Act of Burning Books

Gustave Doré, illustrating the Bible, Eustache illustrating the same event in Ephesus, NY's way to deal with "Vice", Berlin's way to deal with "improper" ways (jewish or other) to think. One could add the Spanish Inquisition and the Qurans burning, but very quickly, people were burned too, so...

From Paul and Ephesus in the Book of Acts … and Act of Burning Books, to some Pastor of Florida, the practice of burning books, which are considered « evil » is sadly common. Burning books, burning Holy Qurans during Inquisition, then burning witches, and then Jews after having taken first, golden teeth, that may help to continue the mission as like old mayan’s gold helped the genocides .… all this, is a story of slapping cheeks. And a story of arrogance, believing that some should deserve a white check to hurt, again and again ...

Should Holy Books be burned ?
Should books be burned ?


As Heinrich Heine wrote :
Where they burn books, at the end they also burn people.

Almansor :

We heard that the frightening Ximenes
In middle of the Market, on the way to Granada –
Put the Koran in the flammes !

Hassan :

It was only the beginning, where they burn Books,
At the end they also burn people.

(in Almansor : a Tragedy – Heinrich Heine - published in 1923)

Heinrich Heine’s books were burnt by Goering and Nazis, too…


About Gustave Doré, Eustache's illustrations of the Bible :

It's about Paul in Ephesus, and the The Sons of Sceva (19:11-20)

16 And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, mastered all of them, and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
17 And this became known to all residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks; and fear fell upon them all; and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.
18 Many also of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices.
19 And a number of those who practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all; and they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver.
20 So the word of the Lord grew and prevailed mightily.


So when I hear about :
Pastor weighing plans to burn Qurans amid U.S. warnings

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/09/07/florida.quran.burning/?hpt=Sbin#fbid=PhnQNVRSUes&wom=false

And when I hear about cheeks... it seems to me that there is a never-ending history of primitive christians burning pagans's books, jewish or muslim books ! And then, on the market, in front of Goya's horrified eyes and sorrow, tortured, burned, or in front of our eyes, covered with napalm or other unhuman bombs ! So when are people going to cut the crap and look at themselves ?


(...)CHETRY: What about turn thy cheek? I mean, this is- you know, Christianity at its most- you know, refined. It's that you just don't act out in violence. You don't act out in any manner of hate, that you turn thy cheek, that you don't rise to the nastiness or the level of payback that your perceived enemies do. I mean, isn't this the exact opposite of what Christ taught all of us to be and to do? /
JONES: I agree with you exactly. I think, most of the time, we as Christians are indeed called to turn the other cheek. I believe that, most of the time, talk and diplomacy is the correct way. But I also think that once in a while- I think you see that in the Bible- there are incidents where enough is enough and you stand up. Jesus went into the temple and he threw all of the money-changers out. He did not ask them to leave. He was not peaceful. He was at that time very, very upset. Even when this very close friend and disciple, Peter- even when he tried to stop Jesus from fulfilling his will- from fulfilling the father's will, Jesus called him the devil. Jesus called the religious leaders of that time serpents and snakes. So I agree that, most of the time, diplomacy and turning the other cheek is the proper way, but sometimes not.
CHETRY: Are you- you don't care- I mean, yes or no- you don't really care if you're offending Muslims by burning the Koran, right? That doesn't bother you if they're offended?
JONES: We realize that we are definitely offending them, yes.
CHETRY: Okay. So I want to ask you this: does it bother you though-
JONES: But we actually think that Muslims should-CHETRY: I just want to ask you this: does it bother you that the military and the military leaders believe that by doing this, you are very likely putting the risk- the lives of U.S. soldiers at risk in Muslim countries? David Petraeus, the general- this is what he said: 'Their actions will in fact jeopardize the safety of young men and women who are serving in uniform over here, and also undermine the very mission that they're trying to accomplish.' Are you willing to have the blood of soldiers on your hands by this demonstration?
JONES: Yeah, we are actually very, very concerned, of course, and we are taking the general's words very serious. We are continuing to pray about the action on September 11th. We are indeed very concerned about it. It's just that we don't know- I mean, how long do we back down? When do we stop backing down?(..)

This old biblical tradition, this Pastor wants to practice proves, if it was needed, that fanatics interpreting their holy books should not have the right to express themselves outside of their holy places. And this principle is universaly respectfull