God in the WW?

[davenclaw]

No: HPFGUIDX 132199

I often wondered at JKR's thought process when she decided to 
include Christmas and Easter in the books.  My feeling is that she 
didn't want to present them in a religious way, just to avoid having 
to sort through the implications of having Chrisitanity and 
witchcraft co-exist.  I often wonder what the Christian Muggle 
parents of a young wizard or witch would think when they learned 
that there is this whole world they never knew of where people have 
magical powers.

But, I think she included them to a) create an experience that most 
kids can relate to, and b) avoid possible negativity if she were 
seen as purposely excluding these holidays. I don't perceive that 
the characters are Christian in a religious sense, but I wouldn't 
rule out the possibility.  If you believed in Christianity but then 
learned about magic, you could simply conclude that God created the 
forces behind magic, and gave certain humans the ability to control 
these forces.  It would be challenging, to say the least, and would 
probably contradict many specific beliefs of various denominations, 
but would not ultimately be unresolvable.

As for the Harry Potter books themselves, I personally, believe that 
fostering the ability to consider magic through fiction actually 
better enables people to think through Christian (and Catholic) 
concepts such as miracles, the assumption of Mary, the virgin birth, 
water-into-wine, reviving Lazarus, the Trinity, and 
transubstantiation.  

So people who get all worked up about Harry Potter books need to 
differentiate between the risk of children rejecting religion in 
favor of magic and witchcraft, and the development of the ability to 
understand events that are not explained by science, which is 
necessary to make that "leap of faith."  That is why the Catholic 
Church issued a statement a few years back in support of the Harry 
Potter books.

- davenclaw