Emma Hair
Copy Editor

There are many people in this world who make snap-judgments about things because of their religion. The first thing that comes to mind is the shocking number of people who have yet to read the Harry Potter series because they heard it contains witchcraft, and, apparently, that automatically makes it a terrible thing to read.

The most vocally disapproving group is Christians, often speaking out about the “evils” of Harry Potter. This tendency for Christians to judge wonderful literature without having any background knowledge on the subject is an unfortunate fault.

If you are one those people who have not read Harry Potter because you have been told that it is “against the Bible”, or something similar, then allow me to let you in on a little secret:

Harry James Potter is a Jesus figure.

Yep, that is right. Harry is not some Devil’s advocate who uses his magic powers for evil; that would be Lord Volde —excuse me— He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Throughout the course of the series, You-Know-Who (who can be viewed metaphorically as the Devil) is attempting to murder Harry (who is, likewise, metaphorically Jesus).

The reason Christians need not fear Satan is that Jesus Christ, their savior, was crucified in honor of all of God’s children. He sacrificed Himself so the people of earth could be saved. Harry does just that in the last installment of the series, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. Harry makes the difficult decision to give himself up in order to save the innocent lives of everyone in Hogwarts; he journeys into the Forbidden Forrest and willingly allows You-Know-Who to take his life. Then (drum roll please) Harry is resurrected so that he can battle You-Know-Who for the last time, and Harry eventually defeats the Dark Lord because Harry has the ability to love. The love that is alive in Harry is actually a symbol for faith, showing that the Devil’s demise is in faith.

Hmmm…faith conquering evil forces, sacrifice and resurrection. The storyline sounds pretty familiar to me.

Even though there is magic incorporated into the story, the magical elements are not placed there because J.K. Rowling supports witchcraft and the dark art (in fact, the author has stated that she absolutely does not believe in magic); they are there so the stories are appealing to a wider audience.

Still not convinced? I have a friend whose mother would not allow her to read Harry Potter because she believed it to be sacrilegious. After much begging and pleading on my friend’s end, her mother agreed to read the series to her. At first, her mother had planned on having discussions with her after each chapter about the different things that were against the Bible, but her mother was shocked to discover that there were actually many allusions and similarities to the Bible.

So if the reason you have yet to fall in love with the “Golden Trio” (Harry, Ron and Hermione) because of your religion, then I hope you will rethink your decision to ignore this wonderful piece of literature because you are missing out.