The REAL Witchcraft Christians Should Avoid (Hint: It's Not Harry Potter)

How should Christians engage with magic in books, movies, and popular media? Phil suggests that many evangelicals' fearful, negative responses to stories like Harry Potter were partly a result of the “infection” mentality of the 1980s Satanic Panic. Then Skye reminds us that the real demonic magic we should look out for often masquerades as Christian self-help. (Full episode: Holy Post 693: Live from Chicago 2025)

Audience Member: I'm curious about whether or not a Christian should engage with cultural representations of magic (such as Harry Potter, Dungeons & Dragons, Pokémon, even Ouija boards) and how, if at all, they differ from the works of Lewis and Tolkien. Are there boundaries we should set? Should it be avoided entirely, etc?

Esau: This is your moment. You've been waiting your whole life for this question.

Phil: You lost me at Ouija boards.

Kaitlyn: Yeah, listen, this is such a good question. I'm only halfway through reading Harry Potter right now for the first time. But part of the reason I've never read it is because I was not allowed to read it as a kid. And then I also didn’t read or watch Lord of the Rings because I thought, “There’s not a difference. They both have good and evil. They both have magic.” And so when my parents - who were very pro-Lord of the Rings - wouldn’t let me read or watch Harry Potter, I was like, “No, I’m going to be totally consistent and not watch either.”

So now I have seen Lord of the Rings, and I’m reading and watching Harry Potter. But I say all that to say, you are right. We are not often thoughtful about why some of these things have become sort of “Christian-approved” and fill youth groups and Christian culture, and why some are very controversial. There could be good reasons, but we’re often not very thoughtful about them.

Phil: Some of your parents grew up during the Satanic Panic in the 1980s. And it was heavily promoted that Satanism was all around us, and you could bump into it and it could “get on you.” So when we looked at media, or listened to music - we even played the music backwards just to double-check there was no Satan in it. It was like COVID-19, but with the devil. So we all put on masks and hunkered down inside, and then had children, and they wanted to read Harry Potter or play Dungeons & Dragons.

Now we look back and say, “That’s so silly. It’s just a story. It’s imaginary.” But when you understand the waters that generation grew up in, it’s not surprising there was a hyper-sensitivity, not guilt by association, but fear of infection.

And then my generation said, “Oh that was dumb, I can watch or listen to anything and it won’t affect me,” and we swung the other direction. Honestly, I think it’s more dangerous for kids to watch shows that have no moral bearing - like no up and down, nothing matters - than to read Harry Potter, which has a profoundly strong sense of morality and a fictitious view of magic.

Skye:  Why does scripture prohibit astrology, necromancy, divination, witchcraft? It's because in the ancient world, these were practices that were employed to try to control the deities and to control God. How do I get the outcome I want guaranteed? How do I know what's gonna happen in the future? It's all predicated on fear and control, and the God of Israel comes along and said, for my people, these practices are prohibited because I am not someone you can control, number one. And number two, I have proven my love for you by rescuing you from Egypt and I have committed myself in covenant to you, and I will do good by you, and I'm inviting you to trust me rather than try to control me.

Once you understand that this is the heart of witchcraft and magic and all these things, okay, now let's fast forward to the Satanic panic and to our environment today. In The Godfather Part 2, Michael Corleone says, “you keep your friends close and you keep your enemies even closer.”

How stupid do you think the enemy of the church has to be to think that something as obvious as flat-out witchcraft and Ouija boards and all that is gonna be the real portal to the demonic? If he has half a brain, he knows that the way to really get us is by masquerading as an angel of light. 

I am not concerned about Harry Potter. I am not concerned about Lord of the Rings or Dungeons and Dragons. I'm concerned about the thing that is masquerading as Christian, that is giving you a means of trying to control God. You wanna know what's really magical and demonic? The Prayer of Jabez. How about Growing kids God's Way? How about guaranteed outcomes, that if you just do X, Y, and Z, God is obligated to bless you and give you what you want?

That is the modern depiction of demonic magic in the church. It's not these things that have horns and tails. You have to be more sophisticated at this and think like the enemy would. That's the goal of magic.