Magic - ???

I decided that I wanted to read Harry Potter this summer, but after I heard one of my friends comment on it, I wasn't so sure. I was kind of confused, because some of my friends said Harry Potter was fine, and others were wary of it. I decided to read the first book anyway, and after I finished, I was more confused than ever.

The book itself was okay - I didn't like how the kids were always breaking rules, though at one point, they did know they deserved the punishment they got. But Harry and Ron didn't seem to care much about the restrictions of Hogwarts, and Hermione, who did care at first, was classed as "annoying", and a little goody-goody. I didn't mind the magic in there either, except for one line where Ron asks Hermione if she's a witch or not. At that point, it sort of hit me that they were supposed to be training to be witches...so without that line, I would have been fine with it.

I'm not sure if I'll read the next book or not. We'll see.

This morning I was poring over my concordance and my dictionary. (Lovely friends, they are indeed.) Leviticus 19:26b says that no divination or sorcery should be practiced. Divination is foretelling the future. Sorcery is defined as witchcraft/magic. Witchcraft is defined only as magic, but a witch is a woman/sorceress with powers derived from the evil spirits. Interesting...

But anyway - even a few weeks before I read Harry Potter, I had been wondering about magic in books. I know that's kind of a hot topic for Christian families who read a lot. Our family doesn't care about magic in books. My dad is fine with it, except for the bad kind of magic like divination and black magic, of course.

I am fine with magic as well, as long as the main characters aren't taking part in the bad kind. I prefer books with magic to take place in different lands, where the author can set up different rules and laws that don't pertain to our own. If they're doing magic in our real world, I'm a little more wary...but I don't think that those are necessarily bad. I guess each one of us have to go by how our consciences behave. However, I don't think it's right to applaud Narnia and Lord of the Rings because their authors were Christians and then put down other perfectly fine books with wizards and elves just because they have magic in them.

The below snippet is a conversation I'm going to put in my next book. In that story, the army is not allowed to use magic even though there is magic to be used and their enemies are casting spells like crazy. (©!!!)

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"It all depends on how you define magic," said Bronerion. "I define magic as wind whistling through the trees - it moves unseen, and yet you still see leaves rustling in its wake. Another kind of magic is the way a horse runs - each hoof moving in its time, and all four beating the ground together to form a wondrous speed. And there's the kind of magic that passes between a man and a maiden..."

"But then," Carei interrupted, "Magic is everywhere. How do we obey the Unseen Ruler's command to put off all magic?"

"I told you," said the old man. "It all depends on how you define it. The Unseen Ruler gives us magic in love and air and creatures of the earth, but he forbids us to add any crude magic of our own to that."

"Because...he doesn't want his own being ruined?" Carei asked.

"Because that would show that we didn't trust him and the strength of his own magic." Bronerion lit his pipe. "Don't you have a riding lesson at this hour? Off with you. We'll discuss this more later."

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I would absolutely LOVE to hear your opinions on magic and fantasy books. Comments are my friends and so are you. :)