Harry Potter: Witchcraft Repackaged

Positive—I am in the A.M.O.R Mime Ministry in our church and a lot of the members in the ministry sat down together to see this movie. It answered a lot of questions that we had! The movie is very convincing and we are planning to share it with the pastor of our church. I know that from personal experience from reading the first 3 books, that there is a lot of hidden stuff within the text. Also I did read half of the fourth book, I had to close it because in that book it finally went over the top! And the movie helped explain why!
My Ratings: [Excellent / 5]

Positive—I am glad that someone has had the initiative to come out and tell the truth about the “innocent magic” in the Harry Potter book/movie series. Many people are lead to believing that witchcraft is okay because, through this fantasy tale, it is made to seem harmless, intriguing and fun. Quite the contrary. The bible clearly states to shun even the appearance of evil. There is no way to read anything else into that, other than exactly what it says: witchcraft is WRONG, no matter how innocent it seems. I have also heard people argue that it’s “good” magic. Show me one place in the bible where it talks about “good” magic being okay. All magic has only one source, and it isn’t holy. Why take a chance on something so controversial and that is so clearly against God’s laws? These books/movies open a door to each reader's/viewer’s mind that feeds in the idea that sorcery and magic are fine. That is as opposite the truth as you can get. it’s the most purist form of blasphemy…
My Ratings: [Excellent / 4]

Positive—Anna I would really urge you to read what God’s word says about paganism and its practices. There is absolutely no justification for a believer to partake of what is no more than glamorizing of Satanic and evil magic. Caryl Matrisciana and the others involved in the making of this film tell hard hitting Biblical truths and I for one cannot imagine anyone, especially Connie Neal and her blasphemous book (“what’s A Christian To Do With Harry Potter?”) trying to justify this trash!
My Ratings: [Excellent / 5]

Neutral—I just watched this video and thought that while it had some true and good points, there was lots of garbage and things that were either irrelevant, or false. I have just recently watched all the Harry Potter movies, and so I definitely agreed with a lot of it, but at several times (some of which are mentioned in a few of the other comments above mine) they really stretch the facts of what happens in the story to make it look much worse than it is. I would recommend only watching the first half, if any of this video as the second half is pretty much just fluff that is irrelevant or false.

Also, they refer so much to this other film “The Craft” and play lots of clips from it. The points they make about it are good, but we are NOT watching “The Craft: Witchcraft Repackaged"! We are supposed to be watching something about Harry Potter, so I think they should only talk about points to do with that, not just movies in general. In fact, I think they almost spend as much time talking about “The Craft” as they do about Harry Potter! Also, one last note is that filmmaking quality, its terrible! I was getting creeped out just by watching this as they use scary, creepy music and dumb sound effects. I would not recommend this film, but instead recommend that you watch Harry Potter first and then maybe this, so you can decide weather you agree with their points or not.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Average / Moviemaking quality: 1½

Neutral—Though this movie does make very good points about the occult, I am once again somewhat exasperated by all the negative attention Harry Potter is getting. I have read the books. I enjoyed the books. As far as I am concerned, all the books are, are fantasy stories and good for a yarn. There is a great deal of occultic influence in our society (I’m not denying that) but I doubt that Harry Potter has much to do with it. The occult has been around ever since mankind fell away from God, and its influence does not depend on a series of fantasy stories. If one is truly concerned about their child reading the books, perhaps it would be a good idea to read the books for themselves and make a judgment based on first hand experience. Discussions with their child about what he/she has read could also be done; parents should do what they feel is best. But not everything that “goes bump in the night” is from the devil.
My Ratings: [Excellent / 4]

Negative—I’m giving this video the lowest moral rating because the “Christian” producers repeatedly distort or misrepresent events in the Harry Potter books and ascribe the basest motives to the characters. Space limitations do not allow me to cite every instance of distortion or misrepresentation, but if you read the books yourself, and compare them with what the video says, you will see what I mean. Cult “expert” Caryl Matrisciana says, “Harry uses curses or his magic for vengeance” in the scene in book three where Aunt Marge “blows up” like a balloon. This is absolutely false: Harry did not utter any curse and doesn’t even know about curses until the fourth book. What happened to his aunt was due to the fact that in the fictional world of Harry Potter, Harry is born a wizard, and as such, he can unwittingly cause things to happen to other people when he gets scared or upset. Harry was actually trying his best to control his temper until his aunt insulted him and his parents. Matrisciana says, “One of the essentials of witchcraft is that there is no good or evil.” This statement may be correct, but in the books, it is the opinion held only by the villain, Voldemort, and his followers. Matrisciana claims that “Throughout the books, Harry is rewarded when he deliberately lies, or deliberately does something wrong.”

