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The Greatest Evangelistic Opportunity the Church Has Ever Missed (and Why We’re Missing It)
- By Connie Neal
- Published 05/29/2008
- Theological Themes
- Unrated
Connie Neal
Connie Neal is the author of Walking Tall in Babylon: Raising Children to Be Godly and Wise in a Perilous World, What's a Christian to Do with Harry Potter?, and The Gospel According to Harry Potter: Spirituality in the Stories of the World's Most Famous Seeker. Her Web site is www.connieneal.com.
View all articles by Connie NealHarry Potter as a window into the gospel
When the reporter from Time asked me to sum up what happened, I called it “the greatest evangelistic opportunity the church has ever missed.” 1
Here’s a series of fantasy stories read and beloved around the globe, reaching hundreds of millions of people of every race, religion, age, gender, nationality, and political persuasion—and translated into 65 languages.
The storyline has strikingly Christian themes and symbolism that could be used to illustrate the gospel in a way that would give it relevance to people everywhere.
An unprecedented evangelistic opportunity, right?
Then, why has the church been letting it pass?
Most Christians were poisoned to the stories from the start, even though the author is a Christian. The problem? She chose the literary motif of a school for witchcraft and wizardry.
Yes, I’m talking about the Harry Potter series.
‘Get Behind Me’
A decade ago American Christians were warned away from Harry Potter by alarming e-mails filled with bogus sources and high-powered TV preachers. Anyone who dared suggest that the stories may have redeeming qualities risked their reputations. So Christian bookstores, Christian radio, Christian television, Christian publications, churches, and youth workers wavered between quietly sidestepping the issue and railing against the Harry Potter books.
Those who did dare touch the topic? Well, they pretty much opted for ranting and raving and railing. A few opted for burning the books—along with Shakespeare. (You can’t really fault the mainstream media for covering that.)
But did we make a huge mistake by allowing the condemnation of Harry Potter to stop us from redeeming it for the sake of God’s Kingdom? What was the result of the church’s strong reaction against Harry Potter? And why should it matter to us as youth workers?
The Result
Most churchgoing teenagers and self-described born-again teenagers read the books or watched the movies. In fact, statistics show that Christian teenagers were more likely to do so than general audiences.
Those who read the Harry Potter books would have expected this, given the outcome when Professor Umbridge banned The Quibbler, as Hermione explains, “Oh Harry, don’t you see? If she could have done one thing to make absolutely sure that every single person in this school will read your interview, it was banning it!” 2
Even though efforts to ban the books (or at least restrict the reading of them) prompted more Christians to do just that, there weren’t a bunch of folks in Christian circles who dared admit to reading them—much less dared wrestle with the spiritual themes.
So youth were left on their own.
The Proof
And according to Barna Research, the influence of Harry Potter has been vast—and unchallenged—in most homes and churches. Their study concluded that exposure to Harry Potter books—including reading at least one novel or watching at least one movie—doubled in the last three years. What’s more, four of every five teenagers (84 percent) have read or watched Harry Potter. 3
The Barna study further found that a large majority of teenagers from groups that have objected most to Harry Potter (e.g., the church) were full-on into the bespectacled adolescent and his crew. About 77 percent of all churchgoing teenagers and 78 percent of all born-again Christian teenagers have seen or read Potter. 4
Barna’s research also documents that the church has avoided giving any spiritual instruction on Harry Potter, probably because it remains such an incendiary subject.
Despite widespread exposure to the Potter story, only four percent of teenagers polled in their study said they were part of any teachings or discussions in a church about the series’ spiritual themes. Among born-again Christian teenagers, a vast minority (13 percent) recalled ever receiving any input from their churches on the subject of Harry Potter or its spiritual themes. 5
Why? Mostly we were worried that kids would be led into real-world occult practices and witchcraft.
Well, that didn't happen.
According to Barna’s research, basically next to zero teenagers were lured into such practices that weren’t already headed in that direction. While research can’t pinpoint cause-and-effect relationships, it seems that many kids who revealed that Potter increased their interest in witchcraft were already isolated from others or dabbling in witchcraft-related activities. For this segment of teenagers, reading the Potter books helped confirm attitudes and behaviors that were already present in their lives.
