Heather Anne

Tomorrow, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution will be publishing an opinion piece by Laura Mallory called: Harry Potter Case - Myth vs. Truth. I have written an article in response to it. It’s not my usual blog content, but content hasn’t been my blog’s strong point lately. Maybe tomorrow I’ll tell you how I almost burned my house down with toast.

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Harry Potter Case - Truth
by: Heather Hogan, Chestnut Mountain,GA.

Here’s a confession: I am not a nice person.

Right before Christmas the Washington Post named Laura Mallory the 2006 Idiot of the Year. Mrs. Mallory is a mother of four who lives in Gwinnett County, Georgia (the county just south of mine). She spent last year trying to get Harry Potter banned from public school libraries because she thinks that reading Harry Potter is one step away from joining the occult. I read every article on Laura Mallory that I can get my hands on (including her recent op-ed piece in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution); I can safely say that I disagree with Mallory’s politics, her theology, and especially her quest to ban children’s literature from public schools. So when the Washington Post gave her a gold medal in idiocy, I laughed.

The more I think about it, though, the more ashamed I become. I disagree with Mallory today as strongly as I ever have, but calling her an idiot doesn’t make me right; it doesn’t make me smarter or better than her. In fact, it kind of makes me a jerk.

I could, quite honestly, defend the literary merit of Harry Potter until I am dehydrated. In response to the argument that Harry Potter should be banned because the story involves witches and magic spells, I might point to Christian favorites like The Chronicles of Narnia or Lord of the Rings. I might say that C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien are the two authors that JK Rowling is most often compared to. (“Look, they even use their initials as a first name!” I could say.) Then maybe I would begin a list of fairy tales, starting with Snow White and ending with Beauty and the Beast. It would be thousands of stories long. Each tale would include magic and sorcery and wizards. I might even refute, in detail, every single one of Laura Mallory’s Truths in her most recent article.

But I won’t.

Instead, I would like to talk about motive. I believe Laura Mallory’s motive, though misguided, is pure. She wants to do what is right according to God’s written word. I’m a Christian; I think tracking with God’s written word is crazy hard, but there is no greater aspiration.

But what about JK Rowling? What’s her motive? Is she coaxing an entire generation of children into the occult? How can you tell what is in a person’s heart?

Well, if you want to get Biblical about it, Jesus said: “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:44-45)

If we want to know what JK Rowling’s motive is, what’s in her heart, we should look at what’s coming out of her mouth. A good place to start would be those six international best-sellers she’s written.

I believe I can speak with a little more authority here than Laura Mallory, who, by her own admission, has not read a single Harry Potter novel. Contrary to Mallory’s opinion that the Harry Potter stories are effectually spell books that woo unknowing children into occult practices, JK Rowling’s novels weave the tale of a young man who is stumbling his way into becoming a hero.

The story’s antagonist is the self-proclaimed Lord Voldemort. Voldemort’s quest is to eradicate the world of anyone who is not a pure-blood wizard. This includes non-magic people (Muggles), people who have one magical parent and one Muggle parent (Half-bloods), magical children born to Muggle parents (Mudbloods), and non-magical people born to magical parents (Squibs). Oh, and anyone who is unsympathetic to his cause. (If you’re thinking Hitler, you’re not far off.)

This unsympathetic group includes Harry Potter, whose parents died at the hands of Voldemort when Harry was only a year old. With six books down and one to go Harry has come out on top with Voldemort, but not because he is a heroic force to be reckoned with. Harry slides by with well-timed help from his two best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger; with love from his surrogate family, the Weasleys; with advice and gentle prodding from his mentor, Albus Dumbledore; and lots of times (to echo one of his professors) with pure dumb luck.

The overarching motifs of the Potter books are loyalty, courage, forgiveness, wise decisions and, most of all, love. Near the end of the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts, says this to Harry:

“Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didn't realize that love as powerful as your mother's for you leaves its own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign ... to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever.” (Chapter 17)

Perhaps a simple summation of the Potterverse isn’t a convincing look into JK Rowling’s nature, into her heart. I confess that makes me glad, because it allows me to talk about something very dear to me.

JK Rowling’s philanthropic contributions are immeasurable. She has written two books, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them and Quidditch Through the Ages, for the British charity Comic Relief. These books have raised ₤15.7 million ($30.8 million USD) in the last 6 years. She also makes substantial contributions monetarily and vocally to MS Scotland, UK’s largest charity dedicated to helping those with Multiple Sclerosis. (JK Rowling lost her mother to MS in 1990.)

