Harry Potter Protest And False Accusers

2 Timothy 3:2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, FALSE ACCUSERS, incontinent, fierce, DESPISERS OF THOSE THAT ARE GOOD…
4 Traitors…

One of the signs that we are in the perilous last days of 2 Timothy 3 is found in the fact that some police officers will greatly stretch the truth in order to give Christians citations! Christians who have spent any time protesting sodomy, abortion, pornography, etc. already know this to be the truth. There is no fear of God today. But there IS a God in Heaven. And He is not asleep! The little “chastisements” from the civil servants in uniform (a small favor to business owners) are not overlooked by God.

The front page of Saturday’s Fort Worth Star Telegram (Nov.17, 2001) contains a headline article entitled, “An Unharried Debut.” The story is continued on 21-A where there is included another sub-article entitled, “Church members picket ‘Harry Potter.’” Here is the article:

“Fort Worth – About 15 protesters from a Venus church picketed a Sundance Square theater showing ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ on Friday night. ‘Harry Potter needs Jesus,’ said one of the signs. ‘Magic is evil. Witchcraft is of the devil,’ said Joey Faust, 35, pastor of Refuge Baptist Church in Venus. ‘Who would have imagined it would become OK to have kids reading books about witchcraft and spells and alchemy?’ Some onlookers outside the Palace 9 Theater disagreed. ‘I think it’s just a good thing for kids to have fun with and read a book,’ said Max Fisher, 16. ‘It’s not like they are going to practice witchcraft.’ Five of the protesters received Class C misdemeanor citations for impeding the flow of traffic, police Sgt. Scott Jenkins said. Jenkins said he saw two pickets step into the street to hold signs in front of people on the sidewalk. They had been warned not to do that, he said. Protesters denied they had impeded traffic.” (By Bill Teeter).

If Sgt. Jenkins said these exact words, he lied. We did not even have the signs when we were given a warning. They came later. The subjective warning they did give was only about getting in front of people with tracts (which we were not doing anyway). When the signs showed up, the officers immediately came over and started handing out citations (with no warning).

We are thankful for Bill Teeter’s balanced article. However, we did not only make assertions. We proved our assertions (that Harry Potter is Satanism) with documentation from Rowling’s books, occult works, and the Holy Bible. Furthermore, we were not just telling people that Harry Potter is wrong. We were telling people that Jesus Christ will one day come again and reign on this earth as King. We preached that people need to believe the Gospel and Christians need to repent of worldliness. Our church has been street witnessing on weekends in Dallas or Fort Worth for 8 years or more. We have never had any real trouble with policemen. But we went out on Friday night with the understanding that we would probably end up in jail. It is not that we decided that we would do anything different or attempt to break the law. We simply knew that we would be preaching on an issue that inflames emotions. Many children worship Harry Potter. And since many parents are led by their children (instead of the other way around) they do not want to hear anything about Harry Potter being spiritually dangerous. As long as the discussion of Jesus is kept “in a box,” our society will grudgingly permit (at least temporarily) the sharing of spiritual, eternal issues in public. But when Jesus and His Holy Word are APPLIED to social issues (i.e. how people live their lives from day to day) – and certain lifestyles and beliefs are revealed to be SINFUL and Satanic – it is an entirely different ballgame! We handed out flyers proving that J.K. Rowling laced her books with the teachings of Crowley (the perverted, infamous Satanist), and that Potter’s language and behavior are not healthy influences for precious children. At first there were only a few there from our church. It was early. Yet, already, some police officers came over with fierce anger on their faces. One said that his daughter was in the theater watching the Harry Potter movie and that she was given a free ticket by the theater. In a bitter spirit, he said that he was against what we were doing. He threatened to take us to jail or (as a “courtesy”) give us each $500 citations. He said that when we hand flyers to people our arms sometimes “impeded” traffic! (This was absurd, since we do not hand tracts to anyone that does not want to take one). He implied that the law was subjective enough that they could easily take us to jail. Regardless, since the rest of our group was not yet there (and they were bringing posters), we decided to temporarily put up our flyers and simply preach, making sure we could not be “accused” of impeding traffic on the sidewalk. A school teacher (who said Harry Potter was required reading in her school) came over and told us that she had overheard some officers say that if we were still there by the time the ten o’clock movie began, they would make a move. Soon the posters/signs arrived with more people from our church. We lined up against the wall (out of the way of people) and simply held them up and preached. Almost immediately, the officers came over. Thankfully, about that time, Fox News came out with a video camera. Perhaps this is what kept the officers from taking some of us to jail. Some people from our group had simply walked up and had not yet even protested. Yet, they were handed citations for simply having a poster in their hands! The officers said someone had seen us in the road. Of course, we said that this was not true. Nevertheless, they had given us their message: They have the power to punish. Yet, here is my message to them: GOD has the power to punish. And He is no respect of persons. One officer said he was ‘just doing his job.’ This is what the Nazi officials also said. I am by no means calling these officers Nazis. But I am pointing out that the officer’s justification is a slippery slope. Let all remember that it is GOD’S LAW that public officials refrain from falsely accusing people, even when they are commanded to do so by superiors (or rich business owners):

Luke 3:14 And the SOLDIERS likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, NEITHER ACCUSE ANY FALSELY; and be content with your wages.

Much good did come out of the evening. Some that were going to go to the movie said they had not known anything about the Satanism and that they would not be viewing the movie. Quite a few people received Jesus Christ as their Saviour and gained assurance of eternal life through His Blood. Many people were thankful we were there. However, even some professing Christians were “offended.” They thought we should show people how to be saved by our “example” (and not by our words). Of course, I asked one brother how many people he had brought to salvation the past few years. He could not remember one convert. One Christian said we should not judge others and tell them their behavior is wrong. Of course, he obviously didn’t think that HE should have to abide by his own rules. They never do. They don’t want Christians preaching against wrong behavior. Yet, they are more than ready to come and preach to us (sometimes for half an hour if we let them!) that our own behavior is wrong (i.e… for preaching to others)! If it is proper to tell INDIVIDUALS that they are wrong (and warn them of the error of their ways), it is obviously proper to warn GROUPS of people that they are wrong. And if it is proper for people to ADVERTISE in public that Harry Potter is fun and exciting for children, it is obviously proper for Christians to publicly proclaim that Harry Potter (and other worldly books and movies) is of the Devil. Let us do what we can to be SALT and LIGHT to the world in these dark days.

TUNE IN TO A HARRY POTTER DEBATE

I was contacted by “John Gormley Live” (call in talk show in Canada) to give my views on Harry Potter on Monday, November 19, at 10:00am. They said they happened to have a man who runs a Harry Potter Fan Club scheduled to be on the program at the same time! Please pray that I would be a good witness for Jesus. Call in if you can!