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Your position in The Gospel According to Harry Potter grows out of teaching people about the Bible through what you call "glimmers of gospel in culture."

It is just what Paul did.  It's what Jesus did. They would meet people where they were. John 3:17 says, "God didn't send his Son into the world to condemn the world but that through him the world would be saved."

Paul walks up and down the streets of Athens.  He's reading all these shrines to these idols.  And he's totally disgusted.  But instead of telling them how disgusted he is, he finds one to the unknown god and says, "Look, I see you're religious.  Let's start here with something familiar to you." He would find something in the culture that he could then connect to the gospel.

I led someone to Christ using Harry Potter, someone I'd been trying to witness to for three years. He's the father of the girl who introduced the Harry Potter books to our family. When the first controversy was going on, he shows up pounding at my door and he's a real mild-mannered guy. 

I said, "Tully, what is wrong?" And he said, "I just heard some Christian on the radio saying we should burn or ban Harry Potter.  And I just want to make sure you're not telling my daughter that because we don't raise her that way." 

I said, "Tully, calm down. First of all, I have respect for you as a parent.  I wouldn't do anything with your daughter I wouldn't want you to do with mine, so I'm not going to be going behind your back in that way. But actually, Tully, I saw the gospel in the first book of Harry Potter."

He looked puzzled. His anger froze. And then this broad grin broke across his face. It was obvious we had been trying to get them to come to church, to the Christmas musical, or to the picnic. But they always managed to leave before the presentation of the gospel.  So he gets this big grin on his face, plops down on my couch, and goes, "Okay, you finally got me. Go ahead."

So you then sat him down and walked through the themes of the Gospel you saw in the first book. What happened then?

He looked at me and he said, "I've got to go back and read that again." And he did.

Within a month his wife, who was only 42, stood up one night and said, "I can't breathe."  And she dropped dead. Undiagnosed lung cancer.  Tully and Sarah turned to our family because we were good friends to them, and to our church, because they didn't have a church of their own. 

We helped them through that hard time and Tully accepted the Lord.

Copyright © 2002 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Visit DickStaub.com for audio and video of his radio program (4-7 p.m. PST), media reviews, and news on "where belief meets real life."

Chris Rice is also a regular writer for Sojourners magazine.

Earlier Dick Staub Interviews include:

Chris Rice | The author of Grace Matters talks about his friendship with racial reconciliation leader Spencer Perkins, his former coauthor and best friend. (Nov. 12, 2002)

John Polkinghorne | The 2002 Templeton Prize winner sees the Bible as "the laboratory notebook" of the Holy Spirit. (Nov. 5, 2002)

Ruth Tucker | The professor and author of Walking Away from Faith talks about doubting God. (Oct. 29, 2002)

Vishal Mangalwadi | The author and lecturer talks about how the Bible shaped India, Western democracy, and his life. (Oct. 22, 2002)

Dave Alan Johnson | The creator of Doc talks about balancing entertainment with spiritual depth and TV shows with evil plumbers. (Oct. 15, 2002)

Chuck Palahniuk | The author of Fight Club talks about his new book and the need to see culture not on a TV set but by talking to neighbors. (Oct. 8, 2002)

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November (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46