Compelling fiction certainly has an effect on people’s perspectives and values.
How Deep?
The vast majority of teenagers polled explained that they didn’t find much spiritual stimulation in Potter beyond experiencing a fun story. But one of every eight teenagers (12 percent) revealed that the Potter chronicles increased their interest in witchcraft (as opposed to the decidedly miniscule number of teenagers who got directly involved in witchcraft due to Potter). That translates to nearly 3 million youth whose interest has been piqued.
It’s a shame that nearly no one is giving spiritual guidance related to these universally beloved stories. And the two reasons why no one’s touching it underscore how unfortunate these circumstances are: 1) There are some teenagers with increased interest in witchcraft who need to be warned against it, and 2) Those inclined to share the gospel using the Potter tales as a vehicle would have found abundant opportunities to do so.
The stories have amazing allegorical possibilities that could help an unchurched world (and I do mean the whole world) grasp the fundamentals of the story of why Jesus Christ came to earth, died, rose again—and how that relates to our problems of sin and death.
Without giving too much away or going into excessive detail, the Harry Potter story is about a boy who’s struck with the curse of death by an evil wizard—but survives because his mother jumps in front of the curse intended for him and dies in his place. Harry struggles throughout his life with having “a bit” of the evil one residing in his body at the point of a scar on his forehead where the curse hit him. A prophecy says that the one with the power to destroy the “Dark Lord” will have a power he knows not (i.e., love) and that neither can live while the other survives. Harry eventually realizes that the evil part of him will have to die in order to break the power of the evil one in his life. He will have to sacrifice himself by laying down his life for his friends (sound familiar?) and chooses to do so. When he dies willingly in the place of another, the curse of death hurled at him by the evil Voldemort destroys the evil part of him that came from the curse, but Harry himself—freed from the curse and its dark power in his life—comes back to life (although he was never really dead). He and his friends all marry and focus on loving each other and raising their children. At the story’s end, “All was well.”
Yet, to date, most Christians who are paid to share the gospel don’t dare do so using Harry Potter.
Giving It a Shot
Several years ago I approached Child Evangelism Fellowship about doing an article on this subject. They were reticent. So I suggested titling it “Sharing the Love of Jesus with Children Who ALREADY Love Harry Potter.” With that caveat, the article was published (although with fear that there would be a negative backlash). But apparently by separating Harry Potter from the church and focusing only on non-Christians who had already read the books, the article avoided the ire usually raised.
In fact, we received an amazing story from missionaries serving among Palestinian children in Nazareth, Israel. Before reading the article a husband and wife who’d been ministering there for 49 years and were about to retire had tried to get kids and teenagers to stop reading Harry Potter books— to no avail, of course. But after they read my article, they reluctantly decided to try turning the Harry Potter stories into a gospel parallel using the tract/bookmark I created (available for free download here). They translated their lessons into Arabic and shared it with the kids.
They wrote to say, “Thank you for changing our minds about Harry Potter! We have tried and tried to reach these kids in many ways. They resisted most of our Christian literature fearing the ‘Zionist’ influence of publishers in the USA. But when we related the unknown story of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the story of Harry Potter, which they all knew, well, Jesus flew right in on the back of Harry’s broomstick! We've never seen such responsiveness.”
I also spoke at “Prophecy 2007: From Hero to Legend,” an academic Harry Potter symposium that brought together more than 1,500 Potter devotees from around the world. I was on a keynote panel on the Canon of Harry Potter and gave an address on “Harry’s Hero’s Journey within His Stories and in Our World.” In that address I depicted some of the vitriol hurled at the books early on and related some of the Christian parallels—especially those in the finale. Afterward during the question and answer session, the first woman to the microphone introduced herself as an atheist. She asked, “Do you think someone like me—who has never had any interest in the Bible or Christianity—needs to know something of the Bible and Christian themes in order to fully grasp the depth of the Harry Potter canon?” I replied that in sharing a distinctly Christian perspective, as it can be aligned with the stories, I found much to offer those who come from other faiths or no faith at all. 6
Our Responsibility
Scripture warns us, “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16).
