Planned Quran Burning Has Whiff Of 2009 Bible Stunt

Some of us who have been following the story about a Florida preacher’s plan to burn the Quran as part of an anti-Muslim protest on 9/11 can’t help but be reminded of another stunt by a different clergyman which drew publicity last year.

Last year, Marc Grizzard, the pastor of a 14-member church in Canton, N.C. announced that on Halloween 2009 his flock would burn a pile of books they considered evil.

That included every version of the Bible that wasn’t the King James Version since only the KJV was “God’s preserved, inspired, inerrant, infallible word of God… for English-speaking people” Grizzard said.

He and his followers also planned to burn the works of “heretics,” Mother Teresa and Billy Graham.

Just as has happened with the Florida church that promises to burn the Quran, Grizzard was warned by local officials that his church could be slapped with a huge fine, in his case as high as $25,000, because book burning would violate local ordinances.

So Grizzard and his people reconsidered; they had a non-book burning party, instead shredding the Bibles and other books that drew their ire if not their fire.

The few media who showed up had to take their word for it since it all happened inside the little church. Grizzard proclaimed the event a great success. And it was. A church with a membership of 14 got world-wide publicity.

Now it’s the turn of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, a church with a purported membership of 100.