Sermons linked to Harry Potter boost church attendance

PHILADELPHIA — The large banner on the lawn of Leverington Church in this city’s Roxborough neighborhood has been raising eyebrows as if it were a Wingardium Leviosa spell.

“If I read ‘Harry Potter meets Jesus,’ I’d probably think it was cheesy, too,” Pastor Langdon Palmer said. “But I didn’t know how else to put it.”

Palmer’s unconventional eight-week sermon series at the Presbyterian church, which started May 12, has raised something else, as well: attendance. He said weekly attendance has risen 10 percent to 20 percent.

Palmer, 60, almost didn’t do the series. He was afraid religious people skeptical of Harry Potter would think he was trivializing the Gospel. And he was worried that Harry Potter fans skeptical of the Bible would believe he was distorting the books to fit his own ends.

But as a man who loves both and as a pastor who sees a generation of people more familiar with the stories of Harry Potter than those in the Bible, he decided to go for it.

“I think if we’re going to be good teachers, we start with what people are familiar with to teach them about what they’re not familiar with,” he said.

In his sermons which are available as podcasts on the church’s website, Palmer uses audio and visual clips from the “Harry Potter” films to illustrate his points. He equates the unexpected and mysterious letters Harry receives to join Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to unexpected and mysterious messages people might be getting from God.

And he likens the relationship between Harry and Professor Albus Dumbledore, the wise but often inscrutable head wizard at Hogwarts, to his own relationship with God.

“It’s so parallel,” he said. “God is so good and so kind, but there are times he seems arbitrary, where he leaves, where he doesn’t explain himself — just like Dumbledore.”

Palmer said he’s encountered “both Christians and Harry Potter fans who are definitely not happy that I’m doing this” but that on the whole, the reaction has been positive.

For those who question why he mixes pop culture and religion, Palmer pointed out that even Jesus used cultural artifacts and current events to explain ideas.

“I think it can really help the church, but if you try to be hip, if you’re trying to be relevant to the kids, it’s all over. People can smell fake right away,” Palmer said. “But if there’s something that moves a pastor deeply in culture, he or she should be free to use that.”