Following the bombshell of Albus Dumbledore, Hogwarts headmaster, coming out of his magical slocet, perhaps no group is so stunned as Christians who had taken the Harry Potter series’s religious theme to their bosom. Travis Prinzi writes a very smart blog looking at Potter from the Christian perspective, and the reaction has been explosive in his comment section:

The problem I’m having with my Christian brothers and sisters is the way in which so many are sitting up nice and high, evaluating and judging Rowling’s version of Christianity, which she freely admits she struggles with, and condemning her for it. Rowling is not a preacher. She is not an ordained minister. She is not writing theological treatises. She is a writer, struggling with her faith, and giving us a story that tells that struggle. She never claimed to be an evangelist, and she’s been quite clear in saying that she was not setting out to do what Lewis did with Narnia.

Prinzi’s sensible advice: nowhere in the books does Dumbledore state his fondness for Judy Garland, so you are still free to view him as the Albus of your own imagination.

More: Colleen Doran, Carla Speed McNeil and Fancois Peneaud (among others) discuss Dumbledore.