Of books and how to burn them

I just got back from a little book burning session with my parents. The whole situation is a little bit hard for me to swallow, and I can only half understand the underlying principles in this practice. We burned a few books on some stuffs that shall remain unnamed.

It's not so much a practice as it is a confirmation of our faith, really. I don't want to make us sound like some crazy radical christians that pray over whether we should bake chocolate chip cookies or brownies for some kids birthday party. It's really nothing like that, as like it as it may sound.

So while we were ripping pages open and throwing them into an unquenchable flame, I was wondering how far and how thin the line of mutual respect from and for other religions/beliefs was and if we'd already crossed it, if we actually had as good a reason to as we thought we had. I mean, we could have just as easily just gave the books away, or torn them if they really made us uncomfortable. Burning seems a little bit, if not a lot, drastic, for a couple of books that may not completely flow as well with us. The main reason I got from my rents was that they didn't want anyone else to have the misfortune of coming across them and being led astray, but is a very close-minded reputation for doing so really worth it? It's very sad that standing firm for what we believe in makes us the bad guys, but if that's the way it is, should we or should we not go against a rather angry grain by doing things like burning their books?

I don't know.

On a lighter note, grass looks lovely in the morning. /gay