Return to Potter's field

It was Harry Potter's 13th birthday and, since he was surrounded by his occult-o-phobic relatives, the high point was a trio of owls arriving with cards from his best friends at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The big news was that Ron Weasley's family had won a pile of gold and was investing its grand prize in a pilgrimage to Egypt. Classmate Hermione Granger was happy for him, but added: "I bet he's learning loads. I'm really jealous – the ancient Egyptian wizards were fascinating."

Millions of readers may have passed over this early detail in "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," book three in the omnipresent series by British author Kathleen Rowling. But out in fly-over country between New York and Los Angeles, these words led many to search the Book of Exodus for its account of a showdown between God, Moses and Aaron and the "sorcerers," "magicians" and wizards of ancient Egypt.

More than a few proceeded to ask their local librarians a loaded question: Whose side is Harry Potter on, anyway?

Obviously, critics will dissect each of the 752 pages in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," 5.2 million copies of which will roll through American and British bookstores and World Wide Web portals after midnight on July 8. Its release is being hailed as the biggest publishing event in the English-speaking world, the planet, the universe – pick a venue, any venue.

This much is certain: Harry Potter IV will make millions of people happy and others very worried. The first crowd will be greeted warmly when it visits public libraries and schools. The odds are good the critics will not.

"Anyone who has had any experience in library work and with children's literature could see that these books were going to be hot," said Kimbra Wilder Gish, a librarian at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She recently published an article entitled "Hunting Down Harry Potter" in The Horn Book, a prestigious journal of children's literature.

"These books had everything – witches, warlocks, magic, evil spirits, the whole lot. So I wasn't shocked by the controversy. I was shocked that so many librarians WERE shocked by the controversy. ... It's like they were saying, 'Haven't all of those intolerant fundamentalists been wiped out, by now?' "

This worried Gish, because she is proud of being both a librarian and a fifth-generation member of an evangelical family. She believes fervently in the free exchange of ideas and information, but she also believes that public institutions should handle the wishes and fears of their patrons in a respectful manner – even religious conservatives.

Two years ago, she read one too many Internet postings by librarians attacking the motives of believers who were worried about Harry Potter. Her response covered many Bible verses that address this topic, especially a Deuteronomy passage that calls an "abomination" anyone that "useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer."

That covers just about everything in the Harry Potter books. Yet, in Rowling's work these elements are woven into the lives of witty characters those adventures have millions of young people turning pages instead of switching TV channels. The books also have been praised by religious leaders, including the moderate evangelical editors of Christianity Today, who called the series "a Book of Virtues with a preadolescent funny bone."

But public officials must realize that there are scores of others who simple don't think it's appropriate for their children to be exposed to books that portray magic in a "cool," winsome manner, said Gish. Some even criticize the work of Christian authors such as C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and Madeleine L'Engle.

What should librarians do? It would help, she said, if they didn't act like the Harry Potter books are the only works of children's literature in existence. Displays and promotional events for classic works of religious fiction wouldn't hurt, either.

"We must strive for balance," said Gish. "We must stop acting like every conservative Christian who walks in the library door is an alien from another planet."

A Baptist facing East

The Romanesque sanctuary of South Main Baptist Church near downtown Houston may seem like a strange home for the Gen-X faithful in the Ecclesia Christian Community.

The church holds 1000, which means there are acres of empty oak pews when the 250-plus in the Rev. Chris Seay's new congregation gather on Sunday nights. But the sanctuary with the giant rose window has one essential element welcomed by the singles, artists and seekers in trendy urban neighborhoods – beauty.

"It's as close to a Baptist cathedral as you can get," said Seay. "It may not be the right size for us, right now, but it still feels right. ... It has amazing stained-glass windows. You can look around and see the whole life of Christ. It feels like a real church, a sacred space."

But this is tradition-PLUS. The sanctuary also has room for three projection screens and an arc of television monitors. Seay and his team of Ecclesia (Greek for "church") musicians and artists use these multi-media tools to surround worshippers with a swirling sea of visual art during their worship services, which can last nearly two hours.

Sometimes the images connect with the words of the sermon, music, prayers or scriptures. But often they do not. Then there are times when worshippers are free to drift over to "creative spaces" in which they can paint or sculpt their impressions of what is happening in the service. Seay invited a painter to work behind him at Easter, so that his flock could watch as an impressionistic image entitled "The Body of Christ" developed during the sermon.

