The human race has always had a history of being drawn to flame. Among even equally gruesome things, fire as been used as a weapon of destruction. It often seems as if a person, of enough power and the rare times of none at all, can ignite anything that harms or displeases them. Fire has been used as a dangerous tool. It’s brought kingdoms, villages, and many people to their knees.
The history of using fire as a way to rid our society of books goes way back. Probably one of the biggest book burnings known to many, was by the Nazis. On May 13th of 1933 German students set out to show their commitment to the National Socialists (Nazis). A massive book burning was held to burn books or documents that did not fit with the Nazi ideology. This was not only a way to remove Jews and political opponents, but also to scare Germany’s intellectual community. It does not stop there however. Many big, bad leaders of Germany were involved. Important information was “lost” or as many think purposely disposed of.
Lots of people believe that book burning is a thing of the past in America. Book burnings are still happening today. It would not be wrong to say that a majority of them have a religious reason. One of the most burned books of the day is J.K. Rollings, Harry Potter Series. A very opinionated church, Landover Baptist Church, wrote,
“As most Christians already know, the Harry Potter book series is the most evil and dangerous set of books to be released this century. "The Potter series is worse than pornography. The books are even more dangerous than the Satanic Bible," reports Pastor Deacon Fred, "At least with the Satanic Bible, young people know that the book was written by Satan. The Devil just changed his name to J.K. Rowling this time." The release of the fifth book in the Harry Potter series has been delayed because Christians have been praying to God that he will send angels to scramble Satan's brain and force him to admit Rowling's spent body to a mental hospital so that the whole series will never be completed.”
Of course, not all religions are like this, but many churches today support book burnings. While many of the religions I have come face to face with support peace, I believe this goes to show that you cannot put all religions, especially Christians, into the same peaceful category.
There are many people who disagree with what the Landover Baptist Church wrote. Thomas Quinn, a twice Emmy-nominated documentary writer/producer, wrote a differentiating opinion compared to the Landover Baptist Church.
“Rather than rise above all this, religions too often fan the flames and even ignite the spark. The media, the clergy, and other polite company act as if book-burning were always a perversion of “real” religion, which is always redefined to include the nice stuff and conveniently ignore the nasty stuff. What the history shows is that book-burning is the pastime of authoritarians, and since religions are authoritarian by nature (unelected wise men dictate the rules and run the show), whenever churches get up a head of steam, some of their more ardent cheerleaders jump the shark.
There is also the fact that monotheistic religions are in the business of saying, “Here’s the Truth. If you’re not on board, you’re part of the problem.” It literally demonizes the opposition and regards compromise with non-believers as sinister. Alien beliefs are seen as an existential threat. All this tends to rev people up and, once the other guys are successfully labeled “Evil,” it’s easy to toss another holy book on the barbie.”
As seen above, book burning is not a thing of the past, and will mostly likely become a bigger problem in the future. Fire is a destructive tool used to turn works of art into piles of ash.
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