God will hold us accountable for what we do (or don’t do) with this unprecedented opportunity—not only to preach the gospel, but also to distinguish between a fantasy literary motif and real (and dangerous) witchcraft. This is part of what prompted me to write What’s a Christian to Do with Harry Potter? (WaterBrook, 2001) and The Gospel according to Harry Potter (Westminster John Knox Press, 2003/08).
While most Christian bookstores won’t stock these books, it doesn’t stop the gospel from going into the world: The Gospel according to Harry Potter has been translated into Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Indonesian (which makes me especially happy, since the latter is a Muslim country). Five languages down; 60 more to go!
I’m sad that we seem to be missing this chance. Getting my fellow Christians to discover and make the most of this prime opportunity has been a long, upstream swim.
You Know John 3:16...but What about the Next Verse?
The research is in. We know the church has been missing this opportunity. And why.
But there is another, deeper reason, I believe.
In short, most Christians are strong on John 3:16—but weak on John 3:17. Let me refresh our memories: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him.”
Might we be so consumed with condemning the world that we’ve failed to catch this prime opportunity to go into—literally—all the world and preach the gospel? I think so. This relates directly to the perception the world has of Christians as being distinctly UnChristian, as the title of a recent book by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, suggests. These authors say that people in the age range from older teenagers to early thirtysomethings believe Christians are:
We’ve definitely been judgmental toward Harry Potter. Most of those who condemned the books refused to read one.
The anti-homosexual bias didn’t come up until after the stories were finished, but when J.K. Rowling explained that Dumbledore had never married because “I had always thought of him as being gay,” Christians rejoiced in a “gotcha!” moment. Sadly, they did not notice that there’s no indication throughout the books that Dumbledore was homosexual; in fact his behavior and personal standards were of the highest moral caliber.
Hypocritical? Well, while condemning the books loudly most of our kids and teenagers were reading them or watching the movies without our input.
Too political? Consider the lawsuits and anti-HP assemblies that gained national attention. Some Christians—although not many—tried to turn this into a political issue by seeking to have the Potter books banned in public schools and libraries.
Sheltered? Duh! The only item on the list the church didn’t qualify for is perhaps the one we should have been most guilty of: Being too concerned about getting converts.
My Hope
I hope youth workers can turn this around and not only use Harry Potter stories—and other fantasy literature—to explain and spread the gospel but also to help Christian kids understand complex biblical themes by allegorizing them with scenes from these stories.
I know we youth workers risk the ire of influential (and purse-string holding) Christian authorities by doing so. My consideration for the position I now hold as junior high director for a large church was questioned on the basis of my open support of Harry Potter. (I was hired anyway and persuaded the parents to let me teach a series out of my book, Wizards, Wardrobes, and Wookiees: Navigating Good and Evil in Harry Potter, Narnia, and Star Wars.) We redeemed Harry Potter instead of condemning it out of hand. The result is that kids invited their non-Christian friends to Bible study.
I met J.K. Rowling this year at her Open Book Tour where she proclaimed not only her Christian faith but also her struggles to keep on believing. Her honesty regarding her faith amid a pluralistic world was refreshing. The corps of reporters asked her many questions about the Bible verses quoted on two important tombstones, and they asked her about the obviously “Christian” ending. They were very interested in her answers—as are the kids and teenagers we minister to every week.
I hope you’ll reconsider not only the Harry Potter stories but also the entire negative reaction to them that has stemmed from the church. The Gospel according to Harry Potter will be re-released this spring and show gospel parallels from the first chapter of the first HP book to the final chapter of Book Seven. I hope some of you pick it up and ask God to show you if this rushing current of interest in Harry Potter—and opposition to the stories from the church—is worth swimming in, even if it’s an upstream swim.