The point of all this, said Seay, is to tell a story that touches hearts and invites people into a community, not to conquer unbelievers through a barrage of Western rationalism and legal arguments. He is part of a growing movement of postmodern church leaders who want to blend past and present, the ancient and the digital, to create new forms of worship that appeal to all the senses – sight, sound, touch, smell and taste.

"Most of us have grown up with worship that is like a one-lane highway," said Seay, who is 28. "You get one message at a time, one after another, either a hymn or a prayer or a sermon. That isn't how people live today. ... We want to create a multi-lane highway during worship, because we know that people – especially young people – can handle many different messages, even if they are stacked on top of each other."

Seay is a Baptist, but his sponsors and co-workers in this project range from conservative Presbyterians to mainline Methodists. They want to build a congregation that is truly "multi-denominational" and linked to other bodies, not one of the free-floating, "non-denominational" churches that have radically altered the face of contemporary American Protestantism.

The Ecclesia fellowship doesn't want to be "contemporary" because its leaders believe "contemporary" religious groups are fighting for deck space on a sinking ship. Americans who watch MTV and live on the World Wide Web are not hungry for "the whole Western, modern, scientific model" of truth and salvation, said Seay. Postmodern seekers are increasingly turning to Buddhism, Hinduism and other Eastern, mystical, traditions.

Church leaders must realize that they, too, are heirs to a religious tradition that began in the East, he said. Christianity's roots are in Eastern culture, language and faith. It would help, he said, if future church leaders were required to read Saint John of the Cross and the Desert Fathers, as well as Martin Luther and John Calvin.

The goal is Protestantism-PLUS. Believers must experience truth, he said, as well as hear truth preached.

"Truth cannot be limited to propositions. Christ said, 'I AM the truth.' If the truth of the Gospel is to be experienced, the church must embody it," argued Seay, writing in Leadership magazine. "In a postmodern culture, the effort to know Christ must fully engage the head and the heart. ... We are moving toward a more spiritual world, one that faces East. The question is whether Christ or karma will be the focus of our spirituality."

Squinting into the entertainment future

Steve Taylor and his Chagall Guevara colleagues were fired up when they arrived in Los Angeles to do the cover for the band's first and only album for MCA Records.

They also were hungry, so they promptly called Domino's Pizza. Trouble was, one MCA executive didn't think much of Domino's leaders. Taylor distinctly remembers the words: "They support those pro-life Nazis."

"We did have a rather spirited argument," confessed Taylor, describing that infamous clash in 1990. "It started in one room, continued all the way down the hall and, eventually, somebody had to call a truce in the artist's studio so we could get some work done."

Offered a chance to re-visit that scene, Taylor said he would "try to bite my tongue, a little. I wasn't exactly thinking strategically."

That may not sound much like the raging rocker who rained sarcastic songs on the lords of Contemporary Christian Music and flirted with secular stardom. But Taylor wears a suit and tie these days and runs a company that is erasing old boundaries in the marketplace – Squint Entertainment. He knows that it's important to build relationships in high places.

That's why Taylor and a crowd of politicians, artists, educators and business leaders gathered last week in a U.S. Senate hearing room to rally support for efforts to produce faith-friendly music, movies and television that can compete in the mainstream. The event marked the release of an album honoring media executive Bob Briner, whose 1993 book "Roaring Lambs" questioned the wisdom of Christian artists hiding in Christian companies that sell Christian products to the Christian consumers.

Briner died a year ago of cancer, but his business savvy and the books he wrote in the 1990s continue to influence work in many corporate offices, especially in Nashville. In addition to his books, Briner was best known as an Emmy-winning producer and sports executive who worked with Arthur Ashe, Dave Dravecky, Michael Jordan and others.

Taylor turned to Briner for advice when he began dreaming of an artist-friendly company that could cut a middle-way between religious and secular entertainment. The goal was to sign a roster of artists who were united both by Christian convictions and a commitment to build honest relationships with producers and promoters in the big leagues of secular music and video.

The result was Squint, with was built on a foundation of mainstream cash from the Gaylord Entertainment. This Oklahoma-based corporation operates the Opryland Hotel and a cluster of other Nashville institutions, both secular and religious.

