The Harry Potter series has received a lot of heat for several reasons, most notable (and important) of which is the absence of God and its potential to lead young readers astray. In 2003, Pope Benedict XVI (then Cardinal Ratzinger) issued a public statement expressing his extreme concern and opposition to the books. At that time, German author Gabriele Kuby wrote a book entitled Harry Potter - gut oder böse (Harry Potter- good or evil?), in which she stated, “the Potter books corrupt the hearts of the young, preventing them from developing a properly ordered sense of good and evil, thus harming their relationship with God while that relationship is still in its infancy.” Our Holy Father thanked Kuby for her “instructive” book and said, “It is good, that you enlighten people about Harry Potter, because those are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly.”

More recently, the controversy surrounding Harry Potter — just following the release of the final installment in the seven-volume series — is not about witchcraft, but about something more “mainstream”: homosexuality.

As reported by the BBC,

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has revealed that one of her characters, Hogwarts school headmaster Albus Dumbledore, is gay. She made her revelation to a packed house in New York’s Carnegie Hall on Friday, as part of her US book tour. She took audience questions and was asked if Dumbledore found “true love”.

“Dumbledore is gay,” she said, adding he was smitten with rival Gellert Grindelwald, who[sic] he beat in a battle between good and bad wizards long ago.

The audience gasped, then applauded.

“I would have told you earlier if I knew it would make you so happy,” she said.

Of course, gay-lifestyle advocates were ecstatic with the news:

Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell welcomed the news about Dumbledore and said: “It’s good that children’s literature includes the reality of gay people, since we exist in every society. But I am disappointed that she did not make Dumbledore’s sexuality explicit in the Harry Potter book. Making it obvious would have sent a much more powerful message of understanding and acceptance.”

And a spokesman for gay rights group Stonewall added: “It’s great that JK has said this. It shows that there’s no limit to what gay and lesbian people can do, even being a wizard headmaster.”

Rowling herself said she regarded her novels as a “prolonged argument for tolerance” and urged her fans to “question authority”.

Truth be told, even if Rowling thought of Dumbeldore as gay when she conceived him in her imagination, she didn’t make it very obvious in the Harry Potter books. I’ve read a number of them, and it never crossed my mind once. (What did cross my mind was that while the author was entertainingly imaginative, her books were far from world-class literature — especially the last one, which is verbose and poorly written.) Nevertheless, Rowling’s recent admission at a book signing that Dumbeldore was gay has sparked serious debate worldwide.

Consider the following MSNBC interview:

Notice the caustic remarks from the program’s anchor, Dan Abrams. For example, in response to the guest’s concern that adolescent, sexually confused boys may see Dumbeldore as an authority figure and may be led to experimentation, Abrams says, “Well, at least they won’t have to have abortions, right?” (Obvious which team he is batting for, to put it plainly.)

As I mentioned above, Dumbledore’s homosexuality is not explicit in the work, and I doubt that this will have any effect whatsoever on the children who read the books. (And in my opinion, the books are unlikely to seduce children into a cult of witchcraft either — The books are just not that well written!) All this amounts to is the inclusion of a gay character in a work by a secular author.

What I fear, however, is that advocates of homosexuality, with ulterior motives and hidden agendas, will successfully lobby for the homosexualization of the Dumbeldore character in the remaining movies — and that this will set a precedent for “political correctness” in — and the subversion and corruption of — children’s literature.

Moreover, what I’ve noted is an obvious transition from a formerly passive secularism (that wanted nothing to do with God) to a militant atheism that has declared war on God and aims to bring down the Faith. I commented previously on the imminent release of The Golden Compass, the film adaptation of Northern Lights (of the His Dark Materials trilogy) by “secular humanist” Phillip Pullman. With the His Dark Materials trilogy, Pullman aims to “kill God in the minds of children.”

The Culture War has long since been declared. But what are the prospects for the Church Militant? The duty of every Catholic “soldier of Christ” is to fight the atheistic and secularist agenda. This requires exercising economic sanctions in the bookstore and at the box office, boycotting heretical works and discouraging publishers and production companies from sponsoring such works in the future. And this also requires action on the preventive front: If children are not to be seduced by secularist mumbo-jumbo, then they must have decent alternatives. New works with the Christian message must be written; older classics must be revitalized and publicized, adapted for the Big Screen and for the interactive Cyberspace experience. Lord of the Rings and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe were such successes… but we cannot afford to rest on our laurels. We must continue to pressure for the release of good works.