What's a Christian to do with Harry Potter?: an Interview
© Michael Ireland Chief Correspondent ASSIST News Service
Michael Ireland: What is your background in writing and how has this prepared you to write the Harry Potter book ?
Connie Neal: My writing background helped somewhat, but ten years as a Youth Pastor and sixteen years as a mother has done more to prepare me to write this book.
My BA in Communication from Pepperdine Univ. laid the groundwork for understanding the communication problems at the heart of this debate.
MI: What is your particular interest in this topic ?
CN: To borrow a popular phrase, "I am my kids' mom!" I didn't start researching this to write a book. As a concerned Christian mother, I realized Oprah was doing a show "Calling All Harry Potter Fans!" Therefore, I had to anticipate what my kids were going to face in popular culture so I could prepare them. That was 1998 when my kids were 8, 10, & 15.
MI: What prompted you to write the book ?
CN: I saw a need in the body of Christ -- namely Christians fighting before the watching world and getting nowhere (except maybe in the flesh and into factions). The Lord called me to do what I could to help sort out these confusing, complex, and difficult issues.
I saw tremendous opportunity to overcome evil with good, diffusing and using Harry Potter to educate kids about occult dangers, share the gospel in a relevant way, teach kids principled moral decision-making, and spiritual discernment. My friends convinced me that I could help Christians who aren't comfortable explaining Bible teachings as they correlate to popular culture.
