Sure. I know of at least one cozy mystery series in which the amateur sleuth is a fallen-away Catholic who “discovers” that she has empathic powers and apprentices as a Wiccan while solving murders. There are other popular novels out there that present occult practitioners as everything from lovable eccentrics to admirable heroes and heroines. By and large, this is more of a problem in adult fiction than in children’s fiction, but there is sufficient cause for concern for parents to monitor their children’s reading.
The problem is that some adults apparently do not know the difference between the fantasy magic of Harry Potter and the occult magick of the drugstore potboilers. They read about someone waving around a wand and are convinced, without further evidence or reflection, that This Book Is Evil. Even when they are correct that a book actually does contain a positive portrayal of characters who practice the occult, they presume that means the book cannot be read by anyone, when it may be that it could be read by some people but not by others. (For example, those adults who have dabbled in the occult themselves are correct to avoid novels and other entertainment that may be a temptation to them to return to occult practices, but that does not mean other adults share those same temptations.)
What is needed, I think, is for concerned adults to become better informed critics of the books they read and the books they screen for their children.
