Christian Publisher Pans Potter, Presents Bible-Based Comic Alternative
by Mary Rettig
July 22, 2005
(AgapePress) - The publisher of the "Truth for Youth" Bible is addressing the dangers of the Harry Potter book series with a new, youth-targeted resource -- a scripture-based comic book.Tim Todd Ministries, headed by the son of the president and founder of Revival Fires International, is a multi-faceted evangelistic outreach involved in spreading the gospel, conducting revival services, and ministering to the entire family, including young people. That is one reason why Tim designed and developed the Truth for Youth Bible, a complete New Testament that also includes comic stories dealing with the truth about such topics as school violence, sex, pornography, abortion, drug and alcohol abuse, and peer pressure.
Now, in the interest of offering more Bible-based, topical truth to kids and adults, Tim Todd has developed a new youth-targeted comic. Its purpose, according to the minister, is to combat the lies hidden inside the phenomenally popular Harry Potter book series.
Many people, including some Christian parents and even a number of Christian writers and cultural commentators, claim this best-selling series by British author J.K. Rowling is harmless and even contains some morally positive messages. Meanwhile, Christian author Connie Neal has written a book called The Gospel According to Harry Potter, in which she contends that the sorcery so many Christians condemn in Harry Potter is only a literary device and that the books contain biblical messages that can be used to teach children about good and evil.
But Tim Todd protests that Christians who believe these wildly successful children's books about witchcraft and sorcery are really Christian allegories are being led astray. And in hopes of disabusing kids and adults alike, he is offering an entertaining, biblically sound alternative to Harry Potter in comic book form called Harry Polarity and the Sinister Sorcery Satire.
"The purpose of this book," the minister notes, "is to inform our children, our teachers, and our parents about the dangers of Harry Potter. We do it in a fictional story that is phenomenal. It is a super, super sharp story." What the comic book does, he adds, is put scriptural truths up against the wrong spiritual nature of Rowling's series.
Many parents consider the Harry Potter stories to be a positive contribution to children's literature because they get many young readers, sometimes even reluctant readers, excited about reading. But Todd points out that these books also expose children to a world without any belief in God, where sorcery and witchcraft are presented as a neutral path, good and viable in the right hands.
"The things that concern me about the Harry Potter series," the preacher and Christian publisher notes, "are things like sacrificing animals and emphasizing power, regardless of good or evil. Or offering up blood sacrifices, and things like boiling what seems to be a baby alive in a cauldron, or being possessed by demons -- these are not things that we want to have our children subjected to."
Todd says the Hairy Polarity comic book presents uncompromised scriptural truth in a format kids will enjoy, and it also includes a complete presentation of the gospel. For that reason, he believes it an ideal alternative to Harry Potter, offering kids and their parents something much better to read.
Mary Rettig, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
