Lutherans Hold 'Harry Potter Services™' Across Germany, Austria

In an increasingly desperate step to avoid further losses, Lutherans are literally selling out (to Warner Bros.) and dabble in the Occult before the admit their own mistakes

I’m hardly a believer in Freudian notions, but I do consider his invocation of the Death Instinct not entirely implausible in what follows.

Note the staggering parallels to the creation of Norway’s first openly ‘trans/non-binary’ pastor:

'I'm trans. I'm created in God's image, and God is proud of his creation.'

Dr. Pirelli Benestad, Norway's Premier Transgender Cultist Lost His Licence in 2023

As always, translation of non-English content, emphases, and [snark] mine.

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Harry Potter Service Draws Big Crowd

The first Styrian Harry Potter service was celebrated [sic] this Sunday [10 Nov. 2024] in the Lutheran Church of the Christ the Redeemer in Graz. The church was transformed into the Hogwarts School of Magic, with the priest appearing as Professor Dumbledore. Due to the huge turnout, there will soon be a Dacapo.

Via ORF.at, 10 Nov. 2024 [source]

Attendance figures in local churches have little in common with a fairy tale; last year there was even a record number of church leavers - read more in Number of church leavers at record high (11 Jan. 2023).

[Of course, this stupid little piece won’t tell you what’s behind people leaving ‘the church’—and if you’re asking ‘which ones’, well, here goes: all of them, in particular the Roman Catholic Church—and here’s why (and how journos™ obfuscate, rather than illuminate, matters): you see, the topic of that linked piece is about people leaving the Catholic Church in 2022, and you can perhaps already guess why:

The main reason for the large number of people leaving the church in the previous year [2022] is seen as protests against Covid vaccination and that faith and the church are generally less important to people [Vienna’s venerable St Stephen’s Cathedral permitted a pop-up vaxx centre to be opened on church premises, and the clergy was ‘all-in’ with gov’t policies, incl. mandatory vaccinations: none of the church hierarchy have ever admitted that there was anything wrong with doing so]…

Sociologist Franz Höllinger [ah, an ‘expert™’, wonderful] said that the rising number of people leaving the church was evidence of a long-term Europe-wide trend [sure, but might that be because ‘the Churches’ are leaving the flock behind?]. The reasons for this are ‘that the big churches, both Catholic and Protestant, are losing credibility with many people, that the language spoken there no longer appeals to them [I suppose this is Vatican II in action]. The discourse about sin is no longer in keeping with the times and people ask themselves: why am I a member of an organisation that I actually have little to do with anyway, that I find more unpleasant than positive?’

[my 2 cents are: the last sentence is probably true—in light of the disastrous Covid policy run by the higher-ups in the Church; I honestly found—find—esp. the Church I grew up in (Catholic) quite aloof, disconnected, and without much will to uphold its own creed, hence I’m asking myself: why should I pay for them? And now back to the inane HP™ ‘service’]

Lutheran pastor Marcus Hütter is therefore taking a different approach under the motto ‘The church must move with the times, otherwise it will move with the times’—and so on Sunday he transformed the Protestant Church of the Redeemer in Graz into the Hogwarts School of Magic: candles hung from the ceiling [why isn’t that true of the church regularly?], the Hogwarts coat of arms was not to be missed, and there was a theatre sermon for which Hütter slipped into the role of Professor Dumbledore [so, I’m no Lutheran, but isn’t this blasphemy? Since Rev. Hütter isn’t the Son of Man, I suppose that kind of blasphemy would be against the Holy Spirit, i.e., it can’t be forgiven, as far as I read here (but I won’t judge, lest I be judged, but I still think this agit-prop is a silly thing to do)].

Re-Staging Planned for Early February [2025]

A performance [sic] that ensured a full house: he attracted more than 200 people to the first Styrian Harry Potter service—a successful start for Hütter:

A lot of people came out and thanked us, saying they’ve never experienced anything like it, more please. Then I hope that we have taken the right path. [I’m out of words that aren’t R-rated here]

The next service of this kind will therefore take place at the beginning of February.

