Me with my lovely wife, Kathy:

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Here we go again: Why would a Baptist pastor want to burn Bibles?

You have probably heard it by now, but if you haven't gotten the news about the church in North Carolina that is planning to burn Bibles on Halloween, go to the following link and watch the video: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2009/10/13/VI2009101301831.html

Or you can read the story here: http://www.mercurynews.com/weird-news/ci_13567852

Nearly four decades ago when I began ministry, I knew about the King James Only movement. My hope was that when that generation died we would be done with them. We aren't. They have multiplied like rabbits--yeah, verily they hath been exceeding prolific in the spread of their view of scripture.

A couple of folk from the church where I pastor ran into some of these King James zealots recently. Thankfully, these devotees of what they call the "Authorized Version" aren't planning a Bible-burning, though I figure they wouldn't do much to talk the North Carolina pastor out of his event. One accusation, among others, is that modern translations like the NIV or NASB somehow downplay the Deity of Christ. Jesus Christ and Who He is are at the core of my faith, so I don't take those accusations lightly.
Here are a couple of good articles, if you want to read further:

7 comments:

Barton Gingerich said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Barton Gingerich said...

*FACEPALM*
http://skepticalteacher.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/facepalm.jpg

Barton Gingerich said...

http://skepticalteacher.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/facepalm.jpg

Howard Merrell said...

My young, well-read friend Bart often speaks in allusions.
I think his comment refers to a gesture. Here is a picture of the gesture (don't worry, it isn't obscene): http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Image:Picard-no-facepalm.jpg
Obviously, I agree. hm

Barton Gingerich said...

The more I live life, the more often I use said gesture.

Jayne said...

Yikes. Stories and people like that definitely deserve the facepalm.. or a dramatic eyebrow raise. But I find them a little frightening too. I wonder how much they have in common with people like Brother Jed Smock... or even Fred Phelps and his church.

Howard Merrell said...

Unfurtunately, I do a see a similarity. When we in the church espouse intellectually dificient positions like the Bible-burners or horribly cruel practices like Fred Phelps, we undermine our ability to enter the conversation in a constructive way.