Danny ChaiSomething happened at church this Sunday that made me angry. Well actually, it more made me sad. The director of the children’s ministry passed out copies of this article from some Christian talking about how Harry Potter is evil. And it had all these examples and quotes, and asked us to pray.
The thing is, all the quotes and examples were from a single article from a website, a copy of which was attached and handed out. And the website was The Onion.
Maybe you don’t know it, but that site is probably the most well known satirical site on the web. Like, one of this week’s articles talks about how Mozambique is out of toilet paper. It’s utterly absurd.
And the Potter article in question was clearly satire. Just so way over the top. I thought it was funny. Like, it talked about how children were forming black magic clubs with names like “Potterites to Destroy Jesus” and stuff like that. And absurd quotes from Rowling saying like, “Why are parents getting mad at me for introducing their children to Satanism? They should be thanking me.” Stuff like that. Obviously satire.
I guess not so obvious. It just makes me sad that Christians are so hypersensitive and touchy that they can’t even recognize when something is a joke. It really disturbed me. This article in question was distributed by the children’s ministry director’s relative’s pastor. The article is a joke! Can’t you see that?
And we wonder why Christians get a bad rep. Anyway, my claim is that Christians should just not talk about pop culture unless they have any clue what they’re talking about. Leave the criticism and commentary for those Christians who are steeped in pop culture, who know what it’s about. Otherwise you’ll risk sounding stupid.