Three Reasons I Let My Kids Read Harry Potter

I have two teenagers. In spite my many faults as a parent, they're both intelligent, passionate, and committed believers. They get good grades, make (mostly) good decisions on their own, and they love others with a Christ-like humility that puts me to shame. One of them is heading to the other side of the world this summer for three weeks as a missionary. The other one told me, after attending an apologetics class voluntarily, that going to Africa to help the millions of AIDS victims may be God's calling.

Hm. Not bad. And to think, I let them read Harry Potter.

I really don't understand those who censor Harry Potter in the name of protecting their children. I think that it only creates a greater desire in the kids to sneak around to find out what all the hub-bub's about, and when they do, they'll wonder why their parents were so silly and freaked out.

Here are three reasons I let my children read J.K. Rowling's books:

1. The story deal with universal themes. You have good vs. evil, man vs. man, man vs. self, man vs. society - all those great universal themes I learned back in high school English. I personally like the way Rowling develops Harry's character as a protagonist. He's the good guy, but he must deal with the fact that he has the capacity for evil. Like all teens he's figuring out that choosing right isn't always easy or without consequence. There is truth in Harry Potter, by the way - and my wife constantly reminds me that all truth is God's truth. They are the same kinds of truths you'll find in Cinderella, Beowulf, The Odyssey, or Aesop's Fables.
2. The magic and mystical devices used by the Rowling to tell the story are imaginative, funny and harmless. A talking hat, a map that shows you where everyone is in the school at any time, owls that deliver the mail - goodness they make for a great yarn. I honestly don't know what everyone's all worked up about. The Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, Shakespeare, Walt Disney, and the Brother's Grimm all have magic, spells, incantations as part of their stories, fables and allegories. My dutiful, Dobsonite, evangelical brethren always say at this point, "yes, but consider the source." Yeah, so? I think Rowling was a single mother trying to make ends meet. She had a bold imagination and the discipline to write. I've watched the interviews with her. Personally, I'd love to have coffee with her. She's a fascinating person (and I'd love to get her help with that novel of mine that's been gathering dust in my desk drawer). I also suspect that the same Christian brothers and sisters who tell me to "consider the source" would freak if they walked in on Tolkein, Lewis and the other inklings getting positively tanked at the pub each day (of course, most of them wouldn't be caught dead walking in a pub - so J.R.R. and C.S.'s reputations are safe).
3. The book and the controversy are a source of great dinner conversation. We had a great talk the other night as a family. We explored the truths we've found in Harry Potter. We discussed why so many Christians think Harry's the anti-christ and Rowling the devil. It led to a Christ-centered discussion about literature, censorship, and creativity. I'd let my kids read Harry Potter for that conversation alone.

My teens just laugh at their friends' and relatives' parents who get so worked up about Harry Potter. They don't quite get it. They especially don't get why parents forbid their children from reading the books or seeing the movies simply because the evangelical culture and Christian media elite have dictated it. They don't know of any of these anti-potter parents who have read the books and made the decision for themselves in discussion with their kids.

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evangelical, censorship, Harry Potter, Rowling, chuch
Flickr photo courtesy of curiouskiwi

Allegory Shmallegory - Have Hot Sex with Your Spouse

I was loving my wife the other night. I mean, I was loving her. I was literally obeying God's Word in Proverbs 5:19 when God urges "may her breasts satisfy you always. May you ever be captivated by her love." As I was in the throes of my obedience, that verse literally coursed through my mind. My mind immediately retorted: "You'll never hear a sermon on THAT verse in church!"

It reminded me of all the references to Song of Solomon I've heard in Bible School and church [counting fingers on one hand]. The pastor or professor always goes on and on and on about how the book is an allegory of the relationship between Christ and His church and how someday the Bride of Christ will be united with Jesus and we will be one in heaven, yada, yada, yahda, blah, blah, blah. About this time I want to stand up on my padded pew (or chair if you're in a seeker friendly church) and scream "BULLSHIT! It's about a married couple having SEX - loving, hot, lusty, passionate, holy, godly SEX!"

SEX! SEX! SEX!

[the sound of millions of Christians clicking out of this post in a panic of shame and terror]

Hello? What's wrong with promoting great sex as God designed it and desires it?!

