Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

The key character in the next scene is Ginny Weasley, Ron’s younger
sister and Harry’s secret love. Some will remember that in
Harry Potter and
the Chamber of Secrets, she was possessed and controlled by
the evil Voldemort after finding his old diary implanted with a portion of
his soul. What kinds of values might it transmit to the reader?

“How come you ended up in there, Ginny?”
    
“He saw me hex Zacharias Smith,” said Ginny. “You remember that idiot
from Hufflepuff who was in the D.A.? He kept on and on asking about what
happened at the Ministry and in the end he
annoyed me so much I hexed him — when Slughorn came in. I thought I was
going to get detention, but he just thought it was a really good hex and
invited me to lunch! Mad, eh?”

Stirring emotions

Our minds
are far more receptive to contrary values than we like to think. And the
more these occult images and suggestion arouse our emotions — whether love,
laughter, fear, hate or rage — the more effectively they plant new values in
our minds and seal those values in our memory. As a result, youth around the
world have learned to love evil and despise truth — just as God warns us: “You
love evil more than good….”

Her sister Lauren, 10, confirmed Ashley’s

Of course, Harry Potter is not the first character — real or fictional —
who learned how to excite the masses through evocative imagery and clever words. China’s
revered leader Mao Zedong knew well the power of “emotion work.” That’s why he so
effectively won the hearts of the people.
He knew how to stir “bitterness” against landowners, hatred toward
Christians, love for communism, and a sacrificial spirit that would
give its all to his totalitarian reign. By identifying and isolating the key
“enemy” as the most threatening evil, the new evils no longer seem so bad.

Some of
Mao’s strategies, now seen in
churches as well as other organizations, were described by
Elizabeth J. Perry in a report given at Harvard University in the spring of
2000.
Referring to the manipulative effects of myth-making fantasy (here expressed
through community theater rather than books, but with similar effect), she said, 

“The growth of the revolutionary
movement was marked by increasing attention to the importance of ’emotion-raising’ in
the process of mass mobilization. 

     “Theater was a critical means of eliciting an
emotional reaction that was used intentionally to solidify popular commitment. … Staged public performances have constituted the
very heart and soul of the Chinese Communist revolution…. This is not to imply, however, that the
emotions expressed in such contexts are somehow phony or inauthentic. A distinctive
facet of human feelings is of course their ambivalence and malleability; the genius of the
CCP approach lay in its capacity to appreciate and capitalize on this fundamental reality.”[6]

When Ms. Rowling
wrote the first book, she could neither foresee nor plan the influence she
would one day wield. The story, she said, came to her mind long ago as she was
riding the train.’[7] But many others are
intentionally riding on her coattails. Her U.S. publisher, Scholastic, has prepared
public school curricula based on its pagan world view. Churches have
designed Harry Potter Sunday school lessons and small group dialogues — a
growth-producing “carrot’ for engaging children and youth in fun
“learning” activities. Much of the learning takes place in
small groups
through the dialectic process as students share and blend their feelings
about Harry with each other. Led by a teacher/facilitator, they
are trained to think dialectically — for the sake of unity and tolerance,
they practice reconciling relevant opposites.

But how do you reconcile opinions dealing with Christianity versus
paganism, unity versus separation, good versus evil, etc.? What attitudes
would the children learn from each other concerning good and evil in the Harry Potter
books?

It would be natural
for them to reconcile the conflicts between pagan myths and Biblical truth
by redefining traditional words, find more tolerant interpretations of the
Bible, rationalize away Biblical boundaries, and cheer the group
consensus. They might even celebrate their new-found “freedom” to “think outside the box” of the
increasingly offensive Bible. But none of those “solutions” can
counter the
truth of Scriptures such as these:

“Woe to those who call
evil good, and good evil;

Who put darkness for
light, and light for
darkness….

Woe
to those who are wise in their own eyes,

and
prudent in their own sight!”  Isaiah
5:20-21

Consider the next
example. Harry and his classmates are listening to the
effusive Professor Slughorn, the potions teacher who replaced Professor
Snape. He shows them a bottle of golden liquid, which Harry soon “won” by
somewhat dubious means. What similar confidence-building, highly addictive
“potion” is available to thrill-seeking youth today? (This year, Meth has
captivated about 1.5 million users, but next year it could be something
else.)

“Well, that one, ladies and gentlemen
— is a
most curious little potion called Felix Felicis. I take it,” he turned, smiling, to look at Hermione, who had let out an audible gasp, “that you know what Felix Felicis does, Miss Granger?” 

       “It’s liquid luck,” said Hermione excitedly. “It makes you lucky!”

