One church in Canton, N.C., “celebrated” Halloween in a special way this past weekend. You might have seen the reports about it in the AP or in hundreds of blogs.
Amazing Grace Baptist Church planned a book burning on Oct. 31. According to their website, the event was a success. Non-church members, including the media, were shut out of the event, which was held inside (how did that work, with all that fire?).
The church destroyed all sorts of music, from secular to Southern and Contemporary Gospel. (They claim the Gaither Vocal Band is “worldly” and supports gays.) On their list of “Satan’s books” to destroy were works by “heretics” like Billy Graham, Rick Warren, James Dobson, Chuck Colson, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swagart, Franklin Graham, Tim Lahaye, Paula White, T.D. Jakes, Benny Hinn, Joyce Myers, Mother Teresa, The Pope, and others. The church also burned several versions of Bibles newer than the King James Version, which they claim is the one of only a few accurate versions of Scripture.
But what really makes this situation less scary than funny is exactly how the church celebrated: With fellowship and a meal: “We will be serving fried chicken, and all the sides,” their website said.
The church heard from some of the authors they were condemning, including evangelist James White.
Attempting to defend himself in the face of this fundamentalist lunacy, White wrote: “Instead of burning my book, Pastor Grizzard, I would challenge you to read it, with an open mind, realizing that the author is not some liberal heretic, but a Bible-believing, inerrancy defending Baptist who has defended the faith against a very wide variety of opponents, including atheists, Muslims, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and real theological liberals. Think about it.”
Their both crazy. Just in different ways. And one definitely more so than the other.
But, at the end of the day after centuries of “progression,” I guess we can be thankful for crazy fundamentalists’ shift from burning people to burning books.
Oh… and something other Christians might find hilarious (and somewhat sad) about these group of folks: Their “doctrinal statement” begins unlike most other Christian statements the world over. Instead of exalting belief in God, Amazing Grace Baptist Church places the Bible in a scarily idolatrous position at the very beginning of their statement: “We Believe That The Bible Is The Word Of God, just like it says. We believe that the King James Bible is the Word of God. All sixty-six books of the Bible are complete. We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the verbally and plenary inspired Word of God. We believe that the KJV is inspired of God. We reject that the KJV is “reinspired or double inspiration.” The Scriptures are inerrant, infallible, perfect, pure, inspired Word of God. That God has preserved His Word from the beginning of time. Therefore, the Bible is our final authority concerning all matters of faith and practice. The Scriptures shall be interpreted according to their normal grammatical-historical meaning, and all issues of interpretation and meaning shall be determined by the preacher. The King James Version of the Bible shall be the official and only translation used by this website in preaching, teaching, and all printed literature (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21). We reject all other versions that are based on the critical text (A&B) underlying them such as the NIV, NASV, NKJV, TEV, ESV, UBST, RSV, along with others such as TLB, The Evidence Bible, The Message, etc.”
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:56 am
Man, stuff like this makes me miss living in Haywood County.
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:51 am
I think one phrase in that quote scares me most of all:
…and all issues of interpretation and meaning shall be determined by the preacher.
By the preacher alone? With no checks and balances? That’s giving way too much power to a single man, in my opinion.
To be blunt, that’s how dangerous cults get started.
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:54 am
I’m also amazed at some of the names that made it to the list of books to be burned. Dobson? Lahaye? Roberts? Hinn? Okay, those last two are probably due to the Baptist distrust of Pentecostalism. But these are some pretty conservative names.
But hey, if these people want to burn books, that’s their choice. As long as they own the books they’re burning. When they try to start burning my books, they’ll find me less agreeable.
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Come to think of it… Wouldn’t they have had to buy all these books in order to have them for their burning pleasure? If their point was to stop these men and women from preaching and writing, why not encourage a boycott, instead of encouraging people to buy their stuff, fork over the cash. If I were Roberts, I’d be like, “Oh, okay. Burn all my books. You still have to buy them and I’m still getting rich!”
It makes no sense.
The church I grew up in had one of these book and cd and music burning parties. I didn’t go. I bet it took less than two weeks for most of the teenagers to regret burning all their escapes from the insanity.
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:19 pm
I agree with you about them still paying for the books. In fact, back when burning Harry Potter books was somewhat regular, I’d often comment that J.K. Rowling must be laughing all the way to the bank each time she hears about such an incident.
Granted, I find the thought of a Harry Potter book being burned slightly more tragic than a Robertson book, but hey.
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:54 am
Hey, if the KJV was good enough for Jesus, then it is good enough for me. LOL
Seriously, think of the children indoctrinated into this group of quacks. Pray for their deliverance.
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:45 am
“…shall be determined by the preacher…” is the stuff horror movies are made from. Who will run this church once the preacher is gone (one way or another)? I wonder if they paid for these books BEFORE they burned them. Crazy.