A Good Ol' Fashioned Book Burning

I had read about the wackos in Canton, North Carolina who are going to have a book burning on Halloween night the other day. Ah, but this isn't just any ol' book burning where they burn Harry Potter or something. No, they're going to burn Bibles and other Christian writings instead.

I didn't get around to writing about it until now. Part of this is probably because it came as no surprise to me. I grew up not far from where these people are. Do not for a moment think that this is some kind of minority in a microcosm of Christianity in this area. Western North Carolina is full of these types, so keep this in mind when the media is sure to say that their church has "only" fourteen members. I have met a good many who believe exactly what they do. They believe the KJV of the Bible is the only version acceptable. If you try to have a rational conversation with them and discuss the history of the Bible, how it came to be, how it was translated, their response will be "that's the devil talking." I'm not making this shit up, I have actually had people say that very line to me. Speaking of a lack of understanding about biblical scholarship, I have come across people who have told me point blank that the Bible was written by Jesus himself. Again, you can't reason with these people, or have a rational conversation. If you don't agree with them, it's all Satan's fault.

Apparently, everyone is very interested in these people, because their site has evidently exceeded it's bandwidth and is down. Yay for the wayback machine. It was stated on their main page:

We believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and it is our final authority in all matters. We believe in teaching “no other doctrine”, like Paul told Timothy, and that is our stand. We stand on God’s Word and not man ideas or “scholarship.” We make no apology for our stand. We are an old fashion Independent Fundamental Baptist Church.

In other words, they don't like education or studying. Their followers are to follow, not question, and do so blindly. Apparently they mock the god that they believe gave them a brain complete with the capacity for critical thinking skills. They don't trust their own brain, or anything that can be learned from "scholarship", but rather put their trust in the often incoherent writings of semi-nomadic pastoralists who thought that the earth was flat and that the stars were permanently pasted into the night sky.

I find book burnings, of any book, whether I agree with it or not, abhorrent. These people are ignorant, so much so, that they have no idea that when they say they're going to burn books, that the first thing most educated people think is "like the Nazis". Well, except for me, but then I'm weird. I automatically think of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Idiots.


The picture at the beginning of this entry is of the Dominicans tossing Catholic and Cathar books into a fire. Of course the Catholic ones floated away from the flames while the Cathar ones were consumed. 15th century painting by Pedro Berruguete after a legend from the 13th century. The picture on the left is of the Nazis burning books.