       “Quite right….Yes, it’s a funny little potion, Felix Felicis,” said Slughorn. “Desperately tricky to make and disastrous to get wrong. However, if brewed correctly, as this has been, you will find that all your endeavors tend to succeed… at least until the effects wear off.” 

[Later in the year]

       “Yeah, I s’pose I’d better,” said Harry. “I don’t reckon I’ll need all of
it…. Two or three hours should do it.”

       “It’s a great feeling when you take it,” said Ron reminiscently. “Like you can’t do anything wrong.” 

       “What are you talking about?” said Hermione, laughing. “You’ve never taken any!”

      
“Yeah, but I thought I had, didn’t I?” said Ron, as though explaining the obvious. “Same difference really….”

“Well, here goes,” said Harry, and he raised the little bottle and took a carefully measured gulp. 

      
“What does it feel like?” whispered Hermione. 

      
Harry did not answer for a moment. Then, slowly but surely, an exhilarating
sense of infinite opportunity stole through him; he felt as though he could have
done anything, anything at all…. He got to his feet, smiling, brimming with
confidence. 

      
“Excellent,” he said…. I’m going to Hagrid’s, I’ve got a good feeling about
going to Hagrid’s.” 

      
“You’ve got a good feeling about burying a giant spider?” asked Ron, looking
stunned. 

      
“Yeah,” said Harry, pulling his Invisibility Cloak out of his bag. “I feel like
it’s the place to be tonight, you know what I mean?” 

      
“No,” said Ron and Hermione together, both looking positively alarmed now. …

      
“Trust me,” [Harry] said. “I know what I’m doing… or at least” — he
strolled confidently to the door — “Felix does.”

“Sensory immersion helps learners
grasp reality
through illusion,”[8] wrote Harvard
Professor Chris Dede, a global leader in the development of education
technology programs.

Through television, movies, music and ads, most
Americans are immersed in a sensory environment that bombard their
minds and emotions. Without any effort of our own, we are trained to be
receptive and “open-minded.” Yet, we are poorly
prepared to resist these cultural pressures. Today’s postmodern ideas — which mock facts,
truth and certainty — have stripped away the mental tools needed to make wise
choices.
And with each repetition, the deceptions
become more believable.

“…till at last the child’s mind is these
suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the child’s mind,” wrote
Aldous Huxley over seventy years ago in Brave New World.  “And not
the child’s mind only. The adult’s mind too — all his life long. The mind
that judges and desires and decides — made up of these suggestions.”[9]

When children
are so enchanted by Harry Potter’s world that they read each
book again and again, discuss it among their friends, dialogue in classroom
groups and write “fan fiction” based on the myth, they “make it their own.” Their minds and emotions are so “at home” in the story, that their old
familiar home might even seem strange and foreign in comparison.

A former student at


Clinton’s Governor’s School in Arkansas,
who had happily read and played in an unreal learning environment isolated
from his family, summarized it well: “The students. . . say,
‘This is the perfect place. I never want to go home.’ I caught myself saying
that several times.”[10]

This Governor’s school for future leaders
had embraced several key brainwashing techniques that help us understand
today’s strategies for change:

• Isolate students from family and friends
  (who cling to the old values)

• Discredit or undermine former authorities (parents, pastors, etc.)
• Reinforce new beliefs and values (those that fit the vision for
  pluralism and unity)
• Emphasize feeling-based learning
• Immerse learners in a desirable fantasy world

“It would be impossible for me to describe to you just how exciting
and unusual this educational adventure is,” said former president Bill
Clinton back in his days as governor of Arkansas. That was before one former student became so depressed that he
committed suicide.[10]

Immersing children and youth
in a wildly exciting pagan belief system will change their minds,
memories, beliefs and values. “Christian” fans who find the story
irresistible will
face cognitive dissonance, a form of mental and emotional
confusion. To social and educational change agents, this intentional
dissonance is an
essential step in the process of “unfreezing” minds and “opening” them up to a
new way of
thinking.[11] 
It occurs when the child tries to
reconcile the shocking new suggestions with the beliefs they learned
from their parents.

The next scene involves three characters so
obviously evil that Harry and other “good” occultists seem
almost saintly by comparison. The three villains serve Voldemort, the ultimate evil in the story. Narcissa is the
mother of Harry’s taunting classmate Draco Malfoy. Her sister Bellatrix, a
member of Voldemort’s cruel army of Death Eaters,
killed Harry’s “godfather” Sirius Black and tortured to death the parents of
Harry’s friend Neville using an excruciating spell. 
Consider the impact of the following occult suggestions on a child who had
been learning to see reality from a Biblical perspective.