1 Nancy Gibbs, Time, “Person of the Year #3 J.K. Rowling,” December 31, 2007 / January 7, 2008, 102.
2 J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Scholastic Inc. Arthur A. Levine Books, 582.
3 The Barna Group, Ltd..
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Connie Neal, from the Introduction to The Gospel according to Harry Potter: The spiritual journey of the world’s greatest Seeker, complete and revised edition, Westminster John Knox Press.
Here’s a series of fantasy stories read and beloved around the globe, reaching hundreds of millions of people of every race, religion, age, gender, nationality, and political persuasion—and translated into 65 languages.
The storyline has strikingly Christian themes and symbolism that could be used to illustrate the gospel in a way that would give it relevance to people everywhere.
An unprecedented evangelistic opportunity, right?
Then, why has the church been letting it pass?
Most Christians were poisoned to the stories from the start, even though the author is a Christian. The problem? She chose the literary motif of a school for witchcraft and wizardry.
Yes, I’m talking about the Harry Potter series.
‘Get Behind Me’
A decade ago American Christians were warned away from Harry Potter by alarming e-mails filled with bogus sources and high-powered TV preachers. Anyone who dared suggest that the stories may have redeeming qualities risked their reputations. So Christian bookstores, Christian radio, Christian television, Christian publications, churches, and youth workers wavered between quietly sidestepping the issue and railing against the Harry Potter books.
Those who did dare touch the topic? Well, they pretty much opted for ranting and raving and railing. A few opted for burning the books—along with Shakespeare. (You can’t really fault the mainstream media for covering that.)
But did we make a huge mistake by allowing the condemnation of Harry Potter to stop us from redeeming it for the sake of God’s Kingdom? What was the result of the church’s strong reaction against Harry Potter? And why should it matter to us as youth workers?
The Result
Most churchgoing teenagers and self-described born-again teenagers read the books or watched the movies. In fact, statistics show that Christian teenagers were more likely to do so than general audiences.
Those who read the Harry Potter books would have expected this, given the outcome when Professor Umbridge banned The Quibbler, as Hermione explains, “Oh Harry, don’t you see? If she could have done one thing to make absolutely sure that every single person in this school will read your interview, it was banning it!” 2
Even though efforts to ban the books (or at least restrict the reading of them) prompted more Christians to do just that, there weren’t a bunch of folks in Christian circles who dared admit to reading them—much less dared wrestle with the spiritual themes.
So youth were left on their own.
The Proof
And according to Barna Research, the influence of Harry Potter has been vast—and unchallenged—in most homes and churches. Their study concluded that exposure to Harry Potter books—including reading at least one novel or watching at least one movie—doubled in the last three years. What’s more, four of every five teenagers (84 percent) have read or watched Harry Potter. 3
The Barna study further found that a large majority of teenagers from groups that have objected most to Harry Potter (e.g., the church) were full-on into the bespectacled adolescent and his crew. About 77 percent of all churchgoing teenagers and 78 percent of all born-again Christian teenagers have seen or read Potter. 4
Barna’s research also documents that the church has avoided giving any spiritual instruction on Harry Potter, probably because it remains such an incendiary subject.
Despite widespread exposure to the Potter story, only four percent of teenagers polled in their study said they were part of any teachings or discussions in a church about the series’ spiritual themes. Among born-again Christian teenagers, a vast minority (13 percent) recalled ever receiving any input from their churches on the subject of Harry Potter or its spiritual themes. 5
Why? Mostly we were worried that kids would be led into real-world occult practices and witchcraft.
Well, that didn't happen.
According to Barna’s research, basically next to zero teenagers were lured into such practices that weren’t already headed in that direction. While research can’t pinpoint cause-and-effect relationships, it seems that many kids who revealed that Potter increased their interest in witchcraft were already isolated from others or dabbling in witchcraft-related activities. For this segment of teenagers, reading the Potter books helped confirm attitudes and behaviors that were already present in their lives.
Compelling fiction certainly has an effect on people’s perspectives and values.
How Deep?
