I'm trying to approach this from an English literature major point of view so this is all hypothesis:

I believe the difference is that the magic of Narnia comes from Aslan, who is a not-thinly-veiled Jesus (though I didn't realize this when I read the books as a child). So all of the power and magic of Narnia is coming directly from Jesus and thereby okay. Plus there is the fact that the villian is the Witch and witches are associates of the Devil. Harry Potter, on the other hand. is entirely made up of witches and wizards and so without even opening up the book religious extremists (and do remember, this is a fairly extremist section of Christianity interpreting HP this way -- including, unfortunately, a section of my relatives ) believe that ALL witches as bad, allied with the Devil, and so won't even touch the HP books. There is also the scare factor of temptation: we (HP fans) might say that Harry Potter and his allies are for good but by being witches and wizards, are still tempting readers to the Dark Side.

I just always wondered though if they did follow this reading, how did they feel about Glenda? Was she truly a good witch or instead also a bad witch?

thats exactly what im talking about....they need to stop contradicting themself

***Spoiler if you haven't read the last book***
Not that you guys think this way, but to the Christians who think Harry Potter is a devil worshiper because he's a wizard I'd just like to point out a couple things...

1. They celebrate christmas and other Christian Holidays in the movies
2. Harry is made GODfather to Tonks and Lupin's kid...not devil father, clearly there is still a christian undertone to the book
3. Harry knows the traditional christmas carols when he and hermionie are near a church in the seventh book...meaning he knows about Jesus!
4.Finally:Harry is totally a christ figure in the last book...not as obvious as the lion in CS Lewis's books, but he sacrifices himself for everyone and is reborn...sound familiar?

Just something for bible thumpers to think about!

Well said, cressida and RandomGirl15!

I hope I don't offend anyone by saying this, but I am always annoyed when books are banned from schools and libraries because religious extremists are against them. I don't like it when conflict is caused because religion is mixed with education or government (although this doesn't stop me from enjoying Christmas and Easter holidays!). I mean, what happened to freedom of speech (well, not speech, but thoughts and fictional creations)?

Like RandomGirl15 said, religion is present in the HP series because it is set in the UK, which is a predominantly Christian country. Obviously their education system and lifestyle is based on their Muggle counterparts, so Christianity is involved. Harry Potter is basically reality but they can do this little thing called magic which makes their lives a whole lot easier.

I'm a christian and go to a christian school. We're not allowed to have it at school but thats definitely not stopping me or a lot of other people.
I honestly don't care cos the whole series is about love. Thats the morale of the story and it is especially strong in the last book. JK made it clear that Harry was going to sacrifice himself out of pure love for everyone.
Mind you I'm not exactly hardcore or anything. I can understand where people are coming from but if you've really read the books you've got to know it's got nothing to do with the devil.

It's not the magic they just don't want to get ginger kids hopes up.
I'm joking two of my best friends are ginger.
Answering seriously it's what cressida said.

I think its stupid adults tryin to control wat kids read even though they should just be happy their reading and praise whoever brought about this but thats just me i think HP has good morals in it and theirs no way the Devil is that good of an author and if he is im going to hell just to read some of his other works...hahaha TOTALLY joking

ok i am a christan too so and when i go into the christan store at the mall it really bugs me when i see books saying "why not to let your kids read harry potter" that is the stupidest thing in the world to me because it you are not jsuta harry potter fan then you have heard of or read others book that are even worst than harry potter with the witches and stuff so and what about shows that doesnt make any sense and agree with all you others of what you have said and cs lewis's books have the whole adam and eve thing in it but it has a witch and if she s the devil the voldy is the devil in harry potter so and about the church in harry potetr and the deahtly hallows and christmas wouldnt that make it clear that harry belives in God so it is not right for people to think that way and my pastor reads the harry potter books and eldery people at my church do to so it just a book and people should start seeing that

Fear of something one doesn't understand just makes ignorance apparent. Harry Potter is just a book. If it were Satan's instructions on how to destroy the world, it would have happened by now