Virginia Pastor Calls For the Burning of Violent CDs and Videogames

BY Cam LindsayPublished Jun 10, 2008

CD burning has come to mean a certain thing to us since computers became equipped with the CD writer, but a preacher in Newport News, Virginia is calling on his congregation to bring it old school by actually setting fire to "violent CDs."

Pastor Richard Patrick is calling on citizens to gather up their "gangsta rap" CDs and violent videogames and turn them in as part of a "buy-back plan" that will pay money for the exchange of the offending product. Patrick claims this media is turning "killing into a game for bored kids," and has vowed to hold a public bonfire for the CDs and games that are turned over.

"We are considering having something similar to a rally where parents and children can bring CDs and video games that they consider are destructive to the mind set of our youth and have a burning, just like they had a gun buyback last year," Patrick told the Daily Press.

Asked how significant the problem is, Patrick responded by saying, "It has a tremendous influence on young people and violence. That's basically all they see. Most of them try to emulate what they see, when in reality, the people they see don't even live in those communities. Some of the rappers they see on TV portraying crime don't live in the urban areas — they live in the suburbs somewhere. It's all a facade."

How Patrick intends on putting up the dough for this "buy-back plan" was not divulged, nor was the amount he would pay. (What kid is gonna turn in their copy of GTA IV for anything less than full retail value?)

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