by Thomas Mayne

Created on: July 22, 2009   Last Updated: July 31, 2009

I would submit that religious based objections to Harry Potter are unreasonable and ill-founded. There would appear to be two main objections that arise from a religious perspective, firstly the inclusion of the idea of witchcraft and secondly J K Rowling's outing of Albus Dumbledore as a homosexual. Neither are solid grounds for any real substantive criticism of the novels either objectively or from a strictly religious perspective as I will demonstrate.

Firstly the issue of witchcraft. I think it is fair to state that the actual existence of witchcraft is at best doubtful and that the inclusion of such a theme in a children's novel does little to damage the readers. However even if we suppose a belief in the existence of witchcraft or even draw parallels with the attempted practice of the occult, it can be confidently stated that there is no encouraging of devil worship or pursuit of dark arts within any of the texts at any time. From an objective point of view, objecting to the use of (arguably fictional) magic in a clearly fictional and fantastical setting is nothing short of ludicrous. From a purely religious perspective the objection to the use of magic was always based upon such powers being the work of the devil. The devil plays no part in any aspect of the novel. There is in fact no mention of any religion, either in a positive or negative manner within the series as a whole. Frankly this objection to the series is vacuous and one that no-one beyond hardened zealots would take seriously.

With regards to the sexuality of Albus Dumbledore, it is submitted that people are entitled to their own opinions, whether of a positive or negative nature with regards to homosexuality. This is of course provided that they do not enforce those views on others. From a religious perspective having such a role model for children being a practicing homosexual could be seen as a negative thing however I would submit that before J K mentioned the fact it was very difficult to ascertain from the text that Albus Dumbdore was in fact gay. If discerning adults had no incline as to the state of the affairs before Rowling's statement then what chance do young children have of deducing his sexuality? It is submitted that such thoughts will not even arise in the mind of most children. Therefore I would argue that the mere fact that Dumbledore is gay does not substantively alter the series thus the religious argument is nullified. From an objective point of view modern society no longer regards homosexuality as anything to be ashamed of and as an author J K is well within her rights to do with her creations as she will.

In summation I would suggest that the Harry Potter novels are no place for a serious religious debate, they do not seek to influence or persuade those who read them, they do not set bad examples and they most certainly do no damage those who read them in any way. The books are simply an enjoyable story, a fiction, something that isn't real and allows us to escape our mundane lives for a brief period of time. There are much more dangerous and ideologically opposing texts for organised religion to defend itself against and it shouldn't be wasting its time on children's novels!

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