PAHRUMP (KSNV My News 3) – A bonfire is planned for Saturday in the Nye County town of Pahrump, just an hour from Las Vegas.
Pastor Tony Falcone of the Mountain View Chapel is preparing to cast aside the sins of the world.
"We are not going to make it that big," Falcone says as he points out the pit for the fire. "I asked God to give me a vision to something I could do to help the citizens of Pahrump," Pastor Tony says.
He came up with the idea for a public bonfire. "I'm taking this yucky sin stuff I've been carrying around and I'm going to burn it,” Falcone says. “It becomes like a sin offering."
The pastor invites people to bring books, statues, anything they think is not giving glory to God. "I still have an Ouija board in my house,” he says. “I'm still reading my horoscope or I have tarot cards. I have statues of this. God says have no images before me."
Not everyone in Pahrump is happy with his plans, which amount to a public book burning.
"I'm shocked actually because there are many different ways people can interpret it," says resident James Mercer.
He says he hopes there is no bonfire. "Book burning itself brings a negative connotation, and for him to publicize it the way he has and then to add the mixture of religion with it, a lot people are up in arms about it," Mercer says.
He envisions fights breaking out. "If they feel the Qu'ran is not giving glory to God, I could burn a Quran in there," Mercer says.
Falcone says no such thing will happen. "If I don't feel it right I'm going to tell them to write it down," the pastor says. He wants the event to be a time for peace and new beginnings. "Let’s put them in the fire and get out of your life,” Falsone says. “So wake up on Easter Sunday morning you will feel like a refreshed person."
Falcone is a veteran of the Vietnam War. His website says he has been a Nye County sheriff’s deputy, assistant manager at a Strip hotel, and a pastor in several churches.
