The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 70-23, titled "Questions and Answers--Part 51."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. Copyright 2001 by John MacArthur Jr., All Rights Reserved.

Question

Answer

Well, to be honest with you, it rarely ever enters my mind so I don’t have a lot of thoughts about Harry Potter.

You know, first of all, you could say that is silliness, foolishness. Fantasy is folly to me. Of all the things that could be learned in the world that are helpful, fantasy doesn’t fit into that category. I’m not even much of a devotee of people like C. S. Lewis and The Chronicles of Narnia and Tolkien and others that have some kind of Christian overtones. Just give me a good dose of reality; you can forget the fantasy. I really can’t build my life on a fantasy. I have to build my life on reality. People have asked me through the years if I want to write novels, you know, and I say, “What do I write fiction? Who needs fiction?” I don’t want to write fiction. I don’t even like to marry fiction with fact or reality with non-reality because I think that’s confusing. So, you know, from that standpoint--just a common sense standpoint--it’s silly. It’s Superman, at best. You know, it’s the Green Hornet…was big when I was a kid. It’s Spiderman. It’s anything that’s not real where you have a certain element of miracles.

And then you add the more serious matter that you’re now dealing with a world of spirit beings and you’re now into the fringes of the demonic realm and I think that’s a very serious thing. I don’t think that’s helpful, I don’t think that that’s necessary.

You know, you could sit back and say that this Roland gal is a good writer--very, very clever. You don’t sell millions and millions of books unless people like reading them. She’s a very talented writer and you could sit back in a critical way--I could read those things and appreciate art for art’s sake. But I think for young children to be exposed to that kind of fantasy world, for young people to get lost in all of that, is really, in a way, to check out of reality and the more and more people that check out of reality, the less and less likely we are to have an influence on their lives.

I don’t think people need to get caught up in it, you know, whether it’s Star Wars or any of that hocus pocus stuff that deals with things that are fantasy. I don’t think it’s helpful to people and I think particularly children don’t need to think that there’s some mystical spirits moving around in the world, even if Harry Potter in the end is a good guy. I think there is spiritual reality in the world and they ought to know what the spiritual reality is; forget the fantasy.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
Box 119
Columbus, New Jersey, USA, 08022
Websites: www.biblebb.com and www.gospelgems.com
Email: tony@biblebb.com
Online since 1986