destroyed five Baptist churches.
The fires broke out late Thursday, February 3, or early Friday, February 4, in Bibb County, a rural area about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Birmingham, the state’s largest city. Chief Deputy Sheriff Kenneth Weems told reporters that the blazes were set by arsonists making their way down the highway "as fast as they could drive from one location to the next."
Weems said three churches were destroyed in Bibb County — Ashby Baptist Church off Highway 139 in Brierfield, Pleasant Sabine near Centreville and Rehobeth Baptist in the Lawley community. Two others — Old Union Baptist at Brierfield and Antioch Baptist at Antioch — were damaged.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) joined the investigation by state and local authorities as Christians searched for reasons behind the attacks. "When a church is targeted, for whatever reason, it is more than just an attack on a building. It is an attack on the core values of faith those places of worship represent," said Reverend Patrick J. Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition (CDC), a nationwide advocacy group in published remarks monitored by BosNewsLife.
RACE FACTOR
In 1996, race was believed to be a factor in a series of arsons that damaged rural black churches in Alabama and elsewhere. But this week’s fires were set at four white churches and one with a black congregation, investigators said. Three were reportedly destroyed, and two others were damaged.
National Clergy Council (NCC) President, Reverend Rob Schenck was to travel from Washington, D.C. to Alabama Saturday, February 4, to visit the sites of the burned churches and urge Christians to help rebuild the congregations.
Schenck was to be accompanied by Reverend Mahoney and local representatives during a prayer vigil Sunday, February 5, at the destroyed Rehobeth Baptist Church in Randolph, Alabama, at 9.30 am local time.
"HORRIFIC CRIMES"
"All within the faith community stand shoulder to shoulder against these horrific crimes," Schenk said in a statement.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the members of all the congregations that faced these tragic acts of violence. As we did with the churches that were devastated by Hurricane Katrina [in New Orleans and other areas] the NCC and CDC are giving a national call to the Christian community across the nation to help rebuild these Alabama church buildings that were destroyed by these fires," he added.
Eyewitnesses recalled how they were struggling to distinguish the fires. Jim Parker, a member of the Ashby Baptist Church, told WBRC television in Birmingham that he understood the fire began near the pulpit and that the fires at other churches had a similar pattern.
"BOILING OUT"
Robert Ingram, a member of Rehobeth Baptist, said the sky was lit up by flames when he awoke early Friday, February 2, in his mobile home and saw the nearby church on fire. "At 2 o’clock it was blazing 100 feet high," The Associated Press (AP) news agency quoted him as saying. "It was just boiling out of the building."
The wood-frame church, which was established in 1819 and has about 80 members, was reportedly left in smoking rubble. Alvin Lawley, who lives near Old Union Baptist, which was established in 1886, hurried to the church after being called about 4 am. He said he and a second person arrived just after fires had been started in two flower pots under an American flag, AP reported. “We couldn’t have been far behind them," he reportedly said.
Reverends Schenck and Mahoney said they will urge Department of Justice officials in Washington and the administration of President George W. Bush to launch a full-scale investigation and "do all within their power to ensure the person or persons responsible for these hateful acts are caught and brought to justice." (With reports from the United States and BosNewsLife News Center).
