On Writing and Witchcraft

Last week I had two friends independently tell me I should be writing more. I've had the impression this just might be a Divine hint.

In reality, I write all the time! Emails, Facebook, messages, reports, articles... so I thought I might start recording some of my incidental writing in this severely neglected blog.

My most interesting email today expressed concern about this resource on baptism, because it refers to Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. It claimed this reference was evidence of witchcraft infiltrating Churches of Christ.

How would you respond to such a claim?

This was my reply:


Dear Worried About Witchcraft,

Thanks for expressing your concerns and the respectful tone of your email.

I formerly taught at a Christian school. Once staff there intervened to rescue C.S. Lewis' classic allegory "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" from a group of parents' bonfire purge of all "witchcraft" references from the library.

My personal opinion is that these well-meaning parents falsely confused fantasy (where the struggle between good and evil is personified) with the demonic.

As a teacher, I suggest personification of good and evil through story is a helpful tool for teaching children about morality. Stories shape values in powerful ways.

JRR Tolkein and JK Rowling are both Christians, and their faith influences their fiction.

The majority of people who seek baptism in Churches of Christ are young people, who are familiar with the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter series.

If reading or watching fantasty is unhelpful to your faith or against your conscience, please avoid it. I have no desire to be a stumbling block to anyone's faith and obedience.

Churches of Christ are encouraged to have theological discussions within local churches. This email is my opinion not an official position of Churches of Christ.

Many blessings on you as you seek to follow Jesus faithfully,


Janet Woodlock


What else should I have said? What would you have written?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kylie Orr Blog - Part One

I've been participating this week in one of the Age online blogs. Kylie Orr wrote an article questioning whether specific religion should be taught in public schools . As one might anticipate, the twin emotive topics of the education of our children plus religion lead to an explosion on the comments thread. For the most part, respondents were civil and a robust and healthy dialogue broke forth into cyberspace. I have found myself feeling quite sympathetic to many of the “anti CRE camp”, in that (in NSW at least) there appears to be no accredited curriculum and it seems that anyone of any faith can teach children anything for half an hour a week. It seems to me if you’re going to teach about religion in schools I’d prefer it not done at all than that it be done badly. That is not meant to be critical of the many CRE volunteers doing wonderful creative teaching, but because I was made aware there are horror stories out there emerging from an unregulated system. However, I’d like to m...
Read more

The Moral Minefield

Exodus 21: 22 "When there's a fight and in the fight a pregnant woman is hit so that she miscarries but is not otherwise hurt, the one responsible has to pay whatever the husband demands in compensation.” (The Message) I must confess I’m one of those odd Christians who reads the Old Testament. Actually, I’m one of those really odd Christians who likes to read through the bible. All of it (except maybe for some of those genealogies... that’s a bit of a stretch. I don’t think skimming over those bits should be regarded as cheating). I have been reminded of this passage over the past couple of days as debate has raged over the U.S. election on Alan Hirsch’s blog, a fascinating glimpse into the passionate and divisive world of American politics. I’ve been reminded of this passage because it is the closest thing to an abortion in the biblical record. (ripping babies out of the wombs of mothers would cause the death of mothers in a world without surgery or antibiotics, so I don’t th...
Read more