The Controversy..
However not everyone is enchanted with Harry Potter. The opposition, largely from Christians, has been small but vehement. According to the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual freedom (OIF), The Harry Potter books topped the 1999 list of most frequently challenged books in America due to their “focus on wizardry and magic” {10}. The divide has made inroads into the Christian world as well with Paul Ford, professor of theology and liturgy at St. John’s Seminary in S. California saying “Rowlings refers to the dark arts as if they are trivial. I don’t know if you can treat it so benignly” {11}.
At least one Head teacher (Church of England Primary School in England) banned the books, stating, “Our ethos on teaching comes from the Bible…. The Bible is clear about issues such as witchcraft, demons, devils and the occult. Throughout it insists that God’s people should have nothing to do with them”. {12}
Ethical concerns were voiced in a USA Today news story by parent Ken McCormick of Birchrunville, Pa., who described "a general nastiness underneath the mantle of cuteness" in the Harry Potter books. "The kids lie, they steal, they take revenge," the father of 8 and 11 year-old children told the newspaper. "This is a disturbing moral world, and it conflicts with what I am trying to teach my children."
Conversely several prominent Christians and magazines have sided with Harry Potter. Alan Jacobs of Wheaton College described the books as “a great deal of fun”, and that their magic was “charming”. However the most quoted Christian leader is probably Charles Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship. In a November 1999 broadcast of his radio series "Breakpoint," author Chuck Colson commended Harry and his friends for their "courage, loyalty and a willingness to sacrifice for one another – even at the risk of their lives." Colson dismissed the pagan practices as "purely mechanical, as opposed to occultic. That is, Harry and his friends cast spells, read crystal balls and turn themselves into animals – but they don't make contact with a supernatural world. … [It's not] the kind of real-life witchcraft the Bible condemns." {13}