Ogres and Faries and Trolls, Oh My!

   Roll up your sleeves and buckle your seat belt, we're going to embark on yet another controversial subject.  Should Christians read fantasy literature, and how do we allow our children to develop their imaginations without delving into the world of witchcraft: which the Bible clearly states, has no place in the life of a Christ follower?
   Let's start with some of the scriptures that define witchcraft and God's view of it.  The main passage  of interest is found in Deu 18:10-11  "There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. ".
And in the Hebrew law we find, Lev 20:27  'A man or a woman who is a medium, or who has familiar spirits, shall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones. Their blood shall be upon them.' "  Regardless of your feelings on the subject, it appears that God has stated His firmly.   His people are not to participate in any such activity.
  But then we come to fantasy literature....hmmm.  So much of it deals with magical lands, creatures, and the like.  Many parents have a healthy caution when it comes to what they allow their children to watch and read, and I would commend that feeling.  It is true that God has placed us in the position of protecting and guiding our young ones, which includes the guarding and training of their minds, spirits, hearts, bodies, and character.  Every family must be careful of what they choose to allow their children to view and read, and it will look different for each as they follow God's leading.  For us, being a homeschooling family, we place a great value on the power of literature to form the patterns of thought and learning in our children, and we happen to love fantasy literature. 
   We love the creative worlds and courageous adventures found in many of the stories we read. In C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia,  we find a beautiful allegory to the Gospel and the Christian's sanctification.  In the J.R.R. Tolkien's  The Lord of the Rings, we find friendship, loyalty, courage, and the weak and frail overcoming the strong and evil.  Some of these books have magic in them, and mythical creatures, such as elves, and fairies, etc.  Even in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress we find giants and other such fantastic creatures.
  For us, the presence of magic or fantasy creatures is not the main criteria we use when deciding which stories to read.   It has more to do with how those items are presented.  For example, we do not choose to read fantasy literature that encourages the reader to find the magic within themselves, or to seek spiritual guides, or that present the magic in such a way as to suggest that it is available to those who would seek it in this world.  We feel that this type of presentation would trespass the above scriptures by encouraging its readers to seek after and participate in sorcery, etc.
  But if we were to rule out anything that mentions witchcraft or shows others participating in them, we would have to rule out the Bible itself.  Sunday School quiz time....Which King of Israel sought the advice of a medium?  That's right, the very first...Saul...found here:  1Sa 28:7  "Then Saul said to his servants, 'Find me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.' And his servants said to him, 'In fact, there is a woman who is a medium at En Dor'.''
 (Don't you just love the town's name "En Dor"? Sounds like it came straight out of a sci-fi book.)
And the end of his story is recorded for us...1Ch 10:13  "So Saul died for his unfaithfulness which he had committed against the LORD, because he did not keep the word of the LORD, and also because he consulted a medium for guidance."  This is not the only time these things are mentioned in the Bible, yet the Bible does not condone these activities, even though it records them.
  Fantasy literature is a removed world from our own, and in that setting one is sometimes more open to learning issues of character than in literature that relates so closely to our own experiences.  Richard Scarry, the famous children book author once noted that he chose to use talking animals as his main characters because he found that children could identify with the lessons to be learned more readily than when the characters were humans.  We have found that fantasy literature allows us to do the same with our children.
   So when you are deciding what to allow your children to read, ask yourself if this story encourages the reader to seek after witchcraft, or whether it mentions magic as some happenings in the story?  Is magic the main thrust of the story, or just one component of it?  Is there a deeper more valuable message to be found in the story, beyond the creatures and magic?  Are the creatures, such as fairies simply doing what they were created to do in their world?  Or is the author attempting to make you believe that such things are to be sought in this world?  There is a difference, and you will have to seek God in guiding you as to what would instill a love and reverence for Him in whatever you read, whether full of fantastical creatures or not.
  (On a side note, some have voiced uncertainty toward the Disney Fairies, etc.  I cannot tell you what you should do for your own family, but I will tell you what we have done in ours.  We have no problem with these fairies (although we wish some were more modestly dressed at times), as we see them doing the tasks that they were created to do in their world.  We don't mind our girls painting pictures of them, etc, but we do not allow them to think that these fairies truly exist or make our seasons change.  They belong in the category of pretend...and we have found many useful character lessons come out of the land of pretend to find root in our world quite nicely.)