Long Negotiations with Warner Brothers

The idea of holding a church service based on Harry Potter is nothing new—such services are already common in Germany [I didn’t know that, and I’m unsure if this is true: I’ve looked around a bit, but I found merely references from last week—all of them in Lutheran communities of faith, and I suppose this kind of nonsense shows an increasingly desperate Lutheran establishment (see, e.g., this piece in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (17 Nov. 2024), which offers ‘insights™’ into services with DJs, Blues, and other ‘alternative’ music], but it took long negotiations with Warner Brothers to clarify the rights issue, with Rev. Hütter adding:

It took a long lead time, and I invested a lot, but in the end I had a very nice conversation with Warner Brothers Hamburg. With conditions, of course, but we are now allowed to advertise with the name ‘Harry Potter’ service.

[so, to get this done, the Rev. Hütter negotiated with Warner Bros. Germany, accepted several—unnamed—‘terms and conditions’, and invested God knows how many hours into this charade; instead, he could have, you know, administered to the poor, worked with the faithful, or (re)consider the Church’s stance during the Covid tyranny, but, no, Rev. Hütter wanted to cosplay Dumbledore: how pathetic]

[At this point, Austrian state broadcaster ORF offers a few pictures from ‘the service™’, and I’m reproducing two here (and another one below) for illustrative purposes; above, a close-up of the Rev. Hütter cosplaying Dumbledore; below, a total view of the event]

Parallels Between Faith and Fiction

Rev. Hütter is convinced that Harry Potter actually has more to do with the Christian faith than one might think, because the four houses of Hogwarts, which are sometimes in rivalry with each other, are a reflection of society:

Is it just about the one, perhaps the strongest, who can prevail? Or is it perhaps about a community that can be strong together, that doesn’t make up for mistakes [would that (still) be a self-reflection re Covid? I doubt it], that supports and challenges each other in order to create a better future together? I believe that the Harry Potter books are not just about magic, but about these deep human questions that are addressed.

[I do hope, dear Rev. Hütter, that you first and foremost believe in the reasons as to why you became a pastor in the first place; everything else is, frankly, irrelevant here: isn’t it odd that the Rev. speaks quite a bit about himself and his feelings here?]

Friendship, forgiveness and overcoming fears—central themes in Sunday’s service, which was intended to encourage people to live and be, but above all to be together.

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Bottom Li(n)es: Incompetence, Lunacy, Occultism

As Christmas season approaches, I suppose the above piece is a curious testament to the continued, sustained decay of what arguably made the West unique: Christianity.

I shall point to three items (but there are, of course, many more) here:

First, personally, I don’t get it why men of the cloth are doing this, in particular because the Gospel holds many more such stories and, arguably, greater mysteries. My gut feeling is that the more the Church(es) appease ‘the current thing™’, the more irrelevant they will become (although I’d add that this is arguably worse in Lutheran contexts because, from its inception, the Lutheran faith had been inextricably tied to any ruling dynasty, and since there’s only a few such Lutheran monarchies left—mainly in northern Europe—these communities are becoming increasingly unhinged); note that I’m not saying ‘become Catholic, for the Vatican is good’, all I’m pointing at is that in doctrinal matters, it’s sometimes not the worst idea to have a supra-ordinate regulator…

Oh, by the way, if you wish to watch such a ‘performance’, here is a video from the Resurrection Church of Lohbrügge, Germany (the ‘action’ starts at around the 25:00 timestamp):

Second, the journalism™ behind this piece is supremely bad, but given legacy media’s visceral hatred for virtually everything Christian (which derives, I’d add, from the strong far-left ‘convictions’ of most German-speaking ‘journos™’). While I’d add that, growing up a Catholic, I too, have many issues with the Church and many of those who profess to serve it, as opposed to Him, I do think that a brief online search would have prevented this kind of nonsense. For what it’s worth, here’s J.K. Rowling on her faith (source):

‘To me, [the religious parallels have] always been obvious’, Rowling said. ‘But I never wanted to talk too openly about it because I thought it might show people who just wanted the story where we were going’…

Even though her books contain religious themes, the church-going author revealed that she struggles with believing in a basic Christian tenet of life after death.

‘The truth is that, like Graham Greene, my faith is sometimes that my faith will return. It’s something I struggle with a lot’, Rowling admitted [who doesn’t? I mean, think of Jesus being tempted at Getsemane…]. ‘On any given moment if you asked me [if] I believe in life after death, I think if you polled me regularly through the week, I think I would come down on the side of yes—that I do believe in life after death. [But] it’s something that I wrestle with a lot. It preoccupies me a lot, and I think that's very obvious within the books.’