Taylor hit it big when he signed Sixpence None the Richer, a folk-rock band that has, with three long years of national and global promotion, become a platinum-level act with hit singles such as "Kiss Me" and "There She Goes." Someday soon, if he survives in the dangerous corporate waters of buy-outs and mergers, Taylor wants to finish writing and directing "Saint Gimp," his first feature film.

"I want to work with other Christians," he stressed. "But I also want to work with people who want to work at the highest possible level of excellence. ... Bob Briner always used to say that excellence speaks for itself and that God deserves our best."

The rock showman turned businessman stopped and mulled this over for a moment. On the new "Roaring Lambs" tribute disc, Taylor has written and performed a song that pictures his mentor as a skilled baseball shortstop who tried to plug a gap between two worlds. The chorus is punchy, but haunting: "Lord, who will rise up when that number's retired?"

"There are just going to be days when we need advice from someone like Bob Briner," said Taylor. "He was a man of principle and he knew how to make a stand. But he also knew how to think strategically and be patient and work with all kinds of people.

"It's hard to do both, sometimes. ... You can fool yourself into believing that you're thinking strategically, when in reality, you're just being a coward. Then there are other times when you want to think you're being a man of principle, when you're really just being a jerk."

Doubting the death penalty

Bud Welch was driving his daughter Julie-Marie home from college when a radio signal drifted over the Iowa plains and started another talk about the big issues in life.

It was a report about another execution in Texas. Welch said his daughter's response was blunt: "Dad, all they're doing is teaching hate to their children. ... It has no social redeeming value." This remark was not surprising, since this whole Catholic family was opposed to the death penalty.

"I didn't think a hell of a lot of it at the time," admitted the Oklahoma City gas-station owner, in a speech recorded at Harvard University.

But Welch remembered her words after the Oklahoma City Federal Building blast, when he wanted to kill her killers. He wanted vengeance. Later, he realized that what he really wanted was for Timothy McVeigh to repent and somehow honor his victims. McVeigh couldn't do that if he was dead. Later, Welch promised the bomber's family he would do what he could to save McVeigh's life.

That's an inspiring story, but it stirs both anger and appreciation in churches and legislatures. Ask Al Gore. Ask George W. Bush. The death penalty issue just won't die and there are many good reasons for that, according to Cardinal Roger Mahony. This pope links it to a broader "culture of death."

"It's reflected in our movies and music, our television and video games, in our homes, schools and on our streets. More ominously, our society is tempted to solve some of our more significant social problems with violence," said Mahony, who leads the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles

"Abortion is promoted to deal with difficult or unwanted pregnancies. Euthanasia and assisted suicide are suggested as a remedy for the burdens of age and illness. Capital punishment is marketed as the answer to deal with violent crime. A nation that destroys its young, abandons its elderly and relies on vengeance is in serious moral trouble."

Mahony admitted, in a National Press Club address, that support for the death penalty unites legions of politicians who rarely agree on anything else. Some people say opposing the death penalty is "liberal," while others call it "conservative." In Catholic circles, some insist that abortion and the death penalty are unique and totally separate issues. Others admit they are different, but insist that they share common roots.

The Catholic Catechism of 1997 acknowledges that "the traditional teaching of the church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty," if this is the "only possible way" to effectively defend citizens. However, many Catholics insist this statement must now be read in the light of 1999 statements made by Pope John Paul II.

Today's church, he said, in St. Louis, needs witnesses "who are unconditionally pro-life. ... A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform."

Police also have access to remarkable new forms of technology to investigate who is guilty and who is not. But these techniques are often leading to hotter debates, not agreement. This is not a simple left vs. right debate, either.

Conservative pundit George Will recently noted that, in "the 24 years since the resumption of executions under Supreme Court guidelines, about 620 have occurred, but 87 condemned persons – one for every seven executed – had their convictions vacated by exonerating evidence. In eight of these cases ... the evidence was from DNA. One inescapable inference from these numbers is that some of the 620 persons executed were innocent."

There are 565 inmates on death row in California. The cardinal can do the math.

"I believe that the Gospel teaches that people are responsible for their actions," said Mahony. "I believe that the reality of sin demands that those who injure others must make reparation. But I do not believe that society is made safer, that our communities are made whole, or that our social fabric is strengthened, by killing those who kill others. Instead, the death penalty perpetuates an insidious cycle of violence that ... diminishes all of us."