GUHHH - book burning

[David]

Steve wrote:

> What they seem to forget, and why I can't give any credibility to
> these people, is that to burn the books, they had to buy the books,
> and if they truly believe the book promote witchcraft then their
> purchases supported witchcraft which they claim they are against. 
And
> by promoting their 'book burning' they are in essence promoting the
> book itself (free advertising), rather than suppressing it. Please,
> help me find the logic in that.
> 
> It is clear that these things are never about books, they are about
> publicity and notoriety. These events are about people who like to 
see
> their name in the paper. That and a touch of mob mentality.

OK, I obviously can't speak for the church in question, but this is 
how I think it works.

Book-burning is essentially symbolic.  It is not, AFAIK, intended to 
prevent anyone reading the books.  At one level, it's about telling 
the world 'we feel this strongly about this'.

However, I suspect, the main intent is spiritual.  The idea is that 
events in the world, particularly crucial spiritual events such as 
conversions, are influenced by spiritual beings who exist 
independently of humanity - that is, angels and demons.  Demons hold 
people in their grip through blindness, desire, and so forth, and 
this grip must be loosened before the church can make significant 
progress.

This is achieved by symbolic acts and declarations that apply the 
victory that Christ has already won on the cross to the demons that 
are influential in a particular situation.  I suspect burning Harry 
Potter books is seen as one of these acts.

Although the mechanisms by which this is supposed to happen are 
obscure (to say the least!), I think it is the general understanding 
of churches that practise this sort of thing that the acts are 
supposed to be Christocentric - that is, refer back in some way to 
Jesus, his sacrifice, humility, etc (think of the Eucharist as an 
example).  Failing that, a direct attack on an obvious abuse (think 
of Jesus and the Temple courts - this was essentially symbolic, as 
Jesus' action would not have resulted in a permanent reform).  That 
would imply that, even by the standards of this type of thinking, 
churches that burn the Harry Potter books are missing the mark.

David