10.14.2009 5:48 pm
Halloween Book Burning at Baptist Church to Include Copies of the Bible
By Adam Bodendieck
Special to the Post-Dispatch
Link to original

Update: Since the original posting of this article, The Amazing Grace Baptist Church’s website - which I cite throughout - has become unavailable. In the meantime, I have added new links to other resources when possible.

I thought that the days of churches burning books were long gone, but the Amazing Grace Baptist Church in North Carolina is proving me wrong by hosting an annual event that they call a “Halloween Book Burning.” (see also this story from KWTX.com.)

(As an aside, it’s purely coincidental that both this post and my last had to do with events occurring in North Carolina, lest anyone think I have it in for that particular state.)

If I were to venture a guess as to what might be included on the list of barbecued books, I would probably list the usual suspects - Harry Potter, The Golden Compass, Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, etc.

And while I’m sure the Amazing Grace Baptist Church would be happy to burn those, it’s also burning books by well-known Christian authors, whom the church’s website declare “heretics.” (see also this story from myfoxdc.com.)

Heretics like Billy Graham, Mother Theresa, Rick Warren, Charles Swindoll, James Dobson and John Piper, among others.

But the biggest shocker?

They’re burning copies of the Bible.

Or to be more specific, copies of the Bible that aren’t the King James version, which they consider the end all and be all of Bible translations.

NIV? ESV? NKJV? Satan’s bibles, according to the church website - perversions of God’s word.

The church claims that the Scriptural Basis for the book burning can be found in Acts 19:18-20, which states,

And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.

(Yes, I quoted from the King James version)

The accompanying notes found in the ESV Study Bible (which many Baptists I know use and like, for the record), state

The Greco-Roman world put great stock in magical incantations and spells, often collecting them into books that sold for large sums. Converts in Ephesus brought these relics of their pagan past and held a massive book burning.

This I understand - When one enters into a relationship with Christ, they choose a new way and leave behind their old. Taking into account the time and place, I can see this event in Ephesus as a powerful and appropriate gesture.

But I think it’s a stretch to apply that verse to the actions of the Amazing Grace Baptist Church.

I also can’t help but think that something like this does much more harm than good to those trying to spread the gospel of Christ, if it does any good at all.

We will be serving Bar-b-Que Chicken, fried chicken, and all the sides.

I have an old copy of the NAB, maybe they'll let me in?  :sign-party-time: