A vicar in Wales has outraged his church authorities by refusing to make an apology a week after he burned pages from the King James Version Bible which he said portrayed God as “cruel and vile.”

“The passages I cut out [and later burned] referred to the wrath of God, a God who killed millions of people in a vengeful, spiteful way,” the Rev. Geraint ap Iorwerth, the vicar of St. Peter ad Vincula Church in the town of Machynlleth, told Walesonline Saturday.

The charred remains were “a memorial to the millions whose lives have been destroyed as a result of the cruelty of this kind of God and his followers,” the 60-year-old priest was quoted as saying.

Iorwerth insisted his action had “absolutely nothing to do with Jesus,” who he described as “a reactionary leader who preached peace.” However, he warned that he was “not a complete pacifist” and wouldn’t mind using “a baseball bat if anyone came for my family.”

The philosopher Nietzsche said one should philosophize with a hammer, “I prefer to theologize with a scissors,” the vicar added. “I have no intention of apologizing for preaching the qualities of the prince of peace, Jesus. My congregation is 100 percent behind me.”

While the priest sought to justify his deeds, the leadership of the Church in Wales, Iorwerth’s organization which is part of the Anglican Communion, plans to investigate.
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Bishop of Bangor Andy John thinks destroying difficult-to-understand parts of the Bible was “disrespectful” and “offensive.” “I have therefore written to Rev Geraint ap Iorwerth and will be investigating the matter,” he was quoted as saying.

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