Church chat
Aimee from Raindogs highlighted the story of another book burning. It’s Harry Potter, of course. We must “save the children.” The nice thing about it was that she also provided the phone number to the Pastor’s secretary, so that you can let your voice be heard about the felicity of book burning. Feel like annoying small minds? Phone them:
Rhonda is the Pastor’s Secretary: She will tell you all about the night of the “ Holy Bonfire”.
Christ Community Church
(505) 437-4241
2960 Scenic Dr, Alamogordo, NM 88310
Though the event was actually yesterday, I’m sure they’d still love to talk about it. I understand that the line of people who showed up to burn a book was over a quarter of a mile long. According to Aimee, Rhonda quoted scripture, of course, to justify their actions:
Moreover many of those who had become believers came and openly confessed that they had been using magical spells. And a good many of those who formerly practised magic collected their books and burnt them publicly.
Acts 19:18,19 New English Bible, Oxford.
Being the curious type, I had to take a look at the passage to find the context for this biblical support of book burning. It’s really quite interesting. It seems that there were a group of Jewish mystics (Ephesians) who often performed exorcisms. They often called upon the name of Jesus to perform these rites, though they were not Christians. An evil spirit, during one of these exorcisms, rose up and said:
“Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” (Acts 19: 15)
“Who are you?” indeed.
Of course the evil spirit gave them a sound thrashing, and they rushed off and burnt their books. Some of them became Christians, and the Bible also is quick to note what the books were worth: “when the value of the books was calculated, it was found to come to fifty thousand silver coins” (Acts 19:19). I can only hope that these “false mystics” that are burning JK Rowling’s books provide similar financial support to her. They do have to pay for the books they’re burning, after all.
Why don’t people who use the Bible to support such ludicrous actions grasp the irony of yanking words out of context? It was the “magicians” that burned the books, not Paul and the Apostles. “God did extraordinary miracles through Paul . . . and the evil spirits came out of them” (Acts 19: 11). God and his apostles didn’t burn books: only the embarrassed Ephesians did! So, have the people at Christ’s Church been practicing magic, and now they need to atone for their sins?
Sometimes, you’ve just got to laugh. Maybe it’s all the excess nuclear radiation from developing bombs in Alamogordo. Maybe it’s the heat that’s baked their brains. Maybe they just need something fun to do on Sunday. Burning things up is usually the American way to have fun.
