God(s) Bless the First Amendment!

[firefightermichelle]

After I read the "Jo got married" story on Yahoo, I clicked on the 
link to see Harry Potter news ... this was the lead story on that!

Michelle :) <---who wouldn't burn a book even if she didn't like it, 
even though she likes fire a whole lot! :)

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ALAMOGORDO, N.M. (Reuters) - A New Mexico church plans to burn Harry 
Potter books because they are ``an abomination to God,'' the church 
pastor said Wednesday.

Pastor Jack Brock said he would have a ``holy bonfire'' on Sunday at 
the Christ Community Church in Alamogordo in southern New Mexico to 
torch books about the fictional teen-age wizard who is wildly popular 
with youngsters around the world.

``These books encourage our youth to learn more about witches, 
warlocks, and sorcerers, and those things are an abomination to God 
and to me,'' Brock, 74, told Reuters.

``Harry Potter books are going to destroy the lives of many young 
people.''

The books, written by British author J.K. Rowling, have been runaway 
bestsellers and a movie, ``Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,'' 
is currently a blockbuster hit.

Brock, who said his Christmas Eve sermon was titled ``The Baby Jesus 
or Harry Potter?,'' described the book burning as part of an effort 
to encourage Christians to remove everything from their homes that 
prevents them from communicating with God.

The books have come under fire in a few U.S communities for 
supposedly encouraging devilish thoughts among the young, but Rowling 
in an earlier statement issued by her publisher Bloomsbury called the 
criticisms absurd.

``I have met thousands of children now, and not even one time has a 
child come up to me and said, 'Ms. Rowling, I'm so glad I've read 
these books because now I want to be a witch,''' she said.

Reuters/Variety REUTERS