Public Life

Anti-Climaxes

33 Comments

Remember all the hype about the “Bible Burning” at Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, NC?

Well, it didn’t exactly go as planned. In fact, there wasn’t any actual burning to speak of. In the first place it rained. Then it turns out that there’s a law against burning paper in North Carolina and the neighbors weren’t too keen on it either. To top it off, local law enforcement asked that that the whole thing be held inside. So what really happened at the “Bible Burning” was…this:

Thrilling stuff! Be sure to check out the videos of the singing and preaching before hand and all the rest of the 34 minutes of unremarkable footage of books being destroyed. You would think they would have at least splurged on a big black menacing-looking trashcan instead of just borrowing a little anemic one from the kitchen.

I think someone needs to come up with an official award for badly executed fundy publicity stunts. Any suggestions on a name for it?

Update 1: As of October, 2013 the links to amazinggracebaptistchurchkjv.com are all dead

33 thoughts on “Anti-Climaxes”

  1. I can take about 30 seconds of paper being torn and pitched into the kitchen trash can (filmed with a fixed camera, no less!) but five minutes…+1 internets to anyone who can make it all the way through that. Glad I didn’t go…waste of time, space, gas, film, life, etc.

    Worst. Climax. Ever.

  3. I am embarrassed for all of them. Somehow we have forgotten to keep the main thing the main thing.

  4. Reminds me of my parents’ church: 45 minutes of singing and 5 minutes of preaching. My youngest daughter leaned over to me the last time we went and said of my uncle, the pastor, “Daddy, I can’t understand anything he’s saying!” (He’s a typical fundie “and-uh”er: “And, uh, the Lord, he, uh, came down, and he, uh, . . . “

  5. i don’t have a name for the award, but the award itself should be a big ol’ belt buckle that says “KJV: the version the devil hates”. (such belt buckles do indeed exist. i guess it’s their way of witnessing to people who are staring at their fun zone.)

  6. Wow! Glad that didn’t go as planned!
    And funny to think though. It surely is an anti-climax. I had this idea that there was going to be this large bonfire, 10 feet high, and dozens of books and cds! Instead…it degenerated to a boring white trashcan…
    Still disgusts me.

  7. What’s even better, if you go to their website, they have a 2010 book burning link already established!
    Maybe we can name the award the “Baalam’s Ass” award for overstatment.

  9. I apologize for going slightly off topic, but as I revisited their website I came across this grammatical gem listed under God Honoring websites. Honestly, is this evidence of a fourth grade education?

    “It is true that these Gullion Book Stores only sale KJV only Bibles, but in there stores they sale all kinds of heretics, mostly with no warning. It is true that they do sale a lot of good books both new and used that you will not find in Lifeway, and other so-called Christian Book Stores.”

  10. i think my favorite part of the above quote is how they “sale all kinds of heretics, MOSTLY WITH NO WARNING.”

    mostly?

    so there are a few books that say “parental advisory: nestorian content”?

  12. Re; Eric–I’m guessing he arrives at “sale” for “sell” because of his accent, which is of the variety I associate with a particular gas station back home. “There” is a pathetic mistake that a lot of people make. What marks him out for the “fourth grade education” in my mind is the stilted weirdness of his writing–it sounds like he’s learning to speak a foreign language. (As an aside, I have to wonder what a “KJV only Bible” is.) Oddly, he spelled “heretics” correctly. I guess that says something about his priorities (and I think I’m backed up by the video in Darrell’s post).

  13. It just made me sick to see all of those Bibles destroyed. A real shame that people that think they are christians think it is ok to do that…..

  14. Mo- Good thing I wasn’t drinking. I actually laughed out loud at “nestorian content”.

    Jordan – While he did spell heretic correctly, he used it improperly. He is using a noun when he should be using an adjective. His sentence reads as if he is selling an actual heretic; e.g. Pelagius, Joseph Smith, Joel Osteen. It should read they sell “heretical” books. However, I am probably getting real nit-picky since he couldn’t even get sale/sell correct.

