Via Ganns, a Breakpoint interview with Connie Neal, author of What’s a Christian to Do with Harry Potter? There’s an interesting reference to the Old Testament story of Daniel:

“I recently pointed my children to the prophet Daniel in the Old Testament. He was taken away from his family when he was an adolescent and put into a completely pagan culture. He was sent to a school where they trained all the magicians and sorcerers, the seers, the wise men, and the astrologers. Daniel not only learned the culture’s language and literature, he was at the top of his class. Now, many of the subjects he studied involved practices that were forbidden by God. He learned them, but in real life, he never, ever, looked to an occult source for his power…”

Not to say, of course, that it’s okay for Christians to start fooling around with occultic practices, but there’s an excellent point to be made on how to turn even Harry Potter to the ends of the Good News.