A few choice morsels from God's Word:

• A loving doe, a graceful deer—may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be captivated by her love. Proverbs 5:19
• Your two breasts are like two fawns, like twin fawns of a gazelle that browse among the lilies. Song of Solomon 4:5
• You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride; you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain. Song of Solomon 4:12
• Let my lover come into his garden and taste its choice fruits. Song of Solomon 4:16
• I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers. Thus I have become in his eyes like one bringing contentment. Song of Solomon 8:10
• [ Lover ] I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; I have drunk my wine and my milk. [ Friends ] Eat, O friends, and drink; drink your fill, O lovers. Song of Solomon 5:1
• [ Beloved ] My lover has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to browse in the gardens and to gather lilies. Song of Solomon 6:2
• The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. I Corinthians 7:3

Hmmmmmm...maybe I should go home for lunch today.

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Sex, Song of Solomon, Song of Songs, Church, Evangelical, Christian, Apologetic, Theology
Image: Gustav Kimpt's The Kiss

Legalism: Breeding Stupidity

One of the things I've noticed through years of living in and around the fundamentalist and evangelical culture, is that legalism breeds stupidity. If you take a group of people and force them to follow a never ending set of rules, restrictions and behavioral rigor - they will flip the off-switch on their brains and wait for someone to tell them what to do in every area of their lives.

Case in point: it happened that I had to stop in a typical evangelical church in another town yesterday morning (I won't bore you with why I was there). I found myself sitting around in the requisite coffee bar area of the lobby [why is it that we rail from the pulpits on the evils of substance abuse, but we actively promote caffeine addiction?]. On every table of the "Compassion Cafe" the following rules were posted:

COMPASSION CAFE RULES...

1. Please keep all food and drink in designated cafe areas...dang, a little coffee would be welcome about half-way through the sermon.
2. Please pay cashier...because we know how dishonest and untrustworthy our fellow Christians are.
3. Please clean your table when you are done...don't expect us to actually provide service with your coffee and danish
4. If others are waiting for a seat and you are finished, please allow them to use your chair...they don't mention anything about letting them use your table, but in any case we wouldn't want to actually promote fellowship and conversation - just drink your stinkin' latte and move along!

Technorati Tags: church, rules, legalism, evangelical
Flickr photo courtesy of Guadalupe18

A Refreshing Look at the Stations of the Cross

ecb salutes Spencer Burke and the ooze for showcasing his photo series of graffiti used as stations of the cross. I highly suggest you take a look.

Oh, that the church would support and encourage work like this. If only we filled our lobbies with a presentation of Spencer's work instead of the safe, commercial stuff you too often see, like Kincade. Maybe, just maybe, we could have meaningful dialogue. Maybe the lost would be intrigued and interested in what we're saying. Maybe we could finally fulfill our stated desire of being Christ-like. For, how can we truly be like the Creator if we continue to deny, hide and be ashamed of our own creativity?

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Art, Stations of the Cross, Creativity, Church
Jesus Laid in the Tomb used by permission of Cavepaint at theooze.com

Top 10 Unpardonable Sins in the Evangelical Church

In Church last Sunday our pastor reminded us that suicide is not an unpadonable sin. I got to thinking about that. I know that scripture says that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the only unforgivable sin. But sometimes, let's face it, what the Bible says and what our church practices are two different things. So, from the home office in En Gedi, here is our Top Ten Unpardonable Sins in the Evangelcal Church:

10. Being a Democrat
9. Being a Homosexual
8. Being a Catholic
7. Being Divorced
5. Being Post-millenial
4. Being Amillenial
3. Getting caught: in adultery, with drugs, in financial impropriety
2. Looking wierd (includes tattoos, piercings, colored hair, non-acceptable dress)
1. Being seen, socially connected to, or married to any of the above

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sin, evangelical, unpardonable, church

Reformation of the Mega-Church Name-o-Rama

Alert ecb reader, Andy Rau, has taken our How to Name Your Suburban Mega-Church in Three Easy Steps and (in true Calvinist form) REFORMED it!

Way to go, Andy! Kudos!

I had a bit too much fun with his name generator, and started to wonder what a name generator for churches in my own denomination would look like. Like most good Calvinists, I’m a member of the West Michigan-based Christian Reformed denomination. The lists below can be used to name your very own Reformed church in the Midwest—just pick one term at random from List 1, then List 2, and so forth until you have a full name for your church. (All in good fun, of course.) Click here to read the rest of Andy's post...

As I commented on Andy's site, ThinkChristian, this is pretty creative for a guy from the Christian Reformed denomination. I thought they frowned upon creativity, but maybe that was just on the sabbath!

