Don't Mess With Pokemon

Cleaning out the garage and stumbled across my copy of The Denver Post from August 14, 1999 (linked here). A snippet:

Pastor calls Pokemon 'poison'

By Erin Emery

Denver Post Southern Colorado Bureau

Aug. 14 - COLORADO SPRINGS - A minister used a blowtorch and a sword during a church service this week to drive home his belief that Pokemon games and toys are only sugar-coated instruments of the occult and evil.

At a church service Wednesday at Grace Fellowship Church, children's pastor Mark Juvera told 85 children ages 6 through 12 that Pokemon is evil.

To make his point, Juvera burned Pokemon trading cards with a blowtorch and struck a plastic Pokemon action figure with a 30-inch sword. Juvera's 9-year-old son then tore the limbs and head off a Pokemon doll.

During the demonstration, the children chanted: "Burn it. Burn it," and "Chop it up. Chop it up."

Also of note are the National Weather Service Casualty Statistics (here)

1999 August 19th, 1700 mst, El Paso county, 8 injured, 0 fatal:
8 football players from the Grace Fellowship church were affected by a nearby lightning flash. One recieved a concussion.