I love cathedrals.

They are hands down the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen. This is Salisbury Cathedral in England. It is the home of the Magna Carta and undoubtably a holy space. I visit as many as I can. I leave feeling fresh and ready but then I run into other humans. Humans are hard sometimes.

Lots of people ask.

How can you be a Christian and write what you do? Witches and spells and ghosts and all that? I have a different answer every time, but they’re all true.

• Witchcraft is fiction, but God is for real.

  I grew up reading Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia and those books may tell a story, but they’re not real. I think all too often magic in books gets judged to be evil or demonic, but it’s not. It’s a just a vehicle. Is a car evil? No. Can you do major damage with one? Yes, and then some.

• Magic is a vehicle.

  Adding magic to my books lets me ask the questions I really want to answer like, “What would you do if you had unlimited power?” In Phantom Elements, the witches do have incredible powers of nature, but they deplete if used improperly and they only get new powers by proving that they will use them for good.

• It’s all about marketing.

  Have you ever been to a “fall festival”? Come on. That’s Bible Belt slang for Halloween. It’s the same thing. But it’s not bad. The community comes together to put on an event for the kids (and kids at heart). How bad can that be? Think of all the things we have today that would be considered “magical” back in the day. The internet, the microwave, the TV, all of these are vehicles and can be used for good or evil. If you’ve ever had a microwave pot pie… I’m not saying that’s evil, but it’s not good.

• Middle of the night, or middle of the day?

  Maybe I’m wrong, maybe even a breath of the word “magic” is wrong, but Jesus gave the wrong a chance to explain themselves. Maybe I am drawing water from the well in the middle of the day, but He would still talk to me. I pray. I’ve asked. I think it’s okay.

It’s always good vs. evil.

Just make sure you’re setting yourself up to go against the real evil in the world. My pastor (whom I adore) once said, “As Christians, we spend 95% of our time arguing about the 5% of things we don’t agree upon.” Sometimes I feel like I fall into that 5%. Is magic evil? It can be, but I’m choosing to drive that car to good, into a light place where young people choose good over evil, where family is everything, and where faith always wins.

Thank you for letting me explain.

Curiously Yours,

Jennifer