Address of R.W. Jeffrey L. Froud
on His Official Visit to Algonquin Lodge, January, 2001

Differences

Those of you who have a pre teenage child, grandchild, niece or nephew in the family may have heard quite a bit about Harry Potter around Christmas. He is the title character in a series of children’s books and I would like to tell you a bit about them.

The Harry Potter stories centre on the life of a young boy who has been born a wizard. In his fictional world, the talent for wizardry is ordinarily inherited. However, there are wizards whose parents are non wizards, or "muggles." Also, some children of wizards are born with no capacity for wizardry.

Harry’s parents were killed by an evil wizard when he was a baby and he was raised by his muggle aunt and uncle. For their own reasons, they concealed his wizard background from him. However, on the eve of his eleventh birthday, the wizards of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry successfully recruited him to their school, in spite of the aunt and uncle’s vigorous resistance.

Last summer, it was reported that the fourth book in the series was coming out in the largest initial printing of any book in history. On the release date, there were television interviews with 8 and 10 year-old children who, accompanied by their parents, were waiting in line at bookstores for the midnight deadline to purchase Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. This struck me as more like the behaviour of teenage rock fans than pre teen book buyers.

That a children’s book should enjoy such popularity, in this age of television, video games and the Internet, and that these books could have a marketing power comparable to those of John Grisham and Stephen King, really caught my attention.

However, it was only when I heard reports of parent groups and school boards criticizing and even banning these books, that I became curious about the stories themselves. I have read them all, and I can report that I found not a trace of evidence to support the suggestion that these stories promote devil-worship.

What struck me as remarkable was the portrayal of Harry’s non wizard adoptive family, the Dursleys.

Exaggerating the loathsome qualities of the villains to enhance the positive aspects of the hero is common, in popular entertainment. However, the Dursleys are not the villains of these stories and their depiction in these novels strikes me as exceptionally derogatory. What the author has depicted are people who are so afraid of the wizards’ world, because of vast ignorance of its nature and jealousy of its power, that they treat Harry in a truly despicable fashion.

The way other identifiable groups are treated in these stories led me to believe that they contain a message that we Masons should think about.

There are many ways in which opinions are influenced by a lack of understanding of the other side of the issue. I would suggest that the first step in approaching such issues should be to ask, "Why are they different from me?"

This can be a challenge. All too often, it is easier to just sluff it off, like the old joke, "The rich are different from you and me - they have more money than we do!"

Masons are usually members of the establishment and as such, are comfortable with the society in which we live. The pressing social problems of discrimination and marginalization are more keenly felt by others.

Yet, when we look beyond our own familiar surroundings, we see that Masons are accused of all sorts of heinous plots and crimes. We know, from our Masonic experience, that these accusations have no justification. Therefore, they can only be attributed to the ignorance and, perhaps, envy of our accusers.

Now, I invite you to place yourself in that fantasy world where Harry Potter and his friends reside. There, we "normal" folk live side by side with a populace with magical powers. Their own code of conduct prohibits them from interfering in our affairs and, in consequence, they conceal their supernatural powers and mystic activities from us. However, most of us know they exist. They could be our friends, our neighbours - even our relatives.

Would we react as Harry’s foster parents did? Mrs. Dursley’s sister, Harry’s mother, was an accomplished witch. Mrs. Dursley resented the pride their non-wizard parents took in her success in a field that Mrs. Dursley was prevented, by an accident of birth, from pursuing. When her sister was killed, she took baby Harry into her home but did all in her power to favour her own child by showering him with attention and material possessions. She denied Harry any sense of belonging in her home and any contact with his wizard’s heritage. Mr. Dursley is ignorant of the nature of the wizard world, describes wizards as "freaks" and will stop at nothing to achieve his vow to prevent Harry from having any knowledge of wizardry.

This seems harsh. Yet, it was not all that long ago that our own society thought the solution to the social problems of our native people was to place their children in white-run boarding schools. There, they were disconnected from their own heritage so they could be enculturated with the values of our dominant civilization.

This was not done from any malice toward the native culture. It was intended to prepare the children to live more comfortably in the society which dominates our land. Now, years later, we find that this apparent solution was spectacularly unsuccessful, while it created a situation in which the children were often victimized by those charged with their care.

I find this an impressive parallel. Clearly, good intentions are not enough when we attempt to deal with those different from ourselves. A greater familiarity with and understanding of their needs is demanded.

In the Potter books, the author shows the wizard world as being superior to the muggle world. Their Ministry of Magic, which governs the wizards, strongly prohibits the use of magic to harm muggles or interfere with their society.

Is this another parallel? Do we, as Masons, consider ourselves superior to non-Masons? If so, are we wrong to do so, or does it just impose a duty on us not to harm non-Masons? Although nothing like the magical powers of wizards, we too have great power which must be exercised responsibly.

We have a right to our privacy. We also have an obligation to dispel whatever fear non Masons may have for our order, as a result of their ignorance of its true nature. We cannot defeat those who maliciously misrepresent our principals, but we can confound their stratagems by disclosing the truth.

These are complex issues, entangled with the universal problems of racism, religious bigotry, sexual discrimination and other forms of bias and prejudice that bedevil civilization throughout the world. It exceeds our capacity to resolve them tonight.

We should, however, remember that the Harry Potter books are not about these things. They are about empowering children in an adult dominated society, by offering them a fantasy world where kids can obtain justice when they are wronged. They are about recognizing that people aren’t always what they appear. They are about the need for tolerance of those different from us.

I am glad that there are books like these, that teach such lessons to children in an entertaining way.

However, mere tolerance is not sufficient for the truly enlightened man. Masons are charged to not only practice the social and moral virtues but to explore the hidden mysteries of nature and science. We are instructed to develop the divine attributes with which God has endowed us, so as to show forth His glory and contribute the happiness of mankind. We must, therefore, take that additional step, beyond tolerance, to understanding.

In doing so, we do not have to study heavy texts or ponderous prose. Even children’s stories like the Harry Potter books, when approached with an open and enquiring mind, can provide food for thought, light entertainment and, I found, enhance your popularity with a niece who thinks it’s "so neat" that you read the same books she does!

Thank you, Brethren.

Here are a few of the many Harry Potter links on the Web: