Book Burning In My Home Town

The Drudge Report has linked to this article in my hometown newspaper about a youth group burning books, magazines, DVD’s, etc. that they say come become them and their relationship with “the Lord.”

A youth group at First Assembly of God church held a burning Wednesday night by burning anything they wanted to get out of their lives that they feel is hindering their relationship with the Lord.
Some of the items burned included CDs, DVDs, magazines, books and anything else they could think of. But unlike the negative connotations burnings are generally associated with, this burning was intended to be a positive event for everyone involved.
Mary Johnson, leader of the college and career group at the church, summed up what the burning is about: “Getting rid of junk in their lives that would hinder (their) relationship with the Lord.”

The Minot Daily News website pretty much isn’t loading right now (it took me several minutes to bring the article up), so here’s a PDF copy of the article for those who can’t load it.
Anyway, despite Drudge’s sensationalism (Youth group holds book burning in North Dakota!) this actually seems pretty harmless to me. This isn’t a “book burning” in the traditional sense. Nazis burned books to keep people from reading them. These people are burning things they feel are distracting them from leading a disciplined life in accordance with their chosen religion. Seems no different to me than an alcoholic pouring booze down the drain, or a person who has lost weight burning the clothes that no longer fit them. It’s a symbolic thing, and not something I’m especially troubled about.
I am familiar with Assembly of God churches, and they are certainly holy rollers. My ex-wife’s family is a member of an Assembly of God congregation (though not the church mentioned in the article), and their services are something to behold. People talking in tongues, folks rolling in the aisles and people weeping on the alter…definitely shocking stuff to an atheist who was raised in a very conservative Lutheran church. But still, I’ve never really found any of it to be especially troubling in any social sense. It’s not my ball of wax, but participation in such religious activities has never caused me to judge someone.
But then I like to think that I’m pretty open-minded.
Still, it seems as though North Dakota is getting a lot of national attention for actions by religious groups here in the state. First Jesus Camp, now this.
Kinda weird, considering that North Dakota is pretty much dominated by practitioners of the more stoic Lutheran and Catholic denominations than anything else.