Here we go again, Church has Harry Potter book burning party

[Bluebear]

CNN video: "New Harry Potter Panic"
http://video/us/2005/07/16/phillips.new.potter.panic.cnn

...I don't want anyone to go to hell, and the bible says if people use sorcery and witchcraft they will go to hell," says Pastor Tommy Turner. (Of Jesus Church, a Holy-Ghost-Anointed church, of Greenville, Michigan.)

He says stories like Harry Potter that glorify wizardry and sorcery will lead people to accept and believe in Satan. So he organized a book burning. Parishoners like Linda Stubblefield are happy to see the fire glowing bright. She says she wants to protect her four kids.

"They're learning what they see and what they read," she says.

The younger members of the church agree too. Kristi Eastman says many books teach that sorcery is okay.

"I'm very strongly against witchcraft... because I know it's not of God and I do everything God wants."

http://members.aol.com/damysticalmuggle/HPbookburning.html

[jsamuel]

1. SHE Turned me into a NEWT!!!

It got betta...

[Bluebear]

4. *POOF*

[Richard Steele]

8. ACK! The goggles do NOTHIIIING!!

[TlalocW]

2. If only witchcraft really existed

Then maybe these morons would have a point.

TlalocW

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Seriously

[CoffeeCat]

5. What's next...

will they ban dancing?

Did we learn nothing from Footloose?

:)

[Roon]

6. Book burning

How nazi-like..

[SalmonChantedEvening]

7. I'm-a-headin ta Barnes n Noble with my Dunkin Stool!!

Egads, we are becoming a truly backward nation. :(

[Ishoutandscream2]

9. How sad. It's great to see kids getting excited about books

Waiting in line for the midnight sale of a book instead of, say, a video game or a new cd.

This is just another example of the right trying to keep the populace ignorant. To them, there is only one book to read - the Bible. Everything else must be satanic (unless, of course, it is a Christian friendly book).

By the way, southern bashers, notice that this just doesn't happen in our neck of the woods. There are crazy fundies EVERYWHERE!

[FreedomAngel82]

32. It is sad

I remember a couple of years ago when Harry Potter was getting real popular here we were visiting my great-grandma before she died (my dad's grandmother) and a cousin of mine had a Harry Potter book and she was reading it the whole time she was there. These people are doing everything wrong. Totally ridiculous. And my cousin and her family are Christians too like most of my family is. All you have to do is tell them that it's make believe and not real. :eyes: Good grief. On the local news here they showed a local bookstore lined up with kids and kids in costumes and things like that. It is great to see kids excited about reading and using their imiginations. These people are just ridiculous and have no lives at all.

[Mythsaje]

10. Now if I can just convince them

they need to do that with MY books too.

"Feel free to buy and burn as many copies as you like."

:evilgrin:

[DanCa]

11. The church is name is "Holy Ghost"

I find it ironic that it has a ghost in the title.

[jsamuel]

13. as Leno says, Liberals believe in Ghosts 2 times as much as Conservatives

[FreedomAngel82]

34. Yep

You don't see athiest's or any other groups going around wanting to burn and ban the Bible. :eyes: There's a lot of stuff in there that could be considered magick. Good grief. There's wars, sex, miracles.... Give me a break.

[xxqqqzme]

12. wait a minute, wait a minute, wait just a minute

these people go out and plunk down $29.95 or whatever a Harry Potter book costs these days - just so they can rip it up and BURN IT! If they R not burning Potter books, why 'NSync CDs? (what does THAT have 2 do w/ Harry). Or is this just a community burn - do they need a permit? - where U can jusy show up 'n burn anything U don't want anymore - old boy/girl friend pictures - isn't THAT a little witch crafty?

[johncoby2]

14. If she weighs as much as a duck..........

Shes a WITCH! BUUUUUUURN Her!

--Monty Python. The Holy Grail. (for you younger folks)

[tnlefty]

29. Have you ever seen the hiliarious spoof of this, The Quest for

the Oily Grail, at www.toostupidtobepresident.com?

[sonicx]

15. where's your picture of the...

fundie praying?

[Bluebear]

23. You rang?

[greblc]

52. "She looks like a witch"

[noamnety]

16. Are they going to burn everything they disagree with?

If so, I'm going to invest heavily in matches and lighter fluid.

[RagAss]

17. Gee that really hurt sales.....n/t

[NYC Liberal]

18. I'd be willing to bet a lot they haven't even read the books

Anyone else?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

19. their God concept appears to be very small

if they think that Satan is a being equal to or stronger than God. They would probably have a fit if they realized the concept of Satan came from the Babylonians, and that the early books of the Old Testament ascribed everything as coming from God. But then Satan is a good tool to use to control others through fear, as I think is happening here.

[FreedomAngel82]

35. Of course

Satan used to be an angel himself but he was a rebel and a trouble maker so God sent him down to earth and gave him hell. You can't claim God created everything and then turn around and blame Satan as well. :eyes: God created Satan too.

[Must_B_Free]

20. Sorcery is evil. God wants Christians to burn books.

See, nothing pleases God as well as a goup of loyal believers standing in a circle around a flaming pile of books.

[movonne]

21. They have to buy the books to burn them..making money for someone.

[MountainLaurel]

22. Onward Christian soldiers

Books today, people tomorrow.

