Harry Potter and the Hollywood Curse

“I just play him as myself, I don’t ease myself into any role really. I stick a beard on and play me. Every part I play is just a variant of my own personality.” –Michael Gambon


Ugh. This is the textbook example of how Hollywood can take a near-perfect book and make a mess of it. There is some question if people who don’t read the books even watch the films, but if they do there is no way they could make sense of this story. It is a mess. On the other hand, if you are familiar with the book, this film serves as a sort of visual taste of what parts of the story could have looked like—aside from the parts they changed, cut, rewrote, and butchered.

Without going into too much detail, here are a few things they got wrong:

The first fourth of the book (about 50,000 words) are condensed into ten minutes.

Michael Gambon completely missed the mark of Dumbledore’s character in this entry. Of course, he admits that he hasn’t read any of the books and simply plays Dumbledore as himself. (See above)

They changed major plot points and dumbed the overall plot down. Apparently movie goers are not as smart as the average 12 year-old.

They cut major characters important to this story and the overall series.

All the characters they didn’t cut, aside from Harry, Ron and Hermione are reduced to mere mentions. Rita Skeeter in particular was just a tease of the great character she is in the book.

Barty Crouch’s annoying tongue-tic. This is another testament to Hollywood’s opinion of its audience. Do we have to have some visual clue for the reveal later on? It is unfortunate because normally David Tennant and Brendan Gleeson are brilliant.

The last fourth of the book is severely watered down by: making the maze lame, eliminating Serius’s involvement, and cutting the amazing scenes of Dumbledore confronting Fudge and setting the war in motion.

On a personal note… everyone needs a haircut.

Thankfully, this did not signal the complete crash of the series. They hired a new director for parts five and six and with five at least, things improved a (little) bit.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

"You are blinded," said Dumbledore, his voice rising now, the aura of power around him palpable, his eyes blazing once more, "by the love of the office you hold, Cornelius! You place too much importance, and you always have done, on the so-called purity of blood! You fail to recognize that it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow up to be!"


With this book, the story of Harry Potter really takes off. The whole series up to this point has been introducing the reader to concepts that have to be understood and characters that we have grown to love, and now the evil that has always been hinted at and barely glimpsed will boil over into a full fledged war. However, it takes nearly 200,000 words and a complex mixture of mysterious plots to get there. By the end of the book we know what the stakes are. Evil in Rowling’s universe is real, the characters are in danger, and there are tough times ahead.

The mystery of this book is well crafted. There are genuine clues from the very start of the story, but in a way the mystery itself is a red-herring. If anyone did figure out what was really going on in the first reading; that would be surprising. Subsequent readings, however, do show that the signs and clues were there.

There are some side plots and themes that are revealed in this book that are worth exploring and will resurface as the series progresses:

House Elves play a large role in this book. Some find it annoying, but there is a reason they are here and why Hermione’s campaign is a part of the story. One of Rowling’s big themes across the whole series is the idea of accepting people who are different and treating all people equally and with respect. The interesting idea here in Goblet is that that does not always mean treating them the way you would like to be treated.

All too often the politically correct approach to diversity is to be open-minded and naïve at the same time. We campaign for the rights of those different from us, but don’t stop to ask what they want or need. Here, Hermione is determined to bring Elves a freedom that humans would wish with out realizing that it would be torture for most Elves. There are other role models in the books (like Dumbledore) who show the Elves just as much respect as Hermione, but with a level of understanding that she lacks.

This is an important truth that can be applied in “real life.” Just because our culture may want and can handle a certain form of Government does not mean that it is the best or even the right form of government for the whole world.

Another topic that is very well presented in this novel is the Media and public opinion. Rowling does a great job of showing how despicable and dangerous the media can be in its efforts to gain readership and power. Ideally the media exists to disseminate truth, but in reality it is used to control the public and destroy its enemies.

We just get a hint of the theme of politics and power in this book, through the character of Barty Crouch, but also in the excellent chapter “The Parting of the Ways.” It is a theme that will pour over into the rest of the series and play an important role in the next book.

Finally, death, the true theme of the whole series, makes its way into the story directly for the first time. Up until now it has always been seen in the past, but from now on it will threaten every character and as the series continues no one is safe.