The vast majority of teenagers polled explained that they didn’t find much spiritual stimulation in Potter beyond experiencing a fun story. But one of every eight teenagers (12 percent) revealed that the Potter chronicles increased their interest in witchcraft (as opposed to the decidedly miniscule number of teenagers who got directly involved in witchcraft due to Potter). That translates to nearly 3 million youth whose interest has been piqued.
It’s a shame that nearly no one is giving spiritual guidance related to these universally beloved stories. And the two reasons why no one’s touching it underscore how unfortunate these circumstances are: 1) There are some teenagers with increased interest in witchcraft who need to be warned against it, and 2) Those inclined to share the gospel using the Potter tales as a vehicle would have found abundant opportunities to do so.
The stories have amazing allegorical possibilities that could help an unchurched world (and I do mean the whole world) grasp the fundamentals of the story of why Jesus Christ came to earth, died, rose again—and how that relates to our problems of sin and death.
Without giving too much away or going into excessive detail, the Harry Potter story is about a boy who’s struck with the curse of death by an evil wizard—but survives because his mother jumps in front of the curse intended for him and dies in his place. Harry struggles throughout his life with having “a bit” of the evil one residing in his body at the point of a scar on his forehead where the curse hit him. A prophecy says that the one with the power to destroy the “Dark Lord” will have a power he knows not (i.e., love) and that neither can live while the other survives. Harry eventually realizes that the evil part of him will have to die in order to break the power of the evil one in his life. He will have to sacrifice himself by laying down his life for his friends (sound familiar?) and chooses to do so. When he dies willingly in the place of another, the curse of death hurled at him by the evil Voldemort destroys the evil part of him that came from the curse, but Harry himself—freed from the curse and its dark power in his life—comes back to life (although he was never really dead). He and his friends all marry and focus on loving each other and raising their children. At the story’s end, “All was well.”
Yet, to date, most Christians who are paid to share the gospel don’t dare do so using Harry Potter.
Giving It a Shot
Several years ago I approached Child Evangelism Fellowship about doing an article on this subject. They were reticent. So I suggested titling it “Sharing the Love of Jesus with Children Who ALREADY Love Harry Potter.” With that caveat, the article was published (although with fear that there would be a negative backlash). But apparently by separating Harry Potter from the church and focusing only on non-Christians who had already read the books, the article avoided the ire usually raised.
In fact, we received an amazing story from missionaries serving among Palestinian children in Nazareth, Israel. Before reading the article a husband and wife who’d been ministering there for 49 years and were about to retire had tried to get kids and teenagers to stop reading Harry Potter books— to no avail, of course. But after they read my article, they reluctantly decided to try turning the Harry Potter stories into a gospel parallel using the tract/bookmark I created (available for free download here). They translated their lessons into Arabic and shared it with the kids.
They wrote to say, “Thank you for changing our minds about Harry Potter! We have tried and tried to reach these kids in many ways. They resisted most of our Christian literature fearing the ‘Zionist’ influence of publishers in the USA. But when we related the unknown story of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the story of Harry Potter, which they all knew, well, Jesus flew right in on the back of Harry’s broomstick! We've never seen such responsiveness.”
I also spoke at “Prophecy 2007: From Hero to Legend,” an academic Harry Potter symposium that brought together more than 1,500 Potter devotees from around the world. I was on a keynote panel on the Canon of Harry Potter and gave an address on “Harry’s Hero’s Journey within His Stories and in Our World.” In that address I depicted some of the vitriol hurled at the books early on and related some of the Christian parallels—especially those in the finale. Afterward during the question and answer session, the first woman to the microphone introduced herself as an atheist. She asked, “Do you think someone like me—who has never had any interest in the Bible or Christianity—needs to know something of the Bible and Christian themes in order to fully grasp the depth of the Harry Potter canon?” I replied that in sharing a distinctly Christian perspective, as it can be aligned with the stories, I found much to offer those who come from other faiths or no faith at all. 6
Our Responsibility
Scripture warns us, “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16).
God will hold us accountable for what we do (or don’t do) with this unprecedented opportunity—not only to preach the gospel, but also to distinguish between a fantasy literary motif and real (and dangerous) witchcraft. This is part of what prompted me to write What’s a Christian to Do with Harry Potter? (WaterBrook, 2001) and The Gospel according to Harry Potter (Westminster John Knox Press, 2003/08).
