the Church.” Of course, they don’t mindrndramas or Cliristian rock during the worshiprnservice. But Rowling’s books haverntouched a nerve in Enghsh Christendom;rnHke Halloween, Harry Potter hasrnbecome a symbol of the latent New Age,rnneo-occultist movement, waiting to devourrnthe children of the kingdom.rnAmerican Christians have been onrnone distracting crusade after anotherrnsince the days of temperance and Prohibition.rnOf late, however, the method ofrnattack against popular culture has shiftedrnfrom search-and-destroy missions to assimilationrnenterprises. W’Tien young peoplernwere threatened (or so evangelicalsrnbelieved) by garbled backmasked messagesrnsuch as “get the gun” in Ozzy Osbourne’srn”Suicide Solution” and “somernof us smoke marijuana” in Queen’s “AnotherrnOne Bites the Dust,” Christianrnrock bands such as Petra emerged, playingrnchurches and youth crusades. Nowrneven Billy Graham cannot have a televisedrnmeeting without Christian rockrnartists Michael W. Smith or DC Talk appearing.rnThe inevitable “Christian” Harn,’ Potterrnseries will emerge sometime next yearrnfrom Baker, Zondervan, or Sparrow—rnunless Sparrow’s Bible Man fills the longingsrnof young would-be-Potterites. BiblernMan is played by washed-up teen heartthrobrn(now middle-aged and overweight)rnWillie Aames oi Eight Is Enough andrnCharles in Charge fame. Wearing yellowrntights and using pyrotechnics, Aamesrnquotes Scripture verses from the New InternationalrnVersion of the Bible, defeatingrnenemies such as Dr. Decepto andrnMadame Glitz.rnThere was a time when Christendomrnencouraged a belief in elves and fairies,rnand Chesterton even said that it helpedrnto develop young imaginations capablernof believing in more than what can bernseen or proven through scientific theory.rnC.S. Lewis enriched young minds andrnimaginations through his Chronicles ofrnNamia series, and Tolkien through hisrnLord of the Rings, both of which hadrnhefty doses of fantasy, talking animals,rnmagic, and wizards.rnRowling is, to be sure, not a Christian,rnand Harry Potter is not looking for anyrntype or shadow of Jesus Christ in thernwardrobe. Christian parents probablyrnshould shield their children from HarryrnPotter, though perhaps with less fanfare.rnThere is a danger of overstating the case.rnKids who are already immersed in thernworld of American popular culture willrnsay, “What’s the big deal?” Satan does notrnemerge from the Potter books or fromrnbackwardly masked LPs—at least, not thernSatan they are looking for. Satan, thoughrnunderneath a roaring lion, is more subtlernthan any beast of the field, preferring tornuse channels such as Christian superstarrnAmy Grant to raise the question, “DidrnGod really say ‘Thou shalt not commitrnadultery?'”rnRich cultural catechization at the earliestrnstages of life will yield an adolescentrnwho could easily read a page or two ofrnPotter, laugh at the silly neopaganism,rnand toss it into the burn pile. Either way,rnlife is too precious and short to waste ourrnchildren’s time on AmericanAVesternrnpop culture —Christianized or not.rn-Aaron D. WolfrnMoLDOVA’S PARTITION may bernimminent. While the U.S. Embassy inrnMoscow denied that American spooksrnand the Organization for Security andrnCooperation in Europe (OSCE) intendrnto divide that tiny country, the denial itselfrnwas enough to convince most Russianrnand Moldovan/Rumanian patriotsrnthat the plan is probably already underrnway.rnThe State Department was reacting torna September 23 article in Izvestiya,rnwhich claimed that talks between Russiarnand Moldova on the fate of the breakawayrn”Dniester Moldovan Republic”rnhad broken down because of a “secretrnplan” to hand Moldova over to Rumaniarnand the Dniester region to Ukraine.rn(The “Dniester Republic,” sometimes referredrnto as Transdnistria, is a predominatelyrnSlavic, Russian-speaking region,rnhi 1940, it was fused with the former Rumanianrnprovince of Bessarabia to formrnthe Soviet Republic of Moldova.)rnAccording to Izvestiya, the plan wouldrninvolve annexation of the Dniester regionrnby a nationalist Ukraine. The paperrnalso implied that the West is backing thernresurgent Ukrainian nationalist movementrnin pro-NATO Western Ukraine asrna prelude to further NATO expansion.rnAs it did in Kosovo, however, NATO willrnexploit nationalism only tactically: Thernreal aim is the unconditional removal ofrnthe Russian 14th Army from the Dniesterrnregion, paving the way for an eventualrnN A T O military presence. Meanwhile, arnsuitably tamed and reunited Rumaniarnwould be absorbed into the OSCE andrneventually the European Union. Thernprice, of course, would be the eradicationrnof a distinct Rumanian identib,-.rnIzvestiya also claimed that the WestrnThe denter that Holds:rnThe Church asrnSeat of Wisdomrnat the Turn of the MillenniumrnFetoryiry 16-18, 2001rnMarqueite UniversityrnMilwaui