When Hate Burns Out of Control

by Sandra Peters

Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of articles that will run in Response from now through the end of the year on the church’s response to church burnings.

Despite sparse or no newspaper headlines, churches across the United States continue to burn.

For example, on the eve of 10,000 United Methodist Women members gathering for Assembly in Orlando, Fla., in May, a church just outside that city burned. First United Methodist Church in Tavares, Fