This week lots of people are talking about the new Harry Potter movie. Some parents at church asked me if I thought it was alright for their kids to see the movie. Since I haven’t seen the movie yet, I can’t really comment on the content. But I will provide a few links to reviews of the movie by Christians:

Many of the comments in these reviews are addressed specifically to the parents of younger children.

There has been considerable debate among Christians about these movies, and it will probably continue with this new movie. My suggestion is that for any movie you watch you go in with your mind egaged. Try to understand the world view behind the movie, and how it compares with the Christian world view. Look at the values portrayed in the movie and compare them with Christian values. If you have children, watch a movie together and then discuss what you have seen.

There is much more that I could say about the watching of movies, but this will have to do for now.

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2 Comments

  1. Hi Tim,

    Interesting link. I think that the key thing is for Christians to carefully think things through and exercise discenment is all that we do. The Bible condemns anything connected with sorcery in very stern terms, so we need to take that seriously. Does this rule out magic of any kind in a story? What is our basis for the answer to this question?

    Many pepole have compared Harry Potter to the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. But we need to get beyond the surface and examine the underlying world view. How is the magic portrayed? What is the motive for using it? Are there any moral absolutes? What does the story teach us about our place in the world? I think that if you do that there is a huge difference between Narnia and Harry Potter.

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