What's a Christian to Do with Harry Potter?
by Connie Neal
'What's a Christian to do with Harry Potter?' and 'The Gospel According to Harry Potter : Spirituality in the Stories of the World's most Famous Seeker'.
In 'What's a Christian to do with Harry Potter' Connie Neal is critical of the more ill-informed type of Christian response to the Harry Potter books, but in an oddly apologetic way. She points out that the Harry haters and book burners have been known to base their opinions on information from websites that are openly intended as satirical rather than factual - the infamous Onion article that is so often trotted out as 'evidence' - and so risk making the viewpoint they represent appear ridiculous. Even so she seems to be speaking as a very reluctant dissenter.
She is at pains to find ways in which the Harry Potter books can be bent to the service of evangelism, which you might like if you happen to be an evangelical Christian whose only interest in the Harry Potter story is what use can be made of it. If this is your interest you might also want to read her book 'The Gospel According to Harry Potter' which is exclusively devoted to mining the Harry Potter story for preaching opportunities.
I can't help wondering whether hitting sleeping dragons over the head repeatedly with a sledge-hammer is really the best strategy for getting past them.