Catholic priests are burning Harry Potter books because they’re ‘sacrilegious’

Catholic priests in Poland have burned books that they say are “sacrilegious”, including books from the Harry Potter series.

According to the BBC, an evangelical group called “SMS from Heaven Foundation” (yes, that is their actual name) posted on their Facebook page, showing a pile of books in a fire pit, and then the books actually being burned.

If you look closely at one of the images, you’ll see what I believe is our friend (and host of The Thinking Atheist podcast) Seth Andrews’ doppelgänger helping carry the books. 

Look, I’m not saying it *is* Seth, but I’m also not saying that it *isn’t* Seth. I’ll get back to you after I complete my full investigation into the matter.

The group’s name is a nod to their mission to send people text messages about Christianity. If anything, I think this is proof that hell is real, and it exists on Earth.

A good, old-fashioned book burnin’

It appears that they burned tens of tens of books. Outstanding.

They explained their rationale by quoting the Bible and saying “We obey the Word.”

One of the captions reads: “Many of those who had practiced magic collected their books and burned them in front of everyone. So they calculated their value and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver.”

Another caption says: “Burn the images of their gods. Don’t desire the silver or the gold that is on them and take it for yourself, or you will be trapped by it. That is detestable to the Lord your God.”

I have so many questions for these people.

First, what’s up with the mask? I thought we were burning books here? Let’s keep the burning to one genre of things at a time, yeah?

Second, how much advanced knowledge did they give their followers? There’s like… 20 books there, maybe. I’m not saying I’m mad, just a little disappointed there wasn’t more book burnin’ action.

Third, WHAT DID THOSE POOR ELEPHANTS DO TO DESERVE THIS TREATMENT? Also, it looks like they’re plastic or ceramic. You’re gonna need a bigger fire to destroy them if they’re ceramic.

Fourth, what do they think this will accomplish? They know that the internet exists, right? I assume they have Amazon in Poland, yeah? Just order another book.

And lastly, what are they afraid of? All this shows is that access to information is the enemy of religion. Instead of welcoming challenges to their ideology, they’re trying to suppress any information that challenges it, even if that information happens to be works of fiction.

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Perhaps they’re afraid that in a few hundred years, someone will find these books, think they’re real, and create their own religion out of them. You know, like Christians did.

As of yet, J.K. Rowling hasn’t posted about the burning. But if history is any indicator, I imagine she won’t be too upset:

Well, the fumes from the DVDs might be toxic and I've still got your money, so by all means borrow my lighter. pic.twitter.com/kVoi8VGEoK

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) January 31, 2017