Scottish Christian.com

Home > News > Scottish Christian News Monitor

Rowling: "Yes, I go to church"

As part of the release of the Dutch translation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, author J.K. Rowling has given a new interview to the Dutch newspaper The Volkskrant. The very lengthy interview lightly touches on several topics such as the Weasley family, her family, as well as features some in depth and very frank conversation about religion and religious themes found in the last book.

Were you raised religiously?

I was officially raised in the Church of England, but I was actually more of a freak in my family. We didn't talk about religion in our home. My father didn't believe in anything, neither did my sister. My mother would incidentally visit the church, but mostly during Christmas. And I was immensely curious. From when I was 13, 14 I went to church alone. I found it very interesting what was being said there, and I believed in it.When I went to university, I became more critical. I got more annoyed with the smugness of religious people and I went to church less and less. Now I'm at the point where I started: yes, I believe. And yes, I go to the church. A protestant church here in Edinburgh. My husband is also raised protestant, but he comes from a very strict Scottish group. One where they couldn't sing and talk.

That you yourself go to church only makes the harsh criticism of your work by religious fanatics even more bizarre.

The past ten years there have always been fundamentalists who've had problems with my books. The fact that they feature magic and witchcraft is already enough, they despise them. I want nothing to do with fundamentalism, of any sort; it scares me. The Christian fundamentalists are especially active in the United States. One time I have been face to face with such a person. I was in a toy store with my children and I was recognized by a girl who got all excited. The next thing that happened was that a man came up to me and said 'Aren't you that Potter woman? After which he brought his face close to me and said very aggressively: 'I pray for you every evening.' I should have said that he'd better pray for himself, but I was stunned. It was very frightening.

Full story at The Leaky Cauldron.