I have found in the past that people who objected to the Harry Potter series did not do so from a moral stance. Oh, they claimed that they objected to the references to witchcraft in the story, but when I asked them about the Chronicles of Narnia which also have magic and witchcraft, they could not tell me why the Chronicles of Narnia were acceptable and Harry Potter was not. There are also J. R. R. Tolkiens books which have magic and warfare described in detail. Where are the protests against these books? Curious and digging further, I finally concluded that the root cause was envy at Rowling’s success.<\/p>\n
I happen to like fantasy stories and the reason is straight forward. Because the author has to make up a world, more effort is put into describing the environment. The result is a story with richer details. Because the situation takes place in a different culture, I rarely find profanity in these stories. Unfortunately these authors still feel the pressure to put in scenes featuring fornication at times, but strangely enough, it is almost always milder and less “in your face” than the fiction written in a modern setting. I also enjoy detecting and watching how an author’s religious beliefs intertwine in the actions of his characters.<\/p>\n
For some reason, writers of modern fiction think that in order to make a story realistic you have to include all the base elements of the world. Some times I wonder if they throw in so much sex because they really don’t have much of a story and this the only thing which gets them readership. I have found a few exceptions. Richard Paul Evans manages to create wonderful stories set in the modern world which mostly avoids the trash of the world.<\/p>\n
Older fiction is generally safer because the authors had moral standards and wrote about people upholding moral standards. Rudyard Kipling wrote both great fiction and fantasy in the form of children’s stories. Charles Dickens is another that I have enjoyed. In neither one will you find them using sex or shocking language as a prop to hold up a flimsy story.<\/p>\n
If writing about wars was wrong, then we would have to toss out most of history. Even sections of the Bible describe warfare. The question ought not to be whether war is described, but why is it being portrayed. Is it just filler, or is it serving a purpose? Tolkien, for example, used it to illustrate the battle between good and evil, while at the same time making sure the reader understood the horror of war — he didn’t make it seem glamorous but a hard necessity. C. S. Lewis did much the same, though he glossed over many details because he was aiming at a younger audience.<\/p>\n
If you look in the Bible, you will find that sinful actions are described. Some are stomach-churning. But the thing to remember is that what is being described is depicted as evil and we are shown the consequences of that evil. Too many authors will write about sinful things and glorify it or try to convince the reader that good results from doing evil.<\/p>\n
Whether we are discussing a completely made-up story, one that is recording history as it happens, or something in between, we need to realize that stories influence people. They are a form of instruction as well as entertainment. There ought to be a purpose to the telling of the story and that purpose ought to make people better for having read it.<\/p>\n
“Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers<\/em>” (Ephesians 4:29).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Question: Hi! I asked in the past if imagining ideas for a story was OK, and you said that you couldn’t see anything biblically wrong with it. But I feel like I need some details. For example, I heard of some Christians (not that I judge their opinions or anything) saying that they should ban…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[759,38],"class_list":["post-14883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-entertainment","tag-morality"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":40171,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-read-about-mythology-if-you-dont-believe-in-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":14883,"position":0},"title":"Can you read about mythology if you don’t believe in it?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 11, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, Is reading Greek mythology allowed? For example, the Percy Jackson series? I think there are some verses of the Bible that talk about mythology (I Timothy 1:3-4;4:1-8; and II Timothy 4:2) But can you read about mythology if you don't believe in it? I'm confused. Thanks! Answer: The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":53020,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-difference-between-make-believe-magic-and-occultism\/","url_meta":{"origin":14883,"position":1},"title":"What is the difference between make-believe magic and occultism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 9, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi minister, As a parent, how should I handle children's entertainment? My child loves movies that have princesses as she now says she is a princess (she loves dresses ). But a lot of children's content has a form of magic in them. What is the difference between make-believe\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15228,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-holy-spirit-telling-not-to-write-about-magic\/","url_meta":{"origin":14883,"position":2},"title":"Is the Holy Spirit telling not to write about magic?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 13, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi. So I have been struggling whether the Holy Spirit has been telling me to stop doing this or if it is my feelings playing tricks on me. There is this verse that said, \u201cDo not practice magic.\u201d I have you know, I love magic in literature and that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29740,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-cartoons-dangerous\/","url_meta":{"origin":14883,"position":3},"title":"Are cartoons dangerous?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Now I have a question concerning cartoons. I know the eye is a window into the soul and you should only do what is just, what is pure, and what is worthy; I know that. My question is if watching cartoons such as Dragonball Z or Pokemon really a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42962,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-let-my-children-watch-ghostbusters\/","url_meta":{"origin":14883,"position":4},"title":"Should I let my children watch Ghostbusters?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 5, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Jeff, I have kind of maybe a silly question here, but here it goes. One of my kids (a 7-year-old boy) has an interest in the Ghostbusters. I use to watch those movies on TV in the past when I was a kid. They were heavily edited back then,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":48404,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-play-a-game-that-has-goddesses-in-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":14883,"position":5},"title":"Is it wrong to play a game that has goddesses in it?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Jeffrey, I know you're busy and don't want to waste much of your time, but I have a question. I have OCD so I think I'm overanalyzing everything. Anyhow, I have always played the Legend of Zelda series from Nintendo since I was a kid growing up.\u00a0 I never\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14883\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}