The King James Bible is (with more than a little help from William Tyndale), one of the great achievements of English literature, but enthusiastic as I am about its merits, I don’t think I’d go this far:
Marc Grizzard, the pastor of Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, North Carolina, says that he and his congregation plan to burn Bibles on Halloween. Marc Grizzard, of Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, North Carolina, says that the first King James translation of the Bible is the only true declaration of God’s word, and that all others are “satanic”. Pastor Grizzard and 14 other members of the church plan to burn copies of the other “perversions” of Scripture on Halloween, 31 October. The New Revised Version Bible, the American Standard Version Bible, and even the New King James Version are all pronounced to be works of the Devil by Pastor Grizzard and his followers. Pastor Grizzard said: “I believe the King James version is God’s preserved, inspired, inerrant, infallible word of God… for English-speaking people. “We are burning books that we believe to be Satanic.”
A full (and possibly useful) list of Satanic authors (including Mother Theresa – who knew?) is reportedly available on the church’s website. Unfortunately Beelzebub may have hit back: the website appears to have crashed.
I wonder if they will be burning Greek manuscripts as well.
Here’s how the REAL King James Bible starts:
Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the Heauen, and the Earth.
Gen 1:2 And the earth was without forme, and voyd, and darkenesse was vpon the face of the deepe: and the Spirit of God mooued vpon the face of the waters.
Now, I assume Pastor Grizzard and his flock will burn all the PURPORTED copies of the KJV that don’t render those verses that way.
When it comes to the NRSV, I say “Burn, baby! Burn!”
A lot of those other versions have a such an awful prose style one’s agency detection might suggest a satanic intervention.
This has to be a parody.
The church website appears to have been suspended. Too bad. I was looking forward to reading a comprehensive list of Satanic authors.
A little Googling enabled me to find the list of Satanic authors, which includes Oral Roberts and both Grahams. Grizzzard and his flock are also burning Satanic music, including contemporary Christian, gospel, and country and western CDs.
George Bush and Sarah Palin are also listed as unGodly politicans. No word as to whether they’ll be burned in effigy.
I agree with Andrew on the literary qualities of KJB. However, that is precisely NOT what these Baptists are purported to be interested in. A clever wordsmith can make Satanic ideas sound beautiful.
A more apt question for these folks would be why God would choose such a vessel as King James to write the Bible. As Francis Beckwith put it:
It turns out that Amazing Grace Baptist Church is one of those King James Only congregations. I’ve never quite understood how anti-hierarchical, priesthood-of-the-believer, non-liturgical, church-state separationist, believers-baptism types can be so fond of a translation produced by a monarch who stood for virtually everything they reject, including a state-established church, apostolic succession, an ordained priesthood, infant baptism, and a moderate sacramentalism. It’s like finding out that Hugh Hefner’s favorite book is Dawn Eden’s Thrill of the Chaste. If anyone can explain this to me, I will be grateful.
http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2009/10/14/book-burning-halloween-celebration-at-north-carolina-church-why-didnt-i-make-the-cut/
Beckwith forgot to mention King James was a homosexual as well.
Apparently Andy Schlafly (Phyllis’s son) now wants to rewrite the Bible so as to eliminate liberalism from it.
Has Schlafly confirmed that? I thought it was a hoax when I heard about it.
@Polichinello
No hoax. If you go to Schlafly’s website, conservapaedia.com, you’ll see that the project is already underway.
Make that conservapedia.com