The Amazing Grace Baptist Church, which consists of Pastor Marc Grizzard and his parish of 14, will soon host book burnings in North Carolina.Book burning may seem an archaic form of censorship, and its effectiveness has been lost due to modern printing techniques; however, it is still used today as more of a psychological tool to shock people, as Amazing Grace Baptist Church has demonstrated. Even though the actions of the church are upsetting, they are only exercising their freedom of speech and expression. Ultimately, what they are doing is irrelevant. This church isn’t capable of forcibly taking and burning everyone’s books in America and this book burning isn’t going to start a movement with anyone who is level-headed. They are a fringe group vying for attention. The church believes that several books contain hidden satanic messages and perversions. Not only do they burn fictional books for entertainment purposes, but also other versions of the Bible, saying, “We believe that the KJV [King James Version of the Bible] is inspired of God. We reject that the KJV is ‘reinspired or double inspiration.'”However, Grizzard stresses on his site that they are not necessarily implying that all other Bibles are satanic perversions, just all that are translated in any different fashion.
Grizzard’s book burning ceremony is actually being performed for the first time this year, since a previous planned book burning last year fell through. As it turns out, burning an enormous pile of books in Canton, N.C. is illegal. So, undeterred, the parish held a “book tearing” inside of their church.”All the protesters and media got wet; we were inside where it was nice and dry,” Amazing Grace said in a prepared statement regarding the ceremony.There was criticism from the media that the church’s faithful were hiding from the media and their opposition by staying in their church during the event. Their response was that they were respecting the law. Now, in 2010, the Amazing Grace Baptist Church plans to hold a literal book burning instead of a symbolic book tearing. Not wanting to limit themselves, they are also burning what they find to be offensive movies and music, which covers a broad spectrum. For music, the church has listed what they believe to be ungodly within the genres of Christian, country, rap, rock and southern gospel. Regarding movies, they have targeted an impressive array of titles, including essentially everything to come out of Hollywood, or the church’s name for it: “Follywood.”This year, the church refuses to publish or even disclose the time and place it will burn or destroy, by whatever means, the books and other offending media, due to last year’s public outcry and media circus. Grizzard claimed he and his church are not doing this for media attention, but for the attention of everyone else. Therefore, the time and place is being kept secret.Since they are planning on actually burning books this year, even though it is still illegal, the church does have a legal workaround. In North Carolina, a permit that is available that permits open-air burnings in rural areas, such as a forest or in nearby areas, which is most likely where the burning ceremony will take place.There has been an outcry against what the pastor is doing, and many have drawn parallels to the infamous Nazi book burnings or Ray Bradbury’s fictional novel “Fahrenheit 451,” in which book burning becomes a celebrated practice in society. In a blog entry, Michael Lieberman went so far as to say, “I wonder how many people will be in the white robe with the pointy white hat costume.”I am not defending Grizzard or his parish’s practices, but if he legally obtains a permit to burn materials the church legally came to possess out in the woods somewhere in North Carolina, that is his First Amendment right. The church is expressing its opinion that this material shouldn’t exist. Sure, it is shocking that they are burning books written by people like Mother Teresa, claiming she is a heretic deserving of burning for all eternity in a literal lake of fire, but that’s their opinion. Unlike the Nazis, they aren’t really censoring anyone. They can feel mighty and powerful for having burned “Satan’s Bibles,” but the point is moot in today’s age. Book burning only worked when it caused the material that they were burning to cease to exist, which in today’s world of modern printing and, more importantly, the Internet is impossible.Grizzard is no longer capable of utterly destroying the knowledge and content of these Bibles or music than, say, Pamela Anderson is capable of destroying all knowledge of her sex tape.Also, at their book burnings, Nazis never said, “We will be serving fried chicken and all the sides.”