In the Harry Potter books, there is a professor called “Mad-Eye Moody” whose experience fighting dark wizards has made him completely paranoid; he sees dark wizards almost everywhere. His refrain to the students is “Constant vigilance!” Although most of the students see him as a bit of a crank, in the end he is correct, as dark wizards are often looming around the corner trying to harm those who are fighting for good.

My wife and I have taken up Mad-Eye’s motto for the raising of our children. The sad fact is that today there are many forces that wish to attack our children and corrupt them with the values of this world, instead of the values of the Gospel. Two generations ago, Catholic parents could be somewhat relaxed about parenting because there were many other parents who were teaching their kids the same values, and they could trust their parish and parish school to do likewise.

However, the generation previous to mine had the misfortune of maintaining this trust in institutions yet having those same institutions (parish, school, and neighborhood) fail them greatly. There were many parents who sent their kids to the local parish or Catholic school in the 1970’s and 1980’s expecting them to get a Catholic education, yet discovered much too late that they instead got the same spiritual upbringing of public schools. As my former pastor once told me, “All I learned in CCD in the 1970’s is ‘Be nice’ and ‘Don’t do drugs.’” Not exactly a well-developed Catholic formation.

Most serious Catholics of my generation now realize that they cannot blindly trust others in the raising of their children – they must have constant vigilance in their parenting, testing those institutions before leaving their children with them. In other words, they need to take a “Mad-Eye Moody” approach to parenting.

What does all this have to do with Advent? Yesterday Christ warned us at the beginning of Advent to “Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent” (Luke 21:36). Sometimes our culture is positive enough that we can start to fall asleep and trust others to the tasks given to us. I think most would agree that this is not the case today. But in any time, we must be vigilant, as St. Peter also reminds us: “Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

This Advent let us all resolve to be more vigilant in all our responsibilities.

Constant vigilance!

Imagine you are a boy around the age of 10. Your mom buys you a children’s book in which your name is plastered on the front cover and the character with your name is also a boy your age. Not only that, he is the hero of the book. Pretty cool, huh?

But then imagine that the book and its sequels goes on to sell about a bazillion copies around the world and everyone in the world now associates your name with that character. Not so cool anymore, is it?

Well, that is exactly what happened to this unfortunate young man.

After reading this story, I have a confession to make, one that is sure to scandalize many people:

I am a fan of Harry Potter

Yes, it’s true – I’ve read all seven books (twice) about the boy-wizard, have seen the first five movies, and plan to see the latest movie installment next week.

It all started like this: a few years ago I was desperate to find books for my bibliophile 10-year-old daughter. My mother-in-law, who is a former middle-school teacher and is now a librarian, couldn’t stop raving about the Harry Potter books. I had heard some negative things about them from people I respected, but my mother-in-law is a good Catholic as well, so I began to think they might not be so bad. I also saw a positive review of the HP books by my friend, Catholic author Regina Doman, so I thought there might be more there than I suspected. But since I had heard so many negative things about them, I wanted to read them for myself before allowing my children to read them.

So when I was at my mother-in-law’s one Christmas, I picked up the first book and read it quickly (I make no claims that the HP books are dense literature – they are children’s books, first and foremost). I wasn’t wowed by the story, but I also found nothing in it objectionable, and much to like. The most controversial part of the books in the Christian world – the use of magic – seemed to me to be so clearly tongue-in-cheek that I had a hard time taking seriously the argument that it could lead children to dabble in real-life magic. To be honest, I think Lord of the Rings is more likely to tempt a child to try magic than Harry Potter (and I consider LOTR the greatest fictional books ever written). Most of the magic in the books is laugh-out-loud funny, not a serious introduction to “black arts” in any way. Furthermore, magic in the Harry Potter books is clearly intended to be fantastical – you are born with it or you are not, and nothing a “Muggle” can do can lead them to be able to perform magic.

So I decided that it would be okay for my daughter to read the books, but didn’t actually get around to picking the books up at the library for her. I then was at my mother-in-law’s again and bored and picked up the second book in the series. At that point, I was hooked: I became immersed in the story and read through the sixth book (the seventh had not yet been released) in quick succession. I put the seventh book on hold at the library as quickly as possible and was able to pick it up the morning of its release and read it in one weekend. I have since then gone back and read them through a second time.

A note at this point to those who do not know me personally: I am quite over-protective of my children. My wife and I are very intentional in what entertainment we allow our children to consume. We don’t own a television, and we restrict what books they are allowed to read (on an age-appropriate basis – for example, my eight-year-old is currently only allowed to read the first three books in the HP series). I take very seriously my responsibility to protect my children from harm, and I have no problem resisting societal pressure to have my children have what other children may have.

So why do I like the series? Number one, I find the characters very interesting. Rowling does a marvelous job of populating the HP universe with a broad diversity of characters, and like real life, none of them are perfect and none of them are pure evil (expect perhaps Voldemort, and even he has a back story that can produce sympathy for him). I have read a good deal of “Christian fiction,” and the biggest criticism I have of the genre is that most of the characters are very one-dimensional: they are either “good” (i.e. born-again Christians) or “bad.” I am not looking for books which represent a reality in which my children do not live – I am looking for books in which “real” (read: flawed) people do their best to make the right choices in their lives.

That brings me to a common criticism of the books: you often hear that Harry Potter himself is not a good role model because he often breaks the rules and doesn’t suffer any bad consequences. In actuality, though, Rowling does a good job of reflecting real life: sometimes Harry – like every teenage boy – breaks the rules, and when that happens, sometimes good things result, and sometimes, very bad things happen (think about what happened to his godfather in the fifth book when Harry didn’t do what the grown-ups wanted him to do). To act like we live in a world where following rules (not moral laws, necessarily, but just rules) always has good consequences is simply not accurate.

Furthermore, Harry clearly is a good role model in a fundamental area of life: he willingly sacrifices himself for those he loves. Yes, at times he acts like a typical teenager in doing that, but to me that makes him all the more powerful; it conveys to youth that one can have faults and problems and still rise above them to perform heroic acts of charity for others.

I am a strong believer that every parent must decide what is best for their own children – I cannot say what someone else’s children should or should not read. But I would say to all Catholic parents who are hesitant to allow their children to read the books based on what they have read (from Michael O’Brien, for instance): read the books yourself and then come to your own conclusion. Like me, you might be surprised to find a quite engaging and positive series of books that your children – and you – will greatly enjoy.