Christian parents should not let their children watch the new Harry Potter series

As an ex ‘new-ager’I want to share some concerns about parents letting their children watch TV series and films like the new Harry Potter series on HBO.

One of the things that surprised me after coming to Christ was how many Christian parents weren’t concerned with magic and fantasy in children’s books. As someone who practised ‘new age’ spirituality, I became a believer after watching ‘new age to Jesus’ testimonies on YouTube. From these I learnt that God considers the practices of developing psychic skills or manifesting to be witchcraft, something he calls an abomination. ‘There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer.’ Deuteronomy 18.10

Christian authors such as C.S Lewis and J.R Tolkien paved the way for magical and fantastical themes to be commonplace in books widely read by Christians and the fantasy quests, dragons, and wizarding schools of children’s fiction may appear a far cry from reality. Perhaps that’s why these kind of books don’t appear to be a threat to young people’s faith.

However, there does appear to be a concerning link between reading fictional magic books and the practise of real-life witchcraft.

Marisa’s story

Marisa became a Wiccan witch at aged eleven. In her testimony on the ‘Real Lives - Saturdays at 8’ channel on YouTube she says, ‘’Towards my late childhood I got very interested in Harry Potter and that opened up an entire spiritual direction that engulfed me for the next ten years.’

Marisa recalls that when she ……