[mzteris]

24. But they LIKE

Lord of the Rings! They think it is a treatis on Good and Evil. (Which is what HPotter is.. sheesh.....)

They also like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (which I thought was kinda sick, btw....)

[Sgent]

33. The lion the witch and the wardrobe

Was written by one of the more famous modern apologists in Christiantiy. In addition, the Chronicles of Narnia (which LWW is a part of), was written by the author to be a fun and exciting parallel for the bible, intended to be used in recruitment.

[FreedomAngel82]

38. Oy

Oh brother.

[undeterred]

25. Harry Potter, Homosexuality, and Halloween BAD

Pre-emptive war, Treason, and Torture NO BIG DEAL

Its the death of moral reasoning.

[kestrel91316]

26. (taps on Pastor Turner's shoulder)............ ahem:

all the folks "practicing sorcery" in this book are FICTIONAL CHARACTERS in a work of FICTION.

You Do know what FICTION is, right?

[Bluebear]

51. I like the viusal :)

[longship]

27. Hear this!!!

Fundie Christians are worried about the souls of fictional characters!!!

[longship]

28. Let's buy more, so we can burn them!!!!

Buy more....Burn!

Buy more.... Burn!!

Buy more... Burn!

BUY MORE... BURN!!!!

Mwa-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HAAAAAAAA!

BUY! BUY! BUY!! BURN! BURN! BURN!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

30. Is their God so weak and ineffectual that he can be defeated

by a children's book? Do they have so little confidence in their own faith that they believe one could be "seduced" away from God by a work of fiction? I just came back frm buying my copy of the new HP book. Guess I'll be seeing all you guys in Hell.

[FreedomAngel82]

39. Obviously not

I also read "Charmed", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," Christopher Pike book's and "Queen of the Damned". I've seen the first two Harry Potter movies. I guess I'm going to hell too by their notion. :eyes:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

31. Good!! I love it when they expose themselves for what they are.

Close cousins of the Taliban.

[Cha]

36. Guess whose going to Hell?

Cretins who say other People "are going to Hell"!!

[WolverineDG]

37. Unless they violated the Commandment

"thou shalt not steal," those dip-sticks had to BUY all those books they burned. :dunce:

I have come to the conclusion that the only reason these fundies praise LOTR while bashing Harry Potter is that LOTR was written by a man. IMO, LOTR is much more dark & gory than Harry Potter & I never could get more than 20 pages into it....it's not my "thing."

dg

[More Than A Feeling]

40. I think in their minds, every book that isn't explicitly Christian

is a competitor with the Bible for the hearts and minds of the people. Especially ones that they think are offering special powers in return for belief in them.

The Evangelical vision of the way society should be is in the minority, and they know it. Its why they constantly claim to be persecuted. I can see how deep insecurity would cause such people to lash out at every perceived threat, especially if their children might end up enjoying it.

My guess is that they would be better off learning to accept their insecurity, dependency, and finitude, and accept God's grace, rather than being such control freaks. After all, Jesus repeatedly commanded his followers to "be not afraid".

[cynatnite]

41. The CNN link did not work

I'm looking for other sources beside this. Can anyone help?

[Bluebear]

47. Sorry about that, try this:

www.cnn.com

"Watch free video" (right hand side, green box), choose "browse/search"

Select "Not everyone's a Harry Potter fan"

[leesa]

42. How about if they murder 100,000+ Iraqis? Do they go to hell for that?

[Vinca]

43. If only we could turn Pastor Tommy and his following into frogs.

And then, of course, sell the lot of 'em to a French restaurant!:rofl:

[0rganism]

44. Great! The controversy will boost sales

People who otherwise wouldn't buy a Harry Potter book will now pick it up just to see what's so wrong with it, or to defy the ultra-Christianists. The foolios with their book burnings (which, presumably, they had to buy as well) probably wouldn't have bothered reading it anyway.

[cynatnite]

45. Article is almost two years old

I was looking for the video and there is nothing. I did find this which indicates its age:

http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm15739_20030805.htm

[Bluebear]

48. See CNN above, perhaps they repeat their "ritual" for new volumes

This aired yesterday on CNN.

[cynatnite]

53. Thanks n/t

[msongs]

46. moses turned a staff into a snake. Sounds like sorcery to me! n/t

[lolly]

50. And therein lies the problem, methinks

Reading a book of fiction about magic, sorcery, miracles, and sorcery might bring people to recognize the magic, sorcery, and miracles in another famous book as, frankly, fiction.

These people have to believe that magic is real; if it isn't, their little fantasy world isn't real. The rest of us can read Harry Potter and understand the difference between fantasy and reality; they can't.

[Initech]

49. Wow, that's pretty stupid logic...

Because they already bought the fucking books! JK Rowling still gets the money for it!

Really, they're not helping their cause.

[greblc]

54. I think their battle is against pop culture in general.

Wasn't there some Child Sex Abuse scandal in the Catholic Church recently? And are we to believe Sex Abuse happens only in the Catholic Denomination. Aren't there major corporations who have investments in porn? Doesn't the Roman Catholic Church have diverse stock portfolios? With investments in some of these same corporations. Maybe they should burn their skin mags and sex toys on the door steps of these corporations?or the Cathedrals?

Is hypocrisy a sin? Let's hope so.