In the courtyard of a university in Berlin, there is a glass floor. If you look through it, you see a tiny room of empty bookshelves. In 1938, there was a mass demonstration of book burning in this courtyard. Next to the window is an inscription quoting the 19th Century poet Heinrich Heine, which can be translated as "Wherever you begin by burning books, you will end by burning people." This is perhaps the most moving Holocaust memorial I ever saw due to its simplicity. As I read about a tiny group of fundamentalists in Florida, I can't help but remember those words.
They say that God wants them to do it. I can't help but think how common it is in human nature to conflate one's own desires and egocentrism with the voice of God, for it was that same "voice" that thought blowing up the Twin Towers in the first place was a good idea. We fight fire with fire, we defend ourselves against bombs with bombs, we levee hatred on the hatefilled and thus provide them justifications. We do.
The human race is populated with book burners and people burners alike, and we're all so godly, so pious, earning our tickets to heaven through pleasing the deity. Never has so much fire left me feeling so completely chilled to the bone.
I think of Christ's words, "Forgive them, Father, they know not what they do." By burning a holy book (or any book, for that matter), they are killing in the name of...
It breaks my heart. But what is there to say about it? Who am I to say who is right and wrong? Let it be, I suppose. Only God, or Reality, will determine the truth in the end. Life itself as the greatest/only teacher, the future in dialogue with the present. What will be will be.
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