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PygmyPlaidGiraffe
31st March 2003, 04:29 PM
Originally posted by crocodile deathroll

I agree Saddam has to go, but if American troops bringing in bibles in their back backs, they are only playing into his hands. I suggest they should burn their bibles or at least use it as toilet paper when they are caught short in the desert.

Sorry this is anecdotal:
In my ex-home town there is a fundamentalist church (Full Gospel Assembly) that will buy copies and collect copies of new age and other "offensive" books such as:

The Celestene Prophecy
J RedField ISBN: 0446671002

and
Conversations With God
N D Walsch ISBN: 1571740562

and books that describe a family of 2 adults, same sex that adopt a child.

The church board activley encourages people to bring their copies to the church. and lobby public libraries to give up their copies.

When they get a sizable amount they gather members of the church and have a good ol' book burning and celebration for doing God's will.

Indications are, according to these people that Churches across the world are holding similar burnings to save the "wandering souls" from wayward and wrong teachings with in these items. These may be books, CDs, DVDs. I am not sure how common these activities really are, or whether these people are stating this to give their "Holy" movement some sort of authority.

I have read the celestine Prophecy and I have read the Bible and I find no more reason to burn either of these books than any other type of print. I had to ask these people if it is appropriate to burn print, any print, including Bibles. Their responses to me seem contradictory (go a head and imagine what some of the responses may be).

I never pointed out an irony to them that as they buy more books to burn, the publisher just prints more books because it percieves a demand for the books . This is similar to the American individuals that bought French wine, which they plan to boycott, then poured it on the ground. The extent of human stupidity ... :D

I am concerned that on this forum someone is suggesting that print be burned. I know people on this forum are skeptical about the contents of the Bible, Celestene Prophecy, and Conversations With God., but print is print.

Print and ideas are powerful and influential.
Regimes may burn much print (Nazi Germany, SHah Controlled Iran) or incarcerate authors (almost every political entity has).
Organizations may call for the ban of print, and a legal opinion, fatwa or decree may be handed down by a religious leader or autocrat to ban a book or call for the assasination of an author.

Print can be percieved as dangerous, irrelevant, outdated, unimaginative, etc, but in my view non of these reasons justify a call for the practice of destroying print. If there are other reasons people give that I do not know about I will consider them. As of yet, I am not convinced that burning any print is required.

As of all the reasons I have thus far considered, non have influenced me to take flame to pages of print.

;) Now to demonstrate my hypocrisy: I have used newspapers to start camp fires and wood burning stoves. I do recycle newspapers. I suppose I am practicing the destruction of print in this sense.
;):D

PygmyPlaidGiraffe
31st March 2003, 04:46 PM
When I think about it.....

As I live in Canada and often go hiking (when a bizzard is whipping up) for many miles into remote, treeless, cold areas with nothing more than 40 pounds of books in my back pack, tang crystals, and a 2 litre container of water, I would have to concede:

if It came down to freezing or staying warm by burning the books, I would burn the books.


:D

Pyrrho
31st March 2003, 04:50 PM
I confess. I burned a book once.

It was a beloved and dog-eared paperback copy of John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley.

One of our cats had pissed on my duffel bag. The book was in it and took a large hit of cat urine.

I don't think Steinbeck would have objected to my giving his book a Viking funeral.

:(

PygmyPlaidGiraffe
31st March 2003, 04:53 PM
Originally posted by pyrrho2000
I confess. I burned a book once.

It was a beloved and dog-eared paperback copy of John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley.

One of our cats had pissed on my duffel bag. The book was in it and took a large hit of cat urine.

I don't think Steinbeck would have objected to my giving his book a Viking funeral.

:(

cat uriine is horrible...

I had to throw out a duffle bag...


I have to concede here, putting the book on your bookshelf later would cause offense to the nose... the motivation to burning the book here is appreciated

PygmyPlaidGiraffe
1st April 2003, 04:16 AM
Originally posted by PygmyPlaidGiraffe


Sorry this is anecdotal:
In my ex-home town there is a fundamentalist church (Full Gospel Assembly) that will buy copies and collect copies of new age and other "offensive" books such as:

The Celestene Prophecy
J RedField ISBN: 0446671002

and
Conversations With God
N D Walsch ISBN: 1571740562

and books that describe a family of 2 adults, same sex that adopt a child.

The church board activley encourages people to bring their copies to the church. and lobby public libraries to give up their copies.

When they get a sizable amount they gather members of the church and have a good ol' book burning and celebration for doing God's will.

Indications are, according to these people that Churches across the world are holding similar burnings to save the "wandering souls" from wayward and wrong teachings with in these items. These may be books, CDs, DVDs. I am not sure how common these activities really are, or whether these people are stating this to give their "Holy" movement some sort of authority.