One example she gives is the first broomflying lesson, but she twists the events to suit her purposes. Matrisciana also ignores the times when Harry is sent to detention or when he and his friends lose points for doing something wrong. There is a system of discipline that is enforced. Indeed, if all the wizards believe there is no difference between good and evil, why do they have a prison for evildoers called Azkaban? If you are a parent trying to decide if Harry Potter is appropriate for your child, do not rely on this video for guidance. Read the books yourself (of course, that is exactly what the producers are hoping you will NOT do) and ask: Does Matrisciana tell the truth about the events and characters in the books? The next question is, Why couldn’t she critique the books without getting her facts wrong?
My Ratings: [Extremely Offensive / 3]

Negative—Although the content of this film was not “extremely offensive” I feel that although the intentions behind it were to warn children away from the black arts, it still exposes our young christians to themes which should be kept from them. I showed this movie to my 8 year old son, and in response he asked for a magic set! Showing your child this movie is like showing your little boy a picture of a naked lady and telling him that it is bad: he still sees the picture!
My Ratings: [Excellent / 4]

Negative—Having read all the “Harry Potter” books and having seen the movie (and enjoying them all immensely) I was keen to see what the this video’s take on them was, since I was trying to make up my mind about the matter. However, when watching it, I was submitted to the biggest lot of garbage I have ever seen in my life! The video makes a point of persuading us that witchcraft is a very real force in our work in today’s society, and should be avoided at all costs. This seems completely irrelevant, since any Christian watching the film would be aware of this already. There is no need to prove to us what we already know. Throughout the video, “Harry Potter” is consistently compared with “The Craft”—a disgusting film (that I have seen in its entirety) of a truly occult nature.

Whilst I believe that teenagers (and teenage girls in particular) could very well be influenced by watching Nancy and her friends cast love and hate spells THAT WORK, I believe it ridiculous that children could become proper witches or wizards from watching a small boy riding around on a broomstick. It is a parallel that is unjustified to create, not to mention misleading for any parents who have not read any Harry Potter books and are thus deceived into believing that their little ones would be exposed to such garbage as “The Craft” when reading these books in class… Matrisciana points out, quite rightly, that in her books, J.K.Rowling includes elements that can be directly attributed to witchcraft itself.

However, I would suggest that if anyone, you or I included, were to create a children’s novel about a school of “witchcraft and wizardry” the components of the book would be quite similar; nay identical. I too would be sure to include pumpkins, Hallowe’en, cauldrons, broomsticks and spells etc. The video also suggests that the words of the spells could be true; I would argue this by saying that the words Harry and his friends say are simply Latin-sounding speak. I.e. Words that sound like authentic Latin spells, but are clear enough for the young reader to understand (e.g. liftus broomstickus). Matrisciana is obviously an expert on the occult, having researched it for 25 years, but the fact that J.K.Rowling uses what Matrisciana deems to be “occult symbols” in her books does not necessarilly mean that children will automatically put two and two together and become witches themselves.

I would put it to Matrisciana that it takes rather more than standing by the side of a broom and shouting “Up!” to become an occultist flying witch! Furthermore, Matrisciana makes ridiculous comments such as “Many children, after reading the H.P. books actually say that they want to dress up and be Harry himself.” As a child, I myself had a great time pretending to be all my favourite story-book characters (including, I might add, those such as “The Worst Witch”) but I feel it is an insult to the intelligence of the young to assume that they cannot distinguish between fact and fiction. Whilst a child may say “I want to be Harry,” this is only an indication of J.K.Rowling’s fantastic ability to engage the young mind, and should not be mistaken for a convert for paganism. Matrisciana mentions the incident when Hermione “lies” for Harry and Ron to get them out of trouble (chapter 10 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s / Sorcorer’s Stone) resulting in their gaining 10 “house points”. She comments that this obvious unfairness (being rewarded for lying) should not be in the book, since it is against what God says (lying is wrong). This seems ridiculous—has she never read a book when a child does something wrong?

Matrisciana needs to realise what the real world is like before trying to comment upon it! It amuses me that whilst Jeremiah Films are obviously taking a firm stance against the “occultism” in Harry Potter, they make no mention of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (also released in 2001 as a movie) or C.S.Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia. Both [of] these books have a great element of magic in, but neither ever seem to be slated. A case there of double-standards I think. In fact, I believe that the “good triumphing over evil” element in all these books actually enhances them as a possible metaphor for the Christian life. It will not be easy, you win some you lose some, but you will secure your place in Heaven. So I would steer clear of this video—it is, to be frank, rubbish. I would encourage any parent to research into Harry Potter before giving it to their child, but this video is certainly not the way to go about it.
My Ratings: [Average / 1]

…another must-see video from Jeremiah Films. It should be shown in every church everywhere…