Then there is JK Rowling’s work to secure children’s rights throughout the world. In my opinion, this is her legacy. A year ago, in January 2006, JK Rowling visited Bucharest to launch a charity called The Children’s High Level Group. The United Nations estimates that 1.2 million children are trafficked each year. Most of these children are taken or purchased from their homes and sold into prostitution or slavery. Also, the number of children worldwide that are basically property of their individual states is both alarming and disconcerting. In many Eastern European countries, the children in these facilities (especially the mentally and physically handicapped) are prone to abuse and neglect. The institutions are overcrowded, understaffed, and grossly underfunded.

It is still a common practice in many countries to put children in cage beds. In 2004, Justin Sparks wrote an article in the UK Sunday Times about a facility that uses cage beds to house children. The following is an excerpt from that article:

“There are three children in separate cages in the first room. A tall boy of 15 called Pavel stands up and stretches his hands through the bars in an effort to touch anyone coming towards him. Next to him is another teenage boy, rocking backwards and forwards and occasionally clutching the bars of his cage. Opposite is Martin, a vulnerable-looking boy of about nine, who moves inquisitively to the front of his cage if someone is near. There are few novelties and hardly any visitors for the 19 residents of the basement.

“The older boys make less fuss about the daily 11am lock-up, as if they are conditioned to the routine. It is the younger ones who resist, struggle and protest. Vasek shakes the iron frame with all the force he can muster and tears at the wire mesh that confines him. His screams of anger ring through the building. In an adjacent cage his friend Michal puts his hands over his ears to shut out the noise and bursts into tears.”

JK Rowling cites this article as the catalyst for her involvement with The Children’s High Level Group. It was this article that propelled her into action and compelled her to visit Romania a year ago. While she was there, she met with orphans who had gone through the institutional system, political leaders, the press, and children’s rights activists. She also visited care homes and institutions. She detailed the account in the Sunday Times when she returned home.

I followed JK Rowling’s trip very closely because at the same time I was on my own personal journey to make my voice heard concerning the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This particular UN charter was drafted in 1989; it sought to secure basic human rights for children around the world. To date, the United States and Somalia are the only two nations that have not ratified the charter. That is to say that America is the only country with a recognized government that has not agreed to the Convention. I wrote to my Senators and to my Congressman. I researched and studied. I made phone calls. I wrote articles. And I stiffed my family on Christmas gifts so I could donate monetarily to these children in need.

Among the AP photos that surfaced during JK Rowling’s trip to Romania was this one of her in an institution, reaching through the bars of a crib, to caress a little girl’s face.

I wept when I saw it because in that moment I realized my voice was not as loud or articulate as JK Rowling’s, but it seemed we were saying the same thing, that our hearts were similar, that our motives were parallel.

Lines, parallel or otherwise, are a tricky business, and they are so commonplace in our society that we don’t see ourselves being corralled behind them. You are for the Republicans or for the terrorists! You are for the Democrats or you want to blow up the ozone! You are a Christian or you read Harry Potter! Choose a side! We shout so loud and so hard about how right we are on our side of the line that we don’t realize the things we have in common with people on the other side.

Laura Mallory is a mother of four; she wants the Harry Potter books out of school because she thinks it is best for the children. JK Rowling is a mother of three; she gives millions of dollars to children, travels around the world to secure their rights, and writes amazing children’s stories full of color, depth, humor and… yeah, love.

If Jesus’ words hold true (and I believe they do) all the good coming out of JK Rowling’s life is from the good stored up in her heart. And out of that overflow, she penned the following:

“One of my first thoughts, when I finished reading that initial article by Justin Sparks, was ‘why didn’t I know about this? How could I not know about it?’ I had momentarily forgotten that human suffering, however dreadful and on however wide a scale, will always go ignored and unheard unless somebody is prepared to shout about it, and others are ready to act. It is phenomenally easy both to hide and to silence children once separated from their families. They are small and portable, their language skills aren’t great, they don’t have lawyers and they aren’t registered to vote. Abandoned, neglected, caged or trafficked, these children were intended by nature to be protected by their parents. Now it is somebody else’s job — partly, mine.”

Donald Miller, perhaps my favorite theologian, said this about Jesus and lines:

“Jesus seems to draw a circle around himself and say, ‘Everyone outside this circle is broken. But you don’t have to stay broken. Step inside; marry me.’”

Here is a confession: I am not a nice person. JK Rowling, though? She makes me want to be better.

Unlike Laura Mallory I have read both the Bible and all the Harry Potter novels, countless times. The first has given me guidance and unprecedented hope; the latter has entertained me for hours on end and inspired me step out against injustice. Laura Mallory has drawn an imaginary line based on faulty logic, and she is trying to herd us onto one side. I won’t go.

That circle where Jesus is standing, I’m camping there.