Eric Barger's Fast Arguments Against Harry Potter

Harry Potter Movie and Three Good Reasons to Avoid it!
By Eric Barger

Nov 16, 2001

Harry Potter seems to be as popular as sliced bread. This was evident when over 500 people attended the debut midnight showing that Melanie and I went to early this morning in Dallas. I estimate there were about 50 kids under 12 there as well. The movie resumed playing on four screens in the same theater complex at 8:30am this morning.

"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" is a technical triumph with perhaps the best special effects I have ever witnessed. The characters are each compelling with the three hero's standing out as great child actors. The screenplay is very well done, humorous and aimed at all audiences and the movie does what many movies don't - it stays true to the original book.

The other thing that "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" does is to introduce viewers to witchcraft in perhaps the most palatable and powerful package EVER devised.

How tragic.

As I predicted months ago, if we thought the books influenced millions to adapt in life or at least sympathize with the occult, the movie pounds the following point home with thunderous clarity - Becoming a witch is THE thing to do!

Young and old minds alike seem swept away in the sea of levitation, aportation, spells, incantations, necromancy, lycanthropy and other occult practices all packaged to present the occult as normal and those like myself who view it for what it is - the works of darkness - as out of step.

My concern is that the vast majority of those praising Potter today have little of no understanding of the Occult base the popular series has been constructed from.

This is exactly what years of godlessness and relative standards have brought us to. Harry Potter and his "magick" is just the thing that millions of spiritually bankrupt people are looking for. It is also exactly what Satan has so neatly constructed to deceive, trap and detour those millions into his awaiting Hell.

Still one has to ask, why would anyone want to take the ire of Harry Potter fans far and wide? Besides, its just not the unsuspecting kids who don't like what I is saying. Parents and teachers have praised the books saying that kids are finally reading and choosing an academic activity over TV and video games. What could be wrong with that?

I answer "Nothing" making note that reading is wonderful…depending on what it is that's being read, that is. Therein lies the controversy.

Potter fans insist that the Potter series is only make believe. Though admittedly the Potter culture is built around an 11 year-old boy who attends a school expressly for honing one's skills in the black arts of wizardry and witchcraft, fans say it is mere fantasy and certainly not the endorsement of occultism that I resoundingly maintain it to be.

But I have no reservation in saying that reading Harry Potter is spiritual pornography for God's people and is akin to spiritual adultery for a Christian.

Nearly everyday I hear someone say "I'm a Christian" but then defend Potter. And we wonder why our homes are deviled, our prayers left unanswered and our finances and affairs upside down? How can God ever bless us if we persist in entertaining ourselves and our families with philosophies that His word calls an "abomination?"

I am now repeating myself from other installments found here on the web site but it's true - we need to choose who we are going to serve and take serious the command to expose the unfruitful works of darkness around us. (Ezk. 44:23, Eph. 5:10-11, II Cor. 6:14-18, etc.)

So to conclude...

The most powerful line in the current H.P. movie comes directly from the book...

Quirrell (the evil teacher) tells Harry:

"A foolish young man I was then, full of ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed me how wrong I was. There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it..."

Now don't miss this. It is just not the evil charactors that reason from this viewpoint. The hereos have no absolute standards either. This is the very conclusion that the movie "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" leaves viewers with: Witchcraft is the power and if you are a "muggle" (a non-magical person) then you are a loser, regardless of which side of withcraft you may be on (white or black) .

That is NOT what God says though!

Sorcerer's end up in the Lake of Fire! (Revelation 21) On this God is not kidding! Fire is also where Harry Potter books and all the accompanying marketed H.P. items belong as well.

Below you will find three arguments against Potter that were constructed for the media so my position would be clear. They will help you to reason with uninformed friends and family as you contend for the faith during this phenomenon.

Eric Barger's Three Arguments
Against Harry Potter

1) Overt Occult Endorsement or "Harmless" Fantasy?

There is great controversy concerning the magic and occult trappings used in the Potter series. Defenders say "its just fantasy" while savvy observers maintain that the positive promotion of witchcraft and sorcery in today's TV, cartoons, motion pictures, books, music and the like represent occult practices as an acceptable lifestyle to many.

Eric Barger believes that through the often subtle and occasionally overt occult practices carried out by characters in J.K. Rowling's series, there is a general dulling of the conscience concerning the occult. Through exposure and acceptance, readers slowly begin to view the occult in a favorable light, abandoning any thought about the very real and present danger that interaction with the occult realm can and does bring.

FANTASY?

Though we are told repeatedly that Potter represents only "fantasy", shouldn't concerned parents question just what kind of fantasy we want entering our children's minds?

USA Today said the Potter story line included; "...a disembodied voice repeatedly hissing ‘kill’; monstrous, flesh-eating spiders; children being attacked and paralyzed; and an apparently dead cat hung upside down by its tail." (USA Today, June 15, 2000)

WITCHES LOVE HARRY!

Practicing witches view the Potter books as their ticket to acceptability and respectability.

"For once, the witches aren’t ugly old hags," said Michael Darnell, 39, a computer programmer from Winnipeg, Canada, who has been a practicing witch for over twenty-five years. "For once they’re the protagonists rather than the villains." (USA Today, May 30, 2000)

abcNEWS.com interview, practicing Wiccan (witch) Phyllis Curott who says:

"Sure, you are seeing witches in Harry Potter do things they don’t do in real life. But it is positive. They are friendly. They are good. The book might change the way people feel about us."

But Barger contends that the Potter characters actually do emulate witchcraft in real life. Barger states, "The fact that witches can't always connect when casting a spell isn't a problem for J.K. Rowling. She endorses any and every occult practice from the underworld to envelop her story line. The Potter series is a complete candy store selling occultism to our kids as an acceptable lifestyle and means of living."

SO, IS THE MAGIC REAL?

But is the magic real? Warner Brothers, who has bet the bank on the Potter films, says yes!

"Warner Bros claims the film is an accurate portrayal of things that happen in witchcraft…"

We presume they have inadvertently let the real cat out of the bag with this assertion.

2) Endorsement of Moral Relativism

Harry Potter is the poster child for relative ethics and morals. That is that the "good" characters employ the same principles, standards and techniques as the "evil" characters including:

Virtually every conceivable Occult teaching and practice

Drunkenness

Cursing

Lying/Dishonesty/Revenge

Relative standards for Ethics, Morals and Integrity

Remember, we are referring to the good characters.

Forget the occultism for a moment! Isn't a hero like Harry Potter lying to get his way and his cohorts being drunk enough to nix him from any list of possible role models for our youth? That's what readers get as the Potter story progresses from book to book.

And true to what she has said, Rowling has made the story progressively darker during the first four books. She states that she will continue to do so through the seventh book as well.

3) The Separation of Church and State

What in the world is going on here? The A.C.L.U. has called the phrase "God Bless America" a "hurtful divisive message" and has called for school districts nationwide to cease displaying it on public property! Halloween, witchcraft's number one holiday, is heralded without question in classrooms far and wide. No thought is ever given as to the actual basis for all the trappings of this occult holiday. And concerning Harry Potter, children in many grade levels across our country are being ostracized, ridiculed and even suspended from school if they dare refuse to read the Potter books which are often given as mandatory assignments!

Has anyone noticed the Bible being used in mandatory public classroom settings recently? If not, how can Potter books - which endorse the bonafide religion of witchcraft and that make a mockery of anyone daring question witchcraft's viability as a lifestyle - be doled out in our public schools? Again, we ask - WHAT IS WRONG HERE?

For more on Harry Potter visit The Information Center by clicking here.

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For information on the book and video click here