The Devil Made Me Do It

Sometimes I get really inspired to blog by reading other people's blogs. But they always seem to make astute, pop-culturish jokes about American Idol and I don't watch TV. Really, I always just write about me, which is a tad Narcissistic.
OK, it's a lot Narcissistic.
But I watch movies, albeit, not very often. I kind of sold my soul by recently watching the entire Harry Potter series with my Formerly Untainted Children.
It was because of a blog. See, I read all about how this one determined Christian woman was trying to keep Harry Potter out of the public schools on account of how he was a gateway to the occult. Children everywhere are casting spells and becoming Satan's minions from reading Harry Potter. Perhaps that's true. I never have read Harry Potter. But this one woman was becoming rather Ridiculous! because of her obsessive focus on censoring a bunch of books she had never read. And I though, "hmmmmmm I am like that, too." (It seems to me that Christians should love people without trying to impose our standards upon them. If you don't want your kids learning secular stuff, then take them out of the secular schools! But that's a topic for another day...)
I have never done the Potter books or movies because I know there's witchcraft and magic in them. Plus, I thought I'd like them a whole lot, then I'd be shunned by the Christian community. So I decided to rent the first movie and make it an educational opportunity. The boys and I watched with a discerning eye and discussed what we saw.
Very interesting.
We are big fans of the fantastical.
There is a distinct difference between this series and, say Narnia, or The Lord of the Rings. Funny, because I had heard that, but I had never had anyone really explain what the difference was.
Harry and friends are learning to employ, basically, dark arts. You have sorcery, witchcraft, divination, and channeling. God is pretty dang clear that we are not to have anything to do with that kind of stuff. Now, I love Gandalf and fairy godmothers; so, I'll be the first to tell you that I don't know where to draw the line.
In those other series, the "people" are intrinsically good or evil with powers as part of their DNA. Like angels or demons, sort of. No humans are studying to employ these mysterious and unpredictable Spells.
I guess that the truth is, I get the heebie-jeebies watching some of the Sorcerer stuff on Harry Potter. There's something in me that says that's really wrong, God hates this stuff. I don't get that with Gandalf.
You know that evil witch queen in Willow? The one who calls down powers on Evil to get rid of the baby? Same freaky badness.
All that said, I like Harry Potter. The character is quite wonderful. His story is quite heroic. And the truth? I will likely watch the rest of the series as they come out at the theater. Does that make me hypocritical? Yeah? Maybe so.