While most Christian bookstores won’t stock these books, it doesn’t stop the gospel from going into the world: The Gospel according to Harry Potter has been translated into Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Indonesian (which makes me especially happy, since the latter is a Muslim country). Five languages down; 60 more to go!
I’m sad that we seem to be missing this chance. Getting my fellow Christians to discover and make the most of this prime opportunity has been a long, upstream swim.
You Know John 3:16...but What about the Next Verse?
The research is in. We know the church has been missing this opportunity. And why.
But there is another, deeper reason, I believe.
In short, most Christians are strong on John 3:16—but weak on John 3:17. Let me refresh our memories: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him.”
Might we be so consumed with condemning the world that we’ve failed to catch this prime opportunity to go into—literally—all the world and preach the gospel? I think so. This relates directly to the perception the world has of Christians as being distinctly UnChristian, as the title of a recent book by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, suggests. These authors say that people in the age range from older teenagers to early thirtysomethings believe Christians are:
- Judgmental
- Anti-homosexual
- Hypocritical
- Too political
- Sheltered
- Too focused on getting converts
We’ve definitely been judgmental toward Harry Potter. Most of those who condemned the books refused to read one.
The anti-homosexual bias didn’t come up until after the stories were finished, but when J.K. Rowling explained that Dumbledore had never married because “I had always thought of him as being gay,” Christians rejoiced in a “gotcha!” moment. Sadly, they did not notice that there’s no indication throughout the books that Dumbledore was homosexual; in fact his behavior and personal standards were of the highest moral caliber.
Hypocritical? Well, while condemning the books loudly most of our kids and teenagers were reading them or watching the movies without our input.
Too political? Consider the lawsuits and anti-HP assemblies that gained national attention. Some Christians—although not many—tried to turn this into a political issue by seeking to have the Potter books banned in public schools and libraries.
Sheltered? Duh! The only item on the list the church didn’t qualify for is perhaps the one we should have been most guilty of: Being too concerned about getting converts.
My Hope
I hope youth workers can turn this around and not only use Harry Potter stories—and other fantasy literature—to explain and spread the gospel but also to help Christian kids understand complex biblical themes by allegorizing them with scenes from these stories.
I know we youth workers risk the ire of influential (and purse-string holding) Christian authorities by doing so. My consideration for the position I now hold as junior high director for a large church was questioned on the basis of my open support of Harry Potter. (I was hired anyway and persuaded the parents to let me teach a series out of my book, Wizards, Wardrobes, and Wookiees: Navigating Good and Evil in Harry Potter, Narnia, and Star Wars.) We redeemed Harry Potter instead of condemning it out of hand. The result is that kids invited their non-Christian friends to Bible study.
I met J.K. Rowling this year at her Open Book Tour where she proclaimed not only her Christian faith but also her struggles to keep on believing. Her honesty regarding her faith amid a pluralistic world was refreshing. The corps of reporters asked her many questions about the Bible verses quoted on two important tombstones, and they asked her about the obviously “Christian” ending. They were very interested in her answers—as are the kids and teenagers we minister to every week.
I hope you’ll reconsider not only the Harry Potter stories but also the entire negative reaction to them that has stemmed from the church. The Gospel according to Harry Potter will be re-released this spring and show gospel parallels from the first chapter of the first HP book to the final chapter of Book Seven. I hope some of you pick it up and ask God to show you if this rushing current of interest in Harry Potter—and opposition to the stories from the church—is worth swimming in, even if it’s an upstream swim.
1 Nancy Gibbs, Time, “Person of the Year #3 J.K. Rowling,” December 31, 2007 / January 7, 2008, 102.
2 J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Scholastic Inc. Arthur A. Levine Books, 582.
3 The Barna Group, Ltd..
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Connie Neal, from the Introduction to The Gospel according to Harry Potter: The spiritual journey of the world’s greatest Seeker, complete and revised edition, Westminster John Knox Press.
