I went to the Newbury Park thrift store and they had 2 copies of Dianetics there. From what I understand, this is the "sacred text" of the "Church of Scientology." I previously bought this book from a thrift store in San Rafael up North. Both thrift stores were run by the Salvation Army, which as I understand it, is a Christian denomination. How these book slipped through their sorting process is beyond me.What I'm about to write next might sound horrible, but I did it more for the laugh than anything else. I bought the first copy because I want to read the sacred texts of any major religions that I can get my hands on. There as so many people involved in Scientology that I feel it is important that I read the texts that they read.
I bought the second book to burn it.
There were actually two copies at the thrift store, and I almost bought both of them to burn, but I thought that would be going a bit too far. As everyone sat around the fire, I stood up with the book, announced what I was doing, and said that we were offering up the book as a burnt offering to God for the sake of everyone that has been sucked into the cult of Scientology.
We laughed. The book burned. We continued eating and drinking and enjoying each other's company (including John Lee).
I'm not really one for book burning, but it just felt like something I needed to do.
Was that wrong?
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No, it wasn't wrong. If you believe that innocent people could be harmed by the lies inside, you did the right thing. The only problem is that you can't really protect people from being deceived - only their common sense and the guidance of the Holy Spirit can do that.
ReplyDeleteAll we can do is pray.
ReplyDeleteit's a symbolic act which is what is meaningful. you cannot really protect people from a mass-published book though... or the massive garbage inside.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I kind of did it half-jokingly, but when I stopped to think about it, i had to reason through my actions. I would never promote censorship, and I would hate it if someone said I was a "book-burner," which is why I only bought one of the books to burn. As I was throwing the book onto the fire, I was sincerely holding all of those who adhere to the teachings of Scientology in my heart and I prayed that God would accept the book as a burnt offering.
ReplyDelete