The Church of Harry Potter? It’s a Thing
Clerical robes may now come with wands. For the Colson Center, I’m John Stonestreet with The Point.
A group of secular students at Harvard Divinity school, feeling spiritually hungry and deprived of moral instruction, are turning to the “Harry Potter” series as a kind of Bible.
Their new podcast called “Harry Potter and the Sacred Text,” is described by The Washington Post as “a weekly church-like service for the secular” which seeks to draw morality and meaning from the story of the boy wizard with the lighting-bolt scar.
It’s now one of the most downloaded podcasts on iTunes, and its hosts are touring the country, drawing droves of eager young converts.
One student told the Post after listening, “I feel like I’m born again.” Secularism, according to the hosts, doesn’t “speak to [their peers’] hearts and souls.” Apparently, imaginary magic does.
Writing at The Federalist, Amelia Hamilton points out that these quasi-religious gatherings further prove that human beings are fundamentally religious creatures, and will try to fill the God-shaped void in their hearts with anything, even a children’s fantasy series. {eoa}