He is Risen (yawn) He is Risen Indeed

I wrote in a post a while back about the typical Evangelical Liturgy. Yesterday was the big celebration in my mega-home-church. Everyone was dressed to the nines, the removable wall was out and chairs set up in the fellowship hall for overflow. You could feel the electricity (read: spirit) in the congregation as everyone got to their seats. The worship team came out and went into a kick-butt rendition of Hillsong's "My Redeemer Lives." Everyone was on their feet. The place was rockin'. People were clapping. A brave few were raising their hands, and ordinary white anglo-saxon people were moving back and forth - some even in time with the music. The Holy Spirit was on the move. There was excitement and anticipation. What's going to happen next???!

Are you kidding? We followed the Evangelical Liturgy to the letter. One fast song, then greeting and announcements. The associate pastor got up and told everyone to sit down. About ten mintues of his droning followed with a couple of random scriptures thrown in along with some kind of boring story about the church he grew up in (you guessed it - Lutheran).

[exit Holy Spirit - stage left]

It was downhill from there. I tried not to be critical or cynical. Maybe it was just me. On the way to Easter lunch at grandma's I asked my wife and teen-age daughters, "Did you sense anything change after the first song?"

[spoken with teenager inflection; eyes rolling] "Yeah! Like the whole atmosphere died."

Okay, guess I'm not the only one.

Can we...please...just once...follow the Spirit when it's moving? I sometimes think that church leadership keeps the liturgy in place because they wouldn't know what to do if Holy Spirit did something unexpected and a revival broke out.


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Evangelical, Worship, Liturgy

Jesus was a Ninja!?

You've read the recent accounts telling us that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and had kids, and that Judas was really the beloved disciple whom Jesus asked to betray him. Well, hang on to your hats! There is ground breaking news traveling around the blogosphere that Jesus was a Ninja! The idea is that between the time Jesus confounded the teachers of the law in the temple at age 12 and when he began his ministry at age 30, he made a trek to Japan where he studied and learned many things:

Takeogokoro also taught Jesus ancient Japanese magic tricks and several accounts list these tricks as being able to conceal yourself, to jump high into a tree and to throw a bamboo pole into water and walk on it.

The Japanese legend goes on to explain that Jesus did not die on the cross, but in some silly Shakespearian twist of mistaken identity, it was his brother. They claim that Jesus slipped back to Japan after the whole crucifixion mix-up and retired in a quiet valley in Japan where he died.

Hmmmm. This brings to mind a couple of questions:

1. If his brother died on the cross, then it must have been his brother that everyone saw risen from the dead. Have we been worshipping the wrong guy all this time? Dang, do I feel stupid.
2. If Jesus knew these cool ninja tricks to conceal himself, why were the crowds always finding him? Maybe he was a bad ninja and that's why he came back to Israel.
3. Where in Galilee did Jesus find a bamboo pole long enough to be walking on it in the middle of the Sea of Galilee?
4. So was he really praying those nights he'd go up to a mountain? Maybe he was marauding the Capernaum countryside in black pajamas!
5. If Jesus knew the ninja trick of jumping high in a tree, why on earth did he tell Zaccheus to come down? He could have just jumped on up to talk to the wee one.
6. Did his parents send him to Japan at age 12? "Son, your mom and I have been talking. This whole business with you going missing in Jerusalem and making us worry for days. We've had enough! You're grounded to Japan for 18 years!"

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Jesus, ninja, legend

Divorce of Reason

I went through a divorce a while back [waiting for exlamations of repulsion to die down]. It has been interesting to experience, first hand, the church's reaction to it. Recently, a friend told me of a mutual acquaintance who was interested in taking a recurring class that I teach (of course it took a while for the church to let me teach after the divorce - apparently divorce invalidates your spiritual gifts for a vague period of time - I never knew that). "I don't know if I can take the class," the person communicated to my friend. When asked why, this person responded, "He's divorced!" - spoken in a tone that would suggest I had just contracted AIDS or had voted Democrat or something.

Fast-forward. It became public that I was engaged to marry a wonderful woman from our church. This person approached my friend with excitment. "I'm so excited. I can take the class now!" they exclaimed. When asked why it was suddenly okay, the person said, "because he's getting remarried! It's okay now! It makes all the difference!"

[sigh]


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christian, church, divorce, remarriage, judgement