Book Burners of Doom

[junediamanti]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboy_mn at y...> wrote:
> I'm sure many of you have read about the recent HP book burning in
> Michigan, where the book burners claimed they were defending the 
world
> against witchcraft. 
> 
> So people in the name of fairness I'm sure, tried to defend the book
> burner as having symbolic importance, and as promoting their 
feelings
> to the great public at large. Fair enough, one could genuinely 
assume
> that they had noble motives for their actions.
> 
> THIS JUST IN- 
> 
> Librarians and clergy at other churches expressed mixed emotions 
after
> learning that members of the Jesus Non-denominational Church burned
> "Harry Potter" books AND copies of the Book of Mormon and non-King
> James Version Bibles.
> 
> Other books, magazines, posters, compact discs and movies that 
members
> believe do not promote God also went up in smoke Sunday, as more 
than
> 50 people gathered outside the church for the fiery display. Among 
the
> incinerated items were Shania Twain's album "The Woman in Me" and 
the
> Dan Aykroyd movie "Coneheads."
> 
> Church members who sporadically shouted "Hallelujah," "Thank you, 
God"
> and "Burn, devil, burn" said the fire was divinely inspired.
> 
> ...and more...
> 
> http://www.detnews.com/2003/religion/0308/07/d07d-238361.htm
> 
> 
> The Book of Mormon!!! and Non-King James Versions of the Bible!!!...
> ...oh yeah, this is one very stable group of nut cases. Well, I 
leave
> them to their beliefs as misguides as I feel they may be. 
> 
> I will admit that these people has some small degree of credibility
> with me until I read this. Now....? Sorry can't speak to that issue 
in
> polite company.
> 
> All references and links were found at-
> 
> http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/
> 
> Suddenly feeling sad and with a strong sense of foreboding for the
> human race.
> 
> bboy_mn

Do not despair - instead read "Farenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury, of 
failing that watch the film.

Bookburning has been a theme throughout history.  Remember the Tom 
Wolfe book "Bonfire of the Vanities"?  The name came from an actual 
historic event, in Florence in the 15th Century when 
a "fundamentalist" type friar, Savonarola preached against the art, 
culture and humanism of the renaissance. He prophesised that Florence 
would be destroyed by an angry god.  During this period he was 
particularly against Lorenzo de Medici (Il Magnifico) who was a 
leading patron of the arts and not to mention ruler of the Florentine 
City State.  Anyway, one of Fra Savonarola's great ideas was to 
hold "Bonfires of the Vanities" where people actually brought non-
religious works of art and such like.  It probably cannot be 
estimated just what was lost, and in the hysteria of the times even 
Botticelli sacrificed some of his own artworks.  

The point is this:

How many people (apart from historians like me) remember Savonarola?  
And how many remember Botticelli and the other artists of the Italian 
Cinquecento?

History is full of self important fools who believed they can chain 
ideas up to suit themselves but they do not prevail.

June