sometimes - he's an underage drinker, he does a lot of 22:46 things, he breaks rules over and over again at the school. 22:51 There's one particular scene in one of the Potter books where 22:53 his best friend, Ron Weasley is talking to his mother, 22:57 and this is what he says: "Mum, shut up," 23:01 and that's the British way of saying "mom", he says 23:03 " 'Mum, shut up', Ron yelled' ". And he's not corrected, 23:07 there's nothing that's apparently wrong with this. 23:10 So here you've got a series of books where Harry's best 23:12 friend is telling his mother to shut up. 23:15 Now parents, is that a seed you want planted in the minds 23:18 of your kids? Do you want them reading this kind of material? 23:22 I don't, my Bible says "Honor your father and mother," 23:24 my Bible says he who curses his father and mother 23:28 there's consequences to that, won't quote the whole verse, 23:31 but there's a lot in there. It talks about the importance 23:34 of children having respect for their parents. In 2 Timothy 3 23:39 it talks about one of the signs of the end is that kids will be 23:42 disobedient to their parents, disrespectful to their parents, 23:45 and I don't want my little boy reading a book where one 23:48 of the key characters tells his mother to shut up. 23:55 So outside of the Wiccan connection to Harry Potter 23:58 you're saying that there's other issues with Potter morals 24:01 that's involved, that he lies, he curses, he gets angry, 24:04 - he breaks rules. - These things are not presented 24:07 - as wrong in the books. - Positively. 24:11 That's right, it's just something he does, and they're 24:14 not corrected. Now what about the parent 24:16 out there that's saying "Hey, if I can't have them read" 24:19 "Harry Potter, which is all over, and the kids want to read" 24:22 "this type of material, what do I feed my kids as far as" 24:26 "a mental diet", what are some resources that we can point 24:29 them to? We want to not only say 24:31 that this is not something that we support, but at the same time 24:34 we want to replace it with something good. 24:37 Yes David, thank you for bringing me back to that, 24:39 you did ask that question. Our ministry, White Horse Media 24:42 has, on our website, a lot of resources for young people, 24:45 www.whitehorsemedia.com. One of the books that I strongly 24:49 recommend to parents to replace Harry Potter is the book called 24:52 "Pilgrim's Progress", which is a classic work written by 24:55 John Bunyan, it's an allegory, it's a story, but it has 24:58 affected people's lives for 300 years, it teaches morality, 25:02 it teaches purity, it teaches obedience to God, it teaches 25:05 humility, it teaches following the Bible, and those lessons: 25:10 humility, purity, obedience, faith in God, you won't find 25:14 those lessons one time in any Harry Potter book, they're just 25:17 not there. So we encourage something better, we encourage 25:21 reading the Bible, obviously, the most important book. 25:23 We do have a number of other resources for young people 25:26 "Pilgrim's Progress" I mentioned, is a wonderful book, 25:28 it's a powerful book, and we encourage people to look, 25:32 instead of to a boy wizard that's cool and practices 25:35 magic, we encourage people to look ultimately to one 25:39 particular Person, the Person above all persons, 25:42 and that is Jesus Christ. Here it says in Hebrews 12:2 25:47 that we are to be looking unto Jesus, and the Harry 25:51 Potter storyline Harry has an encounter when he's 25:54 a little baby with the evil Lord Voldemort, and a curse 25:59 falls upon him, which bounces back on the evil wizard 26:01 and it leaves a lightning shaped scar on his head. 26:05 So when people watch these movies they'll see Daniel 26:08 Radcliffe, who's the boy that plays Harry Potter, 26:11 who, by the way, starred in a British play without any 26:16 clothes on in a certain scene, so he's certainly not a role 26:18 model, but anyway, he has this lightning bolt on his head, 26:22 he has a scar. And all these kids around the world are 26:25 looking to a boy wizard who has a scar, and in my mind 26:29 when I think of that I think of Jesus Christ, 26:31 and I think "Why have kids focused on a wizard that" 26:34 "has a scar when they could be looking at a real man, " 26:38 "at the real Jesus, who has real scars in His hands" 26:41 "and in His feet, He had the crown of thorns placed" 26:44 "upon His head, and He did this because He loves us". 26:48 Harry is fantasy, he doesn't exist, Jesus Christ is real. 26:53 He loves boys and girls, He wants them to be happy, 26:56 He wants them to fill their mind, as Philippians 4:8 says, 26:59 with things that are true that are lovely, that are honest, 27:02 that are pure, the Bible says "Think on these things", 27:05 Deuteronomy 18:11 says that witchcraft is an abomination, 27:10 and certainly there's a subtle devil behind the scenes 27:13 that is leading kids to look at witchcraft, look at their hero 27:17 and to be molded in a direction that is not good. 27:23 My advice is look to Jesus, parents, put things that are 27:28 pure and good before your kids, and pray, and God will 27:31 - bless you as you do that. - We're about out of time. 27:35 Steve, thank you so much for sharing with us, 27:37 it's been enlightening. We've gone through this series 27:40 on the supernatural, and magic, ghosts and the Bible. 27:43 We've talked today specifically about Potter mania, and how 27:47 Harry Potter is linked, 30% of J. K. Rowling's books is linked 27:51 with witchcraft, we've also talked about the issue with 27:54 morals throughout the Harry Potter series, and finally we've 27:57 talked about this power of a story in dealing with this. 28:01 We'd like to thank you so much for joining us today for 28:03 Battles of Faith, and it's our prayer that you'll learn to live 28:06 by every word that precedes from the mouth of God. |
Revised 2014-12-17