“On Sunday evening, members of the Harvest Assembly of God Church in Penn Township sing songs
as they burn books, videos and CDs that they have judged offensive to their God.”

http://www.ala.org/bbooks/bookburning21.html

links to articles about destruction of ungodly, offensive items around the world to be found here

such as:
Doug Taylor of the Jesus Party destroys a copy of 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone' Thursday evening in Kennedy Park.


“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.” — Benjamin Franklin

“Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liberty, without Freedom of Speech.” — Benjamin Franklin

PygmyPlaidGiraffe
1st April 2003, 05:46 PM
So any one been to a good ol' book burnin' lately?

PygmyPlaidGiraffe
3rd April 2003, 01:40 PM
A point of view:

http://www.mountainmonthly.com/newspaper/bookburn.html




... church leaders don’t have the power they used to (what a relief-PPG). Books are cheap and easy to make, so burning a few just helps put money in the publishers' pockets. If the preachers really want to have power in today’s world, they have to win the minds of the people by the strength of their own message, not by burning the words of others.


Here is a link to Project Gutenberg:

or type Project Gutenberg into an internet search engine to browse various sites contributing.


http://www.promo.net/pg/

AlH
4th April 2003, 08:33 AM
Fahrenheit 451 is being shown on American Movie Classics (AMC) today (Friday) at 3:40 EST.

PygmyPlaidGiraffe
14th April 2003, 04:49 PM
Originally posted by PygmyPlaidGiraffe



I never pointed out an irony to them that as they buy more books to burn, the publisher just prints more books because it percieves a demand for the books . This is similar to the American individuals that bought French wine, which they plan to boycott, then poured it on the ground. The extent of human stupidity ... :D

;):D

These fanatics are helping the GNP... or is it GDP now?

PygmyPlaidGiraffe
14th April 2003, 06:37 PM
Originally posted by PygmyPlaidGiraffe
So any one been to a good ol' book burnin' lately?

THese people may have

http://www.positiveatheism.org/writ/abimelec.htm

destroying print :(

PygmyPlaidGiraffe
29th May 2003, 09:10 PM
http://www.library.ubc.ca/edlib/k-12/alamost.html


have any of these books been challenged in your school district, parish, state, or country?

sources on-line

http://title.forbiddenlibrary.com/

http://www.ncac.org/

PygmyPlaidGiraffe
13th June 2003, 06:22 PM
no burning but

were these books banned for bad grammer?

http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/06/13/samesex_books030613

PygmyPlaidGiraffe
14th May 2004, 05:05 PM
The room is black and charred and almost all the books are destroyed. (http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/04/05/canada/mtlschool040405)Police say the fire started after someone threw a flammable substance through the library window.


5 arrested (http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/05/14/canada/firebomb_040514)


It is at this moment unclear whom is reponsible or why the Jewish school was targetted, or why the library itself was targetted (or even if it was; the library may have been an arbitrary choice on the part of the offenders).


The good news,


thousands of books are being recieved by the affected school from all over the world, from many different individuals and organisations.

shanek
14th May 2004, 05:17 PM
"It's not too late. Don't watch this evil DVD! Take it out of the DVD player right now! Don't take it back to the store, they'll just put it back on the shelf and sell it again. Burn it instead! In fact, go to the store and buy every copy of this movie and burn it to save others from seeing it!" —from the Dogma DVD

I wonder how many of these people realize that by doing this they're actually increasing demand for these books?

ssibal
14th May 2004, 05:37 PM
Originally posted by PygmyPlaidGiraffe
So any one been to a good ol' book burnin' lately?

I burn alot of my garbage (which on rare occasions has included a book or two), does that count?

Mycroft
14th May 2004, 06:44 PM
Originally posted by PygmyPlaidGiraffe
Sorry this is anecdotal:
In my ex-home town there is a fundamentalist church (Full Gospel Assembly) that will buy copies and collect copies of new age and other "offensive" books such as:


I don't see anything inherently wrong with burning books so long as the method of collecting them is voluntary. In this sense, the act of burning a book is an expression of free speech just as much as printing the book to begin with was. When books are taken from people by force to burn, that is an atrocity.

My wife runs an e-bay business where she gets things at auction and resells them. At estate auctions, often items are sold in large boxes or grouped together in lots so that when you buy one thing you want, you may get other stuff along with it. On several occasions, in buying boxes of books, we have acquired collections of hate literature of various types. Although there is a market for this and we could make money by reselling it, instead we have decided not to do that and to destroy those kinds of books instead.

Just because someone has the right to say something in print, doesn’t mean we have to pass it along when we come across it.