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‘Harry Potter meets Jesus’ sermon series brings new muggles to Philly
church

The large banner on the lawn of Leverington Church in Roxborough 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.”

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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.

"People are literally saying, ‘I came because of Harry Potter,’ ” he said. “It’s a little bit of
pressure because hard-core Harry Potter fans know everything.”

Palmer, who has been pastor at Leverington Church for five years, almost didn’t do the
series. He was afraid religious people who are skeptical of Harry Potter would think he
was trivializing the Gospel. And he was worried that Harry Potter fans who are
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
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‘Harry Potter meets Jesus’ sermon series brings new muggles to Philly c... https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia/harry-potter-sermon-series-...
to teach them about what they’re not familiar with,” said Palmer, 60.

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
receiving 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 on the whole, the reaction has been positive.

Despite his passion today, Palmer hasn’t always been a fan — of Harry Potter or of
God. For much of his adult life, Palmer was an electrical engineer and a self-proclaimed
atheist, though looking back now he thinks he was probably “more of a hard-core
agnostic, calling myself an atheist to be cool.”

“I’m a born skeptic, and I’ve had many conversations with God about this: ‘Why would
you have me be a pastor? I question everything all the time,’ ” Palmer said. “I came to
the conclusion that if this is the way that God wired me, maybe I could relate to other
people who struggle with doubt.”

As for Harry Potter, Palmer had heard the stories of religious leaders who denounced
— and in some cases, even burned -- the books because they believe the series
promotes the occult and satanism.

“When it first came out, I was not impressed. I was not a fan,” he said. “I assumed it
was kid stories or promoting dark magic and stuff.”

But when Palmer read the books with his children at their urging, he found they
offered opportunities to talk with his kids about right and wrong and good and evil.

“I went from someone who was very skeptical to thinking it’s really a significant piece
of literature,” he said.

Harry Potter isn’t the only pop-culture touchstone that Palmer has invoked in his
sermons. He once did a series on the science-fiction movie The Fifth Element, and
you’ll hear him referencing Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons, Star Trek, The Lord
of the Rings, and The Matrix in his sermons.

He even dreams of doing a sermon series on Nacho Libre, the Jack Black movie about a
monk who follows his dream to become a Mexican wrestler.

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.”

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