Book Burning

[walter]

I hear a lot of talk about burning or otherwise destroying books, records, DVD's and the like. I don't agree with this kind of action.
I don't know how many of you ever watched "The Waltons" but there was one episode that spoke to this issue so perfectly.

THE FIRESTORM (21 Oct 1976)
Writers: Rod Petersen and Claire Whitaker. Director: Ralph Senesky. Music: Alexander Courage.
"The quiet strength of Waltons Mountain always seemed to shelter our house from the rest of the world. In 1937 it was hard for our family and neighbors to believe that we could ever be touched by the trouble that was reaching out from Europe."

After watching a newsreel about Hitler's conquests in Europe, John-Boy decides to print excerpts from Mein Kampf in his paper The Blue Ridge Chronicle. This arouses a lot of ill-feeling in the district and leads up to Rev Fordwick collecting some German books to ceremoniously burn. The crisis is averted when John-Boy notices what one of the books is, and gets Mrs Brimmer, (who had come to live there to escape the troubles in Germany), to read and then translate from it. It is Genesis chapter 1 verse 1..... Rev Fordwick, ashamed at what he had thought to do, publicly announces that John-Boy is the right person to have the books.

"My first experience at expressing an unpopular idea nearly turned into a disaster. Fortunately, my family was able to overcome the problems I had helped create for them. The troubles soon died down when people realised I was only trying to let them know that something was stirring in the world that even Waltons Mountain could not keep out of."

Yes! They were, in their zeal, ignorance and fear about to burn tht Holy Bible.

 

[JoJo]

I grew up watching the Waltons and I don't remember that episode, but I would love to see it again!

 

[Lance_Iguana]

In a society such as the United states, burning books, DVDs, Cds, etc. is quite counter productive. The people have the right to read whatever they want, accquiring the books, etc. in the first place just draws attention to the works, and denying the free will God gave man kind.

Its actually quite ironic.

to quote a comedian

" You have this whole group of people who's entire purpose in life is to stare at things they hate. That is backwards and quite ironic" - Matthew Davis

 

[savvykate]

It doesn't make sense to burn books. If you find the content objectionable, something you would only realize if you'd actually read some of it, then stop reading it, or read it fully and then refute what's false or wrong within it. I don't think book burning has a place in a free country or among educated people. Books are part of free speech. Maybe you don't value certain books but others do. Some of my favorite books are "banned" books, actually. I think it makes more sense to pray protection over yourself and ask for God's guidance when choosing your reading material than to burn anything that doesn't suit you. And stuff like what's mentioned in the Walton's episode - I think you have to look at why it is there. Is the character posting it because he approves of the message, or is he posting it to inform others about what's being said? My mom frequently tells stories about how she got in trouble in college for reading socialist and communist propaganda. People labeled her and even attempted to get rid of those books. She was actually reading them in order to argue points in debates during her political science classes. But even if she was reading them and in favor of the message burning it wouldn't help. It's so much better to refute the argument using a good point rather than be reactionary and burn stuff.