The Tennessee pastor who burns 'demonic' Harry Potter and Twilight books (2024)

The show started and a rock'n'roll band sang out to the glory of God with electric guitars and drums. After all, we were near Nashville, Tennessee. Around here, the air is full of music. In town, a museum celebrates local boy Johnny Cash (1932-2003), the country music genius, a believer and a sinner, always dressed in black. But under the giant tent in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, karaoke was on the menu. The singer spread her arms. "You turn shame into glory. Only you can! You turn graveyards into gardens." The lyrics scrolled across the screen. In the front row, two women fell to their knees. Others raised their arms. Later, some visitors were immersed completely into water, head backwards. For this baptism, what looks like a horse trough played the role of the River Jordan.

Pastor Greg Locke, meanwhile, did stand-up. He masterfully used his drawling voice, increasing its intensity at key moments. "Yes, that's it! Well said!" the galvanized audience responded. "I don't care whether you like me," claimed the speaker, with obvious charisma. His sermon was dedicated to Jesus the exorcist, the healer who cast out demons. This was his main activity, the pastor said, far beyond walking on water and turning water into wine. Greg Locke cited the gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) while browsing through them: he read extracts, seeing them as confirmation of his theses; he took off his glasses, commented, and went on to the next extract. He had warned us: "The Bible allows only one interpretation. It is meant to be applied." In 2020, one of Greg Locke's books was titled This Means War.

Auto-da-fé evening

In the name of this "war," Greg Locke recently decided to burn Harry Potter. To save the children. According to him, the worldwide best-seller is witchcraft, like the Twilight saga. "These books are demonic, full of spells, metaphors and necromancy," he said. Great evils require great fires. In early February, the pastor invited members of his congregation to an auto-da-fé evening. Armfuls of books were thrown into the flames. The fire then spread on social networks. Progressive circles were shocked: A pastor wasburning books in Nashville, a booming city! If the goal was scandal, it was reached. As proof of that: I came to sit in front of his desk, in the premises of his religious center, called Global Vision Bible Church, which has become one of the many hotbeds of the conspiracy theories roaming rural Christian America, with its strong white and Republican majority.

Greg Locke was wearing worn leather cowboy boots and jeans and his hair was short, light salt and pepper gray. The room's walls were made of rough wooden boards like a cottage, with a glass table, a stone statue of a lion at his feet and a knight's sword with a Star of David on the handle, gifted by one of the faithful. On one of the walls hung several shofars, ritual wind instruments imported from Israel. Evangelicals venerate the Hebrew state and the people of the Book, as they are called. So why burn books? The pastor shrugged. "I don't mind provoking people. I want them to think. We did one ten years ago, and no one talked about it." Most of all, what bothered Greg Locke was that only the books were mentioned. "People brought along a lot more stuff: trinkets related to the occult and Freemasonry. One woman, who was a witch, brought her own wedding dress and burned it. There were tons of clothes, satanic posters, movies and so on."

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