The Gift of Ministry in a Foreign Tongue

There is a blessing in having half your brain tied behind your back. When you work and operate 90 percent of the time in your second or third strongest language, you are forced to simplify everything you do. You find yourself shutting up a lot of the time. You ask yourself the question: “Is what I am about to try to say absolutely necessary? Will what I have to say help this situation, or just serve to remind people I am in the room?”

This is a gift for someone who is a “Kingdom Growth Catalyst,” “Cross-cultural Minister,” “Spiritual Arsonist,” (he-he love that one, Derek) or whatever you want to call missions nowadays. Because whatever else you are trying to accomplish in your efforts, you want to remain “behind the scenes.” You hear story after story of missionaries coming into an area, building a thriving, exciting splash based on their cultural novelty, and then leaving everything to die. Fellowship built around personality is not the goal.

Instead, you want to bring Jesus into already existent points of fellowship, teach the nationals to understand and develop Biblical community for themselves, stand back and watch it grow. When that is your goal, it is very helpful to have a handicap that forces you to stay quiet unless it is really needed.

It can frustrate, but let’s face it, Jesus Himself said of the Father: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” And the amazing thing is, when you minister in a foreign language you discover that when something really needs to be said you have the words come to you from nowhere. You use vocabulary you never learned and won’t remember the next day. On the other hand sometimes you speak just to be heard and that doesn’t always come out so well.

Living in Europe is Nothing Like a Vacation

In a classic case of: “the pot enjoying the kettle calling itself black,” MDR (a radio station here) aired a story that quoted an American complaining that Americans are too arrogant. It was a part of a larger story in which a bunch of Americans were quoted as saying that Europe was a much better place than America to live.

“Oh, I would definitely live in Europe if I could. I’ve been there several times and everything is so laid back. The pace of life is so slow!”

Now, this post is not going to be an attempt to argue against that story. There are plenty of reasons for loving both places. However, this “news report” did spark a few thoughts. For starters, how could any of these Americans, who had only ever been to Europe for vacation, begin to know what it is like to live in Europe? Of course it would seem very laid back if you were there for fun! Wherever life occurs, there will always be more stress and pressure than in vacations!

Many Americans have this perception about Europe. They think it is such an easy and privileged place to live. Why then, do so many Americans who attempt to move t Europe for cross-cultural ministry burn out and go back. Recent figures show that Western Europe in particular had the highest rate of attrition for imb of any of the regions it reaches. Probably it is due to these very same false expectations. Europe is a surprisingly different culture. People do not realize the amount of adjustment that is needed to live in this continent in spite of all the beauty, history and “luxury.” The fact is when you live in a place and work there, your life is nothing like the vacations that people imagine having there.

All that, and the story never brought up a comparison between how many people immigrate form Europe to the US vs. the other way around. That would be an interesting number to investigate.

Galatains 5:19-21 (Sex, Sorcery, Sedition, and Sauce)

As Paul continues in his teaching that love, not legalism is to govern the Christian’s behavior, he lists the deeds of the flesh to contrast them to the behavior of the person walking in the Spirit. The fifteen examples of sins he lists fall generally into four categories: sexual sins, religious sins, interpersonal or relational sins, and those related to alcohol.

Martin Luther does a good job here of pointing out that the Christian is not free from these temptations. The flesh and the spirit are at war in the believer’s life. The legalist immediately goes to the end of the list and points out that Paul says these deeds will keep you out of heaven. But the point here is not that we won’t struggle with these things, but that we should fight against the flesh in these matters.

Since the legalist mistakenly believes that behavior is what earns a person’s salvation, they exaggerate the nature of the sin: Sex itself is bad. Even make-believe magic is evil. Alcohol and not just drunkenness is wrong. They seek to avoid the sin by drawing the line further away from the sin and forbidding things that are not wrong; just as Adam in the garden taught Eve that touching the tree was wrong, and not just eating it.

The ironic thing about legalists is that they tend to have fewer problems with the more than half of the list of sins here that deal with interpersonal relationships. Fighting and divisions, envy and power struggles, disagreements over teaching; all these things are part and parcel of religious existence. Legalism and religion go hand in hand and therefore these things are always justified.

Instead of making our focus the examples of sin that Paul presents here, he wants us to emphasize the next list: the fruit of the Spirit…