  15. I sale heretics all the time. You should see the how fast my Benny Hinn bobbleheads are flying off the shelves.

  16. Epic LOLs. And yeah, Eric, I guess I was mentally filling in words for him–something like “they sale all kinds of heretics[‘ books]” or “they sale [the works of] all kinds of heretics.”

    And I’m with Dave–if it weren’t for the outright ridiculousness of this whole thing, I’d find it nauseating.

  17. I guess even though they believe the KJV translators are infallible, reading their preface to the translation is too much work. In the notes “The Translators to The Readers”, this statement is made:

    “Now to the latter we answer; that we do not deny, nay we affirm and avow, that the very meanest translation of the Bible in English, set forth by men of our profession, (for we have seen none of theirs of the whole Bible as yet) containeth the word of God, nay, is the word of God.

    I’m a recovering Fundie, and in shock anyone could destroy God’s Word like that.

  18. I would not want to stand before God and have to explain my rationale for destroying His Word like that. Absolutely, mind-blowingly incredible and disgusting. I can remember how Believers in the old Soviet Union would find a piece of toilet paper that was made out of recycled Bibles and on which a few verses of Scripture could still be seen and keep it as it was the only Bible they had.

    I don’t know how a real Believer could lead, participate, condone or even observe such a travesty. To merely blame this on ignorance is offensive to people who are actually ignorant.

  19. And if I were a betting man, I’d wager my favorite hound that this guy has some connection to either Peter Ruckman or Jack Hyles.

  20. I pretended to print out their web site.
    I pretended to tear up the print out while pretending to listen to some contemporary christian music.

    They should destroy their PC. It could be used to view some evil text, music or image.

    It looks like only his family showed up. Poor kids. Who are they going to be able to find that meets daddy’s standards? 80 year old virgins in the making.

  21. Who are they going to be able to find that meets daddy’s standards?

    “Pastor” Steve Anderson’s kids?

  22. Good point JimE. They should also destroy their video camera! Since of course, they too can be used to make sinful movies and other such things!

  23. I’m with Jordan; the “sale/sell” thing is found in certain varieties of spoken Southern American English, and perhaps other regional dialects as well. He simply chose the spelling that fit most closely approximated his speech. There certainly is nothing wrong with that – ALL dialects, including Southern American English, “ebonics,” Appalachian, and the Standard form taught in English class, are equally complex, fully fledged systems. However, there certainly is the popular perception that any deviation from Standard American English reveals ignorance, a lack of intelligence, and a low level of education; he certainly does not help his case by failing to follow the rules of Standard English.

  24. Hey, they got their website back up. Too bad, but always highly amusing to observe the absolute craziness of their pastor.

  27. Yeah, the other clip is almost worse. Those poor kids will probably grow up learning works-sanctification and (worse!) think it’s the right way to get to God.

  28. All I’m saying is that most people doing things in the name of God, they usually are PROUD of their actions – these people arent event putting their faces out there – kinda sad really….

  29. Here is a quote from the video, “… (here’s)the Living New testament.. ( begins tearing the book apart) it’s not living it’s dead, it’s all a lie… there’s only one book living… the King James Version.”
    (found on the video at 10:00 minutes to 11:00 minutes)
    It’s all a lie..”??? Then when the living NT talks about Jesus dying on the cross and the resurrection it is a lie? Do these people know what they are saying!!?? I just read the NLT account of the trial, crucifixion, burial and Resurrection… if that account is a lie as these people declare… then all similiar accounts are equally a lie. Grrrrrrrr! what intellectual suicide these people practice!
    AND NO, not all North Carolina Baptists are cult members like this. Besides I’m not real fond of kool-aid.

  31. I would be willing to bet dollars to doughnuts that these same people would be willing to rally if they thought that their constitutional right to freedom of religion was in jeopardy. Too bad they don’t want to extend that right to anyone else.

Comments are closed.