By Fred Jackson and Jody Brown
December 28, 2001

(AgapePress) - A pastor in New Mexico is planning a book-burning this Sunday evening, and Harry Potter is on the menu.

Jack Brock is pastor of Christ Community Church in the south central town of Alamogordo. Like many conservative Christians, he believes Harry Potter is "nothing but witchcraft ... evil hidden behind the face of an innocent boy with little glasses."

Brock tells the Alamogordo Daily News that the witchcraft in the Potter books is capturing the minds of young kids who have a hard time dividing between fantasy and reality. He also says the magic portrayed in the books is misleading.

"It's [magic] all evil," Brock told the newspaper. "What [author J.K. Rowling] has done is make Harry look good and [the villain] evil, but they both come from the same source. You can't call good evil, or evil good. That's what it is all about."

Last Sunday, Brock delivered a sermon entitled "The Baby Jesus or Harry Potter?" And Brock is following up on that with a "holy bonfire" this Sunday night at 6:30 in which the church will publicly burn Potter books. He says other material, including pornography and heavy metal records that exalt Satan, will go into the fire with them. The evangelical pastor says it is all an effort to encourage Christians to remove everything from their homes that prevents them from communicating with God.

Brock says he is not worried what others in the community will think about him or his congregation. "As far as I'm concerned," he told the Daily News, "the church is not out to make people look good ... we're making a statement against evil."

He says the problem with most churches today is that nothing is said because they will get people upset. Brock says he hopes his book-burning event will get them thinking.

Evidently Brock's plan has some local citizens thinking. The Otero County Unitarian Universalist Fellowship is reportedly planning a non-violent protest and vigil near the church before and during the book burning. And earlier this week, protesters appeared at a major intersection in Alamogordo brandishing signs that read "God Hates Book-Burners" and "Book-burning? Shame on our Town."

In a statement published by the Daily News, the Fellowship describes the burning as "censorship in its worst form." The group says there are "much more important issues than burning books that advocate evil exists and must always be confronted by the advocates of good, no matter what the price."

The same report says the Otero County Democratic Party has voiced concerns of censorship over the book burning and plans to participate in the non-violent protest on Sunday night.

© 2001 AgapePress all rights reserved.

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