Chris Crowe, professor of English at Brigham Young University, with an emphasis in adolescent literature, said he hasn't come across any concerns by LDS Church leaders or members regarding the Potter series. He also disputes that the books or the movies have caused any adolescent increase in witchcraft.

"For me personally, 'The Wizard of Oz' didn't make people turn to witchcraft," he said, citing a century-old parallel to the Potter phenomenon.

He said the Potter series, books and movies, make a clear distinction between good and evil. Some other witchcraft-oriented productions don't do that.

Crowe stressed that the real-life practice of witchcraft is indisputably evil but sees no harm in the Potter fantasy world, as long as you don't confuse fiction with reality.

"I think the stories are fun to read," he said. "It's become a real phenomenon."

The most recent Potter book was some 700 pages long, and he's convinced it has helped a lot of young readers.

"It's done a lot for reading," Crowe said, noting that it can be a confidence-builder for a young reader to get through such a thick book.

He also said the Potter book series has significantly helped adolescent literature in general, though the Potter books have been ranked highly on the American Library Association's list of "The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books." (The Potter series currently ranks seventh on that list.)

A Penn State researcher also believes there's no harm with the Potter series.

Bill Ellis, associate professor of English and America studies at Penn State's Hazleton campus in University Park, Pa., has said the lure of the occult — especially for teenagers — is a centuries-old phenomenon and is not likely to fade away.

He believes witchcraft, magic and contact with the supernatural are common occurrences — even essential companions of organized religion because they allow the average person to participate in an otherworldly experience.

Ellis wrote a book, "Lucifer Ascending: The Occult in Folklore and Popular Culture," that came out earlier this spring.

The book looks at such things as carrying a rabbit's foot, using a Ouija board to contact the dead and even "Black Bibles."

Ellis believes adolescents have always been fond of nocturnal trysts at graveyards and ritual visits to uncanny places. While some related activities might be a legitimate cause of concern to parents, most are not.

On a whole, Ellis concluded that these practices do not spring from an irrational belief in Lucifer or Satan. Witchcraft also is not a closet counter-religion hostile to Christianity, he said. The occult complements institutionalized religion by opening the realm of myth to the ordinary person, especially those with the least power in society — women, children, the poor and the disenfranchised.

Whatever anyone else says, Pastor Spencer believes Harry Potter is an evil wolf in a wizard's robes who has captured the hearts and minds of unsuspecting victims.

"Satan has peddled Harry Potter to the world as something that is harmless fun. Satan is a great deceiver who is able to make things look good when they are not," the pastor claims. "The forces of evil and wickedness are gaining ground because so many Christians have failed in their duty as a soldier of Jesus Christ and have become entangled in the affairs of this world."

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