What is JKR's religious beliefs?

[Penny Linsenmayer <pennylin@swbell.net>]

Hi all --

Heidi kindly pointed out this thread to me, since I don't often get
over to OTC.  :::waves at Heidi::::

Well.  First, maybe a few clarifications:

1.  As best I know, there is only one interview wherein JKR mentions
attending the Church of Scotland.  It doesn't say that she is a
*faithful* attendee in the Church of Scotland........but one gets the
impression that she is perhaps more regular than just christenings,
weddings, funerals and Easter Sunday.  

2.  As best I know, there is also only one interview in which she
professes that she believes in God.  

3.  Catlady: if JKR told a Canadian paper that she doesn't discuss
religion much *because* those familiar with Christian doctrine could
figure out how the series ends, I'd sure loovvvvvvvvvve to read that.
 Can you provide a link?

In general, she has been reticent about discussing her religious
beliefs.  I've recently read four works written by Christians
defending the HP series (The Hidden Key to HP by John Granger; A
Charmed Life: the Spirituality of Potterword by the Reverend Francis
Bridger; God, the Devil and Harry Potter by John Killinger; and both
works by Connie Neal (What's a Christian to do with HP? and The Gospel
According to HP).  I've got a fairly longish book review going on all
4 books .... have been trying to get my notes from Bridger worked in
so it can be posted. 

To the original poster who asked about her religious beliefs because
they knew a teenage girl who couldn't read HP but could read Lewis and
Tolkien because those authors are Christian: her parents need to read
the above books.  Connie Neal addresses that particular issue head-on
in her first book.  Here's what she says: "If violence, occult terms &
`good witchcraft' are complaints against Harry Potter, does it make
sense to sanctify the same elements in books authored by [people known
to be] Christians?"  She urges Christians to not use faulty logic: if
you condemn "occultic terms" and the fantasy setting of HP, you *must*
do so with Tolkien and Lewis as well.  

Granger takes the position that Rowling is writing explicitly
Christian novels in the tradition of Tolkien and Lewis.  Killinger
doesn't go quite this far in his analysis, though he does argue that
the books can be viewed as a modern interpretation of the Gospel and
that the foundation and plot of the HP books are premised on the
Judeo-Christian heritage.  I found all of these books to be a great
read, and they all had distinctive ways of looking at the series from
a Christian perspective (it's truly not just the same material hashed
out over & over again.......these authors do all bring a fresh
perspective to the subject).  Though if I had to choose only one of
them to give to this girl's parents, I suppose I'd opt for Killinger.    

Turning to bboy's comments:
    
> bboy_mn:
>  
> While Britian is certainly a diverse society and incorporates all
> religious faiths, I think it is safe to say that someone named Patil
> or Ghandi would be Hindu, and someone named Hishimoto would be Shinto.
> If I meet a person of Thai ancestry who is a native born Brit, I think
> it's still safe to assume they are Buddhist. While this is not
> absolute, it's a pretty fair indicator. Equally fair is the assumption
> that someone born in Britian and named Rowling is Christian. 
>  
> That combined with her own statements of the fact.

I would say that is safe *assumption* only *if* combined with her
statements regarding the matter.  We had a fair few discussions on the
overall topic of religion in the UK many moons ago, and it seems that
Britain is overall a far more secular than Christian country these
days.  Yes, it's more likely that she would be Christian than
Buddhist, Moslem or Hindu (though because there are so many British
citizens who practice those faiths, one can't rule out that many Brits
of Anglo background might have taken up those faiths).  But, it's just
as likely that she's not particularly religious as that she's
Christian -- if all you're looking at is her surname and the country
of her birth.  

She may well have been baptized in the Anglican Church, but that
doesn't make her a Christian.  She may well have attended the Anglican
Church or the Church of Wales or one of the non-conformist churches in
her youth, but that doesn't make her a Christian.  Even sporadic or
semi-regular attendance in the Church of Scotland as an adult doesn't
necessarily make her a Christian.  As a Christian myself, I would say
that my faith requires active and ongoing affirmance and actions.  

I suspect that she is Christian, but my reasons aren't because her
last name is Rowling and she grew up in England.  Her admission that
she attends the Church of Scotland and her unrelated comment that she
believes in God are pretty good evidence.  Even better is her
interview comment that her favorite painting is Caravaggio's Supper at
Emmaus.  Adding to the mix are her favorable comments about C.S.
Lewis' Narnia series, itself an explicit Christian allegory. 
Certainly most of these Christian commentators I've discussed above
believe that she is Christian and that this shows through in her work.
 I'd agree with that assessment in general.    

Penny