I was going to wait until I had a large reading base to write this post, but I decided to go ahead and write this one now. It is definitely the most controversial post I have written, but won't be the last one. God has given me a crazy imagination, so I don't imagine anything small. For instance I imagine this blog getting hundreds or even thousands of readers a week...will it...don't know, but that is my imagination, and that is why I wanted to wait a while, but, alas...I may never be as well known as I would like.
So, to answer the question in short: It is up to you, the writer. I truly believe God doesn't really care. Now before you call me blasphemous, finish my post, then you can call me blasphemous. We can call forth a half a dozen scriptures on both sides to support our individual beliefs on this issue, but I'm not going to do that - at least in this post. Maybe I will at a later date, but not now. I'm just going to explain why I don't think it is an issue.
Many years ago, in my second college I took a class called Modern Fantasy. It was great, all we did was read fantasy books and talk about them. In this class we had to write a research paper, and well, I never like to write boring papers - at least things that bore me - so I wrote about magic.
A little about me before we go on. A few things that I love which some in the church would call demonic, which I will admit that it CAN be, but if you remember back to my very first post (click on the featured post if you would like to read it) I had mentioned I don't think anything in and of itself is bad. We make it bad. I love to play Dungeons and Dragons, LARP, and write fantasy (with magic). If you don't know what LARP is, it is where you dress up as a warrior, wizard, monk, archer, etc. and you go to a park or the such and you battle with foam swords, shields, and arrows - you also use cloth wrapped foam balls for magic spells and the such. It is really fun. The best example in a movie would be "Role Models". Just youtube LARP and you will see just how epic of a nerd I really am - though I don't play anymore, time and all. If you don't know what Dungeons and Dragons is, it is a table top RPG game where you roll dice for pretty much everything - fighting, searching for things, persuading other characters, etc. Often you have figurines to move around the room or dungeon or forest or such. Basically think of Lord Of The Rings, but you can be the characters and tell the game master what you want to do and then roll to see if you succeed or fail....then you get to act it out if you want. Again just YouTube D&D and you can get a good idea of what it is. I grew up believing it was an evil and wicked game where those that play are in league with the devil - in fact - I remember church camp where the speaker said that he met two teen boys who played D&D, and the only reason they came to camp was to find a blue eyed, blonde hair, virgin to sacrifice for the game. Frankly that is ludicrous. Only if you play an "evil" campaign will you have a character that would be willing to do that. Most of us like to be the heroes and kill characters or monsters like that. Anywhoo...we digress.
So, my thoughts were that in my research I would be convicted about LARPing, playing D&D, and writing characters who use magic. To my surprise, I was not convicted to stop ANY of that, in fact, I was encouraged that it was not bad, and that you could have pretty good ministry (which I actually did when I larped) This is probably where the idea of "nothing in and of itself is bad" was solidified within my spirit. In my research - and I still have the paper, I eventually want to try to publish it in a magazine or the such - I discovered that magic and miracles are synonyms for each other. The only difference lies with the motivation. For example the "miracles" that Moses did when he confronted the Pharaoh were the same things that the Magicians did with their "magic". They both turned sticks into snakes. Moses's was demonstrated to have more power by devouring the other snakes. In addition, if you look into the old testament passage where God tells the Israelite people not to dabble in all of the witchcraft, He soon tells the priests to do the same things. Think about it, if the Bible were simply a fantasy book like LOTR, then Moses, Elisha, Elijah, Jerimiah would be called Mages, Wizards, or Magicians. The difference between ALL of the other uses of magic/miracles is the fact that the believers in God used the power for God's glory and everyone else used it for their own glory or the glory of those they served. Miracles mean glorifying God and magic means glorifying self or the such.
So, basically my research gave me the understanding that it is how we use what we have that determines its "goodness" or "badness". Sure there are people out there that D&D is definitely demonic and satanic, but for me and my house, it is no more different than LOTR or Narnia. In my gaming sessions, I have actually been able to bring conversations into the spiritual realm, talking about healing, Jesus, the Bible, etc. So, just as my writing with a lot of gore is designed to minister, so can playing D&D. So can LARP. So can Harry Potter.
It is how we decide to use magic in our writing that will influence its readers, but honestly, the fantasy novels I usually write are not intended to directly influence someone's faith. I just love the fantasy genre. I love the magic, the medieval(ish) living, the sword fighting, even the clothing. So I love to write it. I would love to find out (if I ever become well known enough to make a living off of writing) that someone who liked my "secular" books started to read my "Christian" books and became a believer because of it. THAT WOULD BE AWESOME!!!!
-Long post, I know. Controversial, probably. If you liked the read, then share with your peeps.
-until next time.