Six Alabama churches burned

Volunteer firefighter Frank Wilson extinguishes smoldering embers at Rehobeth Baptist Church in Lawley, Alabama. From CNN.


Are we going back to the 1950s? This is from CNN.Com:

CENTREVILLLE, Alabama (AP) -- A series of fires damaged six rural Alabama churches overnight, and investigators Friday were trying to determine whether they were arson.

Most of the churches were Baptist, located near major highways, and all but one were in Bibb County, about 25 miles south of Birmingham.

The other church, in Chilton County, had been undergoing construction, which could have been a source of the fire, said Ragan Ingram, a spokesman for the state insurance agency that oversees fire investigations. That church, New Harmony Baptist in Fairview, was destroyed.

No arrests had been made Friday morning.

A firefighter tries to extinguish a burning church Friday in Deerfield, Alabama. From CNN.

In 1996, race was a factor in a series of arsons that damaged rural black churches in Alabama and elsewhere. But Ingram said the fires late Thursday and early Friday destroyed both the churches of predominantly black congregations and predominantly white congregations.

The Ashby Baptist Church in Brierfield and Rehobeth Baptist Church in Randolph both burned to the ground.

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.

The pastor of Old Union Baptist, the Rev. David Hand, said a fire at his church, also in Brierfield, was discovered about 4:30 a.m. (5:30 ET) and extinguished before it could cause serious damage.

Ingram said the two other churches are in Antioch and near Centreville. It wasn't immediately clear how seriously they were damaged.

I'm not sure what to make of this story. The information is pretty sketchy, although the clues seem to point to arson. Fires burning in Baptist churches--that has certainly been a pattern of racial discrimination against the black community for decades--certainly during the 1950s civil rights protests.

But I wonder if these church fires will also show another pattern. Since the rise of the radical Republicans, culminating with the control of the three branches of the government, we've seen that the radical conservatives and evangelists have refused to compromise or allow any type of moderate or alternative views to be expressed in our society. To these radicals, it is my way--period. And they've been using their power in the government to shove their own ideology down the rest of America's throats--gay discrimination through the marriage amendment, creationism through intelligent design, reverse discrimination as an example of destroying Affirmative Action, activist judges legislating from the bench as a means of placing their own ideologues on that same bench--and legislating according to their own extremist views. We have a president who claims he's a "uniter--not a divider," but then governs from the far right, dividing those on the political center and left. We have a government and a neoconservative political party that uses anger and vindictiveness to destroy anyone that opposes their views.

And I wonder if, over the past five years, we are now watching this anger and vindictiveness dissolve through the neoconservative base. Their supporters watch the government and their leaders--President Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Tom DeLay, Bill Frist, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell--all show their contempt to those who refuse to accept their ideology. Perhaps those supporters can show their own anger and contempt to their fellow citizens--if our leaders can do it, why can't I? Such anger and contempt show ignorance and disdain on their--and their leader's part--for toleration of alternative ideas and views. This can lead to further polarization, and a greater division of our country.

I fear we're going to see more violence coming.