LEWISTON – A preacher who led a group in shredding copies of Harry Potter books on the eve of the release of the movie “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” had to deal with a contingent of counterprotesters.

“I feel like I’m in a cutting mood tonight,” the Rev. Douglas Taylor told 30 members of his Jesus Party before bringing out the scissors.

Taylor said he had wanted to burn books like he did last year in Kennedy Park but the city would not issue him a burning permit. He settled for the book-chopping party Thursday night at the Ramada Inn.

“It’s no secret that I enjoy what I’m doing right now,” Taylor said, ripping up a book. “Hallelujah,” said Walter Stradt of the House of Israel as he tore and tossed out a page.

About 25 Harry Potter supporters waved signs outside. One of them, wearing a black trench coat and sporting an orange-and-pink mohawk, went inside and told Taylor, “You shouldn’t be cutting it up. It’s a kid’s book.”

Terry Charest of Lewiston sat on a folding chair near the Ramada entrance with a sign that stated: “Harry Potter, You Go Boy!”

“I think that we should encourage our children to read books, not destroy them,” she said. “It scares me that they’re trying to scare children. I just don’t think it’s right that they’re doing this.”

Taylor, who was not distracted by his detractors, thundered on the righteousness of his cause inside the Ramada’s theater. He said that the Harry Potter books were full of witchcraft and pagan religion.”You get involved in this,” he said, gesturing toward one book in the series. “It’s gonna make you dirty.”

Taylor described himself as a Pentecostal who isn’t afraid to make waves. “I am a soldier of Christ,” Taylor said. “A pagan is not a soldier of Christ. That makes the pagan my enemy tonight.”