This past month the last of the Harry Potter movies opened in theaters and during it’s opening weekend it broke all box office records. But have you noticed over the past couple of years that the criticism of Harry Potter within Christian circles has died down quite a bit?  I remember when the movies started to be released, churches were distributing articles in front of the movie theater on how Harry Potter was linked to drawing children into Satanism (little did the church understand that the article was a spoof from the Onion) In Sarah Pulliam Bailey’s recent column in the Wall Street Journal she has been observing much of the same development of tolerance within Christian circles She writes: In its early years, “Harry Potter” was a litmus test of orthodoxy for some conservative Christians, who expressed concern over its portrayal of witchcraft. A Christian lawyer sued a public library for encouraging young readers to check out the series. Texas Pastor John Hagee called the books a “precursor to witchcraft.” In 2005 a Canadian website published a letter opposing the books written by Pope Benedict XVI when he was Cardinal Ratzinger. (In 2009, the Vatican’s newspaper L’Osservatore Romano published a favorable review, seeming to reverse course on the series.) The hysteria has largely died down, and not many religious leaders asked their flocks to avoid the final movie, which opens today. Potter observers cite a few possible reasons for the waning concern, including a natural desire to move on to other entertainment issues, but also an interest in the themes that unfolded. Pulliam Bailey also reminds us that Ms Rowling identifies herself as a Christian who was widely influenced by writers such as C.S. Lewis. Rowling even said, “To me, the religious parallels have always been obvious…But I never wanted to talk too openly about it, because I thought it might show people who just wanted the story where we were going.” Have you noticed that the tone toward Harry Potter has changed over the last decade?  What are  your thoughts? Read more at www.provocativechurch.com

I found the following excerpt from a longer prayer of Spurgeon’s called “The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved.” Note: the “College” he refers to was the in-house pastor’s training school which was also the focus of his well-known Lectures to My Students.

“Bless the dear sons of this church, trained at our own side, who go forth to preach the gospel: whether they be in the College, or whether they are preaching outside of it, let the blessing of the Lord be with every one of them.”

C. H. Spurgeon, The Pastor in Prayer (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth), 134-35. Read more at expositorythoughts.wordpress.com