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Potter reveals our dark side
Marshall Janzen
“ ‘I used to believe in what they taught us at Sunday school,’ said Ashley, conjuring up an ancient spell to summon Cerebus, a three-headed hound. ‘But the Harry Potter books showed me that magic is real, something I can learn and use right now, and that the Bible is nothing but boring lies.’ ”
Sound familiar? It is a quote from an e-mail chain letter circulating primarily among Christians. Like the Harry Potter books, it is also complete fiction.
The quote comes from an article published in The Onion, a satirical online humour magazine. Other articles on the site include “Aliens Demand More Positive Portrayal in the Media” and “Microsoft Patents Ones, Zeroes”. The original article poked fun at how Christians find conspiracies behind anything popular. Ironically, made-up quotes from that article are now being used to “prove” the Harry Potter conspiracy.
It is not difficult to tell the chain letter is a fake. Even if someone misses the obvious signs (a purported quote by J. K. Rowling at the end of one version is laughable), it is easy to check the letter’s origins. When I searched google.com (a popular Internet search engine) for “harry potter boring lies”, the first two matches were for the Onion article itself and an article on truthorfiction.com exposing the chain letter as false. Any Christians with an Internet connection could probably find the truth behind this e-mail faster than they could forward it to all their friends. Unfortunately, many who received this e-mail have not bothered to do so.
This is not an isolated incident. Another e-mail spread mainly by Christians claims that NASA scientists discovered a missing day that proves Joshua 10:12-13. A particularly nasty (and old) piece of vitriol claims Procter & Gamble has ties to the Church of Satan. Both are easy to disprove with an Internet connection and a web browser.
Why are Christians a popular target for these hoaxes? Perhaps it is a symptom of a larger problem. If something “fits” with our faith, we seem to accept it without question. 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 commands: “Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.” Gossip and slander remain evil, no matter how good the intentions of those who propagate it.
Matthew 10:16 says God sends us “out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” All too often our resemblance to snakes is due to our venom, not our shrewdness.
Here’s an actual quote from J. K. Rowling taken from an interview with CNN: “[Children] see [Harry Potter] for what it is. It is a fantasy world, and they understand that completely. I don’t believe in magic, either.”
It is likely that Ms. Rowling does not believe in any form of supernatural power, whether magical or biblical. Instead of sharing the gospel with her, or living according to it, many Christians have instead attacked this author, going so far as to attribute pro-satanic quotes to her. If she had reason to be disenchanted with Christianity before, she has more reasons now. We have shown Christians at their worst, full of hatred and lies instead of truth and light.
Marshall Janzen is webmaster for the Canadian MB Conference.
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Last modified February 11, 2002.
© 2002 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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