Education minister dismisses church's witchcraft worries over `Harry Potter'

Minister of Education Ovid Tzeng (曾志朗) yesterday defended the best-selling series of books Harry Potter, saying the books, rich in creativity and imagination, deserve to be recommended to children.

Tzeng made the remarks in response to criticism by a leader of the Bread of Life Christian Church (基督教靈糧堂) who said Harry Potter books are pamphlets containing instructions for witchcraft, to which children should be denied.

An article headlined The truth of Harry Potter is posted on the church's Web site and criticizes the stories for being fantastic and absurd, encouraging witchcraft and evil.

"They [the books] will have an adverse impact on our children," the article states.

Chou Shen-chu (周神助), a senior pastor of the church, said the individual opinion expressed in the article does not represent the official stance of the Christian church.

The criticism of the Harry Potter phenomenon ignited a discussion nationwide.

Tzeng said books should be judged based on their ability to stir the imagination, their ability to help children tell good from evil and their entertainment value.

"As for the strange, weird stuff in the series, there are also plenty of such things in the Bible," Tzeng said, adding that he has read the first book in the Harry Potter series and found it to be very good.

Written by J.K. Rowling, the hugely successful series of books has also bewitched Hollywood. The movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, adapted from the first of the series, opens today.

Box-office observers have speculated the movie could break opening-day and opening-weekend records.