Rowling was raised Christian in the Anglican Church and currently attends the Church of Scotland…

Rowling has yet to take warnings on her book's potentially adverse influence seriously, retorting, ‘I go to church myself’.

‘I don't take any responsibility for the lunatic fringes of my own religion’, she added.

So, by that measure, I suppose Rev. Hütter and his ilk—the others who hold such ‘services™’ (terms and conditions apply)—pertain to that ‘lunatic fringe’.

There is, however, a third item to address, and that’s the totally obvious, subversive nature of the accoutrements of these ‘services™’: occult and black magic symbolism in the hallowed places of worship.

From the above-linked piece about Ms. Rowling:

James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family [website; according to Wikipedia, it’s a ‘fundamentalist evangelical parachurch’ whose website harps about ‘the Judeo-Christian ethic’, but their criticism is worth pondering], had publicly criticized Harry Potter books.

‘[I]t’s difficult to ignore the effects such stories (albeit imaginary) might have on young, impressionable minds’, said Dobson in a statement noting the trend toward witchcraft and New Age ideology [the latter is, of course, Communist in nature bordering on the Occult, and if you don’t believe me, just look for Helena Blavatsky and Alice A. Bailey].

Pope Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, had even condemned the books, writing that their ‘subtle seductions, which act unnoticed…deeply distort Christianity in the soul before it can grow properly’.

At this juncture, I tend to agree with Joseph Ratzinger, esp. in light of what the above-linked piece about Ms. Rowling also holds:

However, many conservative Christian leaders have strong denounced the author’s books as anything but detrimental to Christians and children, saying that it promotes witchcraft and the occult.

Let’s conclude here by noting a few curious, if telling, items from these ‘services™’ (terms and conditions apply): yes, I’ve read the Potter books when I was a teen, and I couldn’t muster enough curiosity in them beyond vol. 4. Still, I recall the importance of Harry’s owl, and while I do acknowledge their function in the Potter universe (so to say…), I do find its prominent appearance in these ‘services™’ (as above, so below—that pun is intended, dear readers)…well, questionable, to say the least.

Here’s another pic from the Graz ‘service™’:

And this is a screen shot from the above-linked video:

Am I the only who considers such a deeply-symbolic animal an odd sight on a cross or held up by a pastor?

I mean, come on, ‘the owl is associated with death, sorcery and the dark underside of life. To the ancient Egyptians, the owl represented night, death and cold. The Bible (Leviticus) says the owl is an unclean bird.’ (source)

It quickly gets worse from there (see here): the owl is ‘a spiritual guide’, a ‘guardian of darkness’ whereby it’s necessary to know that ‘darkness is not seen as an evil force’. The owl, then, is a highly relevant ‘metaphor in occultism’:

So, I suppose everyone involved should ask themselves a few questions:

• Why is this apparently occurring ‘only’ in Lutheran congregations?

• Would the existence of, say, the Roman Catholic supra-ordinate system of order and control prevent such brazen occult practices? (It does seem so…)

• Why the perceived ‘need’ to literally sell out for these ‘services™’ (terms and conditions apply) to attract people?

• Why not live the Gospel?

I shall conclude with a quote by Marxist believer Antonio Gramsci who inferred the inevitable consequence of his sick pseudo-ideology:

Socialism is precisely the religion that must overwhelm Christianity. It is a religion in the sense that it, too, is a creed, which has its mystics and its praxis; it is a religion because it has replaced the transcendental God of the Catholics with faith in man and his best energies as the only spiritual reality.

(Antonio Gramsci’s ‘Audacia e fede’, 22 June 1916, at 216 (emphasis in the original; my translation).

Make no mistake, by going after the decaying Lutheran denomination, and by their willing accession to these depravities, one of the weaker links of European heritage is under constant attack.

It is to be replaced by this strange admixture of New Age occultism for a New (Socialist) Man—preferably gender-fluid, I suppose—in a never-ending present. There is, in other words, no more need for the mysteries of Creation and even less for the eschatological endpoint as revealed in the Book of Revelation. All that’s required is some kind of fake ‘service™’ (terms and conditions apply) that brings together people who don’t usually attend church (hence they are utterly dependent on the priest) to enjoy themselves for an hour or so.

What a way to go.