STEPHEN LEWIS interviews local Pastor, Christian Selvaratnam and local Vicar, Rev Tom Gill on their opposing views on this question.

YES...says Christian Selvaratnam,

Pastor of York

City Church, whose daughter Kate, 11, is a Potter fan.

Who couldn't love Harry Potter? Attendance this week at cinema showings of the first Potter film are bound to show that Harry, the central character of the world famous J.K. Rowling novels, is loved by millions of children (and adults) around the world. Parents and teachers alike must be thrilled to find their children discovering and rediscovering the delights of reading and the enchanting power of a young imagination.

As heroes go Harry is an inspiring example - he and his friends display courage, loyalty and a willingness to make great sacrifices to overcome evil.

If Harry is your role model you will learn that gossip hurts people, judging others is wrong and even respect for owls!

In the mind of a child all things are (and should be) innocent and pure and in this respect no one should complain about any part of Rowling's novels.

Harry is a hero as is Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, Aslan in the Tales of Narnia and even Dorothy in Oz! My own daughter Kate, who is 11, is a big Harry Potter fan. She read all four of the books avidly, as soon as they came out.

But the subject matter from which the fictional Potter stories are drawn relates to an arena that is sometimes far from innocent or wholesome. I did read the first of the Potter books before I allowed my daughter to read it, because I wanted to see for myself what the content was. In the event, I was very happy and allowed her to continue to read them.

Nevertheless, when I read that a local tourist attraction is now offering sances, tarot card reading and opportunities to contact the dead I wonder if fiction has become fact. It is not without reason that the Christian bible warns against real witchcraft and spiritism, for example Deuteronomy 18:9. I remember one particular person I knew a few years ago that became involved in a satanic coven, witnessing and participating in events that still 'haunt' her today. Stories like that person's are rare but are real and should be something that any 'Potter parent' should be thinking about. I know that in the real world the occult isn't pure, isn't innocent and isn't a great example or experience for any person or child.

Any parent of a Harry Potter fan will have excellent opportunities to discuss important matters of life, morality and truth. Younger children may well do best to avoid some of the scarier parts of the book, or have their parents selectively read the best bits to them. Parents of older children may want to explain about the real life aspects of the occult that the books draw from that are definitely to be avoided.

Enjoy the Potter books and learn some great lessons for life - but remember, it is just fiction!

NO...says Rev Tom Gill Vicar of St Luke's, York, and father of

six-year-old Tom, a devoted reader of Harry books.

I LIKE good novels for children, and the Harry Potter books are good, well-written children's novels. They encourage the imagination, which is something I think we ought to be doing for our offspring.

One of the most important things is that because they are a good read, because they are a lot of fun, they are getting children reading again. My six-year-old, Thomas, is reading them by himself - he's on the third one now - and I know a lot of children who don't normally like books who are reading these books. This has got to be a good thing.

They aren't perhaps the most original books in the world. You can see sources all through them - from Billy Bunter, Narnia, Tolkien. But there is nothing wrong in that. There are no new stories, really - there are perhaps only half a dozen stories in literature.

These books are very well written, and if some of the ideas come from other sources, what is the problem with that?

Another thing these stories are is very moral. They are not Christian, but they are very moral. There is a very clear line in them between good and bad. There are good characters who act in accordance with their values, and bad characters, who get their comeuppance.

It is quite black and white but children's stories need to be black and white, so that children can develop a moral sense. You can only learn to deal with shades of grey later if you have developed that moral sense.

One of the great things is that they can be used as a springboard for dealing with some very serious issues. Through the behaviour of Draco Malfoy and his father Lucius, for example, they raise the issue of racism. Particularly in the Chamber of Secrets and the Prisoner of Azkaban, where you have Malfoy talking about pure-bloods and mud-bloods, a 'racist' term for muggles. It has a lot of echoes of what was happening in 1930s Germany.

At a time when there is a great deal of suspicion of Moslem people, you can draw a child's attention to what Malfoy is doing when he talks about mud-bloods, and you can do it in a way that they will understand.

There is nothing satanic about the books. They are a form of mythology. The church has always used mythology. Are we saying Greek mythology is satanic? Tolkien or Narnia is satanic? We need to accept that fiction is fiction. My six-year-old son knows the difference between fact and fiction perfectly well.

I wouldn't want to say Rowling's books are Christian or un-Christian. They are a good read, they are funny, they allow us to raise some very serious issues with children - and they are getting children reading again.

Updated: 10:15 Friday, November 16, 2001