I read the Chronicles of Narnia when I was in 6th grade and loved them.  Though I was already “born-again” I never saw any spiritual allegory in them and never heard anyone proclaim such until the 1980’s. When Tolkien’s books came out in the late ’70’s my Dad (a very Godly man) suggested I might enjoy them.  I just couldn’t get excited about a mole, though. Daddy loved those books but, avid reader though he was, I never heard him mention spiritual allegory there either.

I wouldn’t be posting on this subject except that so many ‘Christian’ voices out there are beating the drum that Potter is a ‘must-read’.  These voices are becoming almost dictatorial for Christian behavior in all areas.  There is a new fundamentalism coming from the “Christian Left” and anyone who deviates from or questions their declared doctrines is the new ‘heretic’.  What the Bible says is far less important than what these new theologians say.  They are aligning themselves to march in lock-step with each other.  This hasn’t happened overnight and it shouldn’t be surprising to those of us who still believe in Biblical Christianity.

Is it absolutely necessary for a Christian to be completely immersed in ‘Pop-Culture’? I find many of my unsaved public high school students extremely weary of that culture and aching for something refreshing to satisfy their souls. Shall I give them Harry Potter? Does he offer water from which they can drink and never thirst again?

“Only five people in history have ever won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Godl Medal: Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Elie Wiesel … and Norman Borlaug.” *

What, you’ve never heard of Norman Borlaug? Me neither. And I’m really surprised that as a Christian I don’t know more about him. Especially now that Bono, who is supposedly a Christian, Tony Campolo and Rick Warren are out to end world hunger. “For Borlaug…to win more notice, he would have to make his next trip to Africa in the company of Angelina Jolie.”*

Okay, so who is this guy? Only the man who has saved at least a BILLION people from starvation over the last 60-plus years. How? Through biotechnology. Yes, that scientific practice of crossing genetic make-up of plants or organisms to create disease and pest resistant crops. In the 1940’s and 50’s he developed a hybrid called “dwarf wheat” that tripled grain production. This was the begining of the ‘Green Revolution’ - (not Greenpeace or the Green Party who, oddly enough, despise this man). The ‘Green Revolution’ has done more to end world hunger than any other event in history. “In 1960 about 60 percent of the world’s people experienced some hunger every year. By 2000 that number was 14 percent…”*

Amazingly, one of the biggest criticisms of this great man is his desire to create roads in impoverished areas so that people who are starving can have access to food and be able to become self-sustaining. According to Norman Borlaug, “Supplying food to sub-Saharan African countries is made very complex because of a lack of infrastructure. For example, you bring fertilizer into a country like Ethiopia, and the cost of transporting the fertilizer up the mountain a few hundred miles to Addis Ababa doubles its cost. All through sub-Saharan Africa, the lack of roads is one of the biggest obstacles to development–and not just from the standpoint of moving agricultural inputs in and moving increased grain production to the cities. That’s part of it, but I think roads also have great indirect value. If a road is built going across tribal groups and some beat-up old bus starts moving, in seven or eight years you’ll hear people say, “You know, that tribe over there, they aren’t so different from us after all, are they?”
And once there’s a road and some vehicles moving along it, then you can build schools near a road. You go into the bush and you can get parents to build a school from local materials, but you can’t get a teacher to come in because she or he will say, “Look, I spent six, eight years preparing myself to be a teacher. Now you want me to go back there in the bush? I won’t be able to come out and see my family or friends for eight, nine months. No, I’m not going.” The lack of roads in Africa greatly hinders agriculture, education, and development.”**

Do you suppose this man will be invited to visit APU as a guest lecturer?

*Newsweek, July 30, 2007 (p. 39)
**Reason Magazine, April 2000