     “Certainly, Narcissa, I shall make the Unbreakable
Vow,” he [Snape] said
quietly. “Perhaps your sister will consent to be our Bonder.”

     Bellatrix’s mouth fell open. Snape lowered himself so
that he was
kneeling opposite Narcissa. Beneath Bellatrix’s astonished gaze,
they grasped right hands.

     “You will need your wand, Bellatrix,” said Snape
coldly.

She drew it… and placed the
tip of her wand on their linked hands.

     Narcissa spoke. “Will you, Severus, watch over my
son, Draco, as he attempts to
fulfill the Dark Lord’s wishes?”

     “I will,” said Snape.

     A thin tongue of brilliant flame issued from the
wand and
wound its way around their hands like a red-hot wire.

     “And will you, to the best of your ability,
protect him from harm?”

     “I will,” said Snape.

     A second tongue of flame shot from the
wand…

     “And, should it prove necessary… if it
seems Draco will
fail…“ whispered Narcissa… “will you carry out the deed that the
Dark Lord has ordered Draco to perform?”

     “I will,” said Snape.

This vow, made
early in the book, was fulfilled at the end. The
hateful Professor Snape — who turns out to be the mysterious Half-blood Prince — did what Harry’s hostile
classmate Draco Malfoy failed to do: kill Albus
Dumbledore as the revered schoolmaster lay injured near the top of a staircase. But
this fictional tragedy will probably strengthen Harry’s influence in the real world.
For — just as terrorism justifies increased government surveillance — this
evil deed helps justify Harry’s use of dark magic to finish his unbiblical mission.

Though millions of children around the world are now absorbing the
message in Book 6, most of them make this dark and disturbing journey into
the occult realm
alone. Unless the book is
read aloud in a group setting, each reader encounters Harry, Dumbledore, Snape, and
the Death Eaters
through their own minds and imagination. Even if parents discuss the action afterwards, each
individual reader must face the ominous atmosphere, the lighthearted spells,
the cutting remarks, and the murderous cruelty alone. No one
else shares their personal reactions as they turn each page.

Once planted in the mind, those memories will continue to color a child’s
view of God. They will probably stir cravings for more
occult thrills. Each new book and reading will reinforce
the person’s growing familiarity with forbidden realms. Few realize that the actual world
of the occult is far darker and more frightening than they can conceive. And
few know God and His Word well enough to discern
the spiritual distortions. Vital Scriptures needed for spiritual warfare seem alien to those who have embraced the
postmodern
mindset.

I have received
many letters from children, youth, parents, pastors
and teachers who all claim to be Christians yet love Harry Potter. Their
emotional arguments show that their understanding of God’s
Word has been compromised beyond recognition. In many cases, their expressed faith
fits right into the spiritual transformation I described in



The Rising World
Religion.

They had learned to love the occult and to justify their rejection of
Scriptures such as Jeremiah 10:2: “Thus says the Lord: ‘Do not learn the
way of the Gentiles.'” That last word refers to the pagan nations that
surrounded His people. They were not to learn the occult beliefs and
practices of the heathens who worshipped other gods and lived in bondage to demonic
forces. Yet, Israel ignored that warning and was destroyed.

Victory

God
alone can lead us safely through the tempting lures and illusions that
bombard our children in this thrill-seeking culture. And He proves His faithfulness
again and again to those who trust Him.

I was speaking at a Sunday School Convention about 15 years
ago on the topic, “The Unholy Power of Charms and
Symbols.” Parents and teachers were still crowding into the
small auditorium, when I began showing transparencies of simple
symbols such as the yin-yang, the peace symbol, and the ankh.
We discussed their meanings — and why their popularity has skyrocketed today.

See
How can Games, TV, Books and Movies change your faith
and hinder your walk with God?

For an in-depth study on the Armor of God, see
A
Wardrobe from the King

See also this chart:

1. J. K. Rowling,
Harry
Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Arthur A. Levine Books, Scholastic
Inc., 2005), page 522.

2. “Ask Peter” — “Harry
Potter: The Story Behind the Stories” at

www.crossroad.toask-peterhp-overview-1.htm

3.

Elizabeth J. Perry, “Once Again –With Feeling: The Chinese
Revolution Revisited.” Report given at Harvard University

CBRSS Events, Spring 2000.
(Apparently the article is no longer available online.)

Chris Dede, “The
Transformation of Distance Education to Distributed Learning.” While
this and other papers by Professor Chris Dede focuses on education technology, it
emphasizes the value of sensory immersion into synthetic environments as a tool to mold
minds by instilling a programmed perception of “reality.” http://www.gsu.edu/~wwwitr/docs/distlearn/index.html

10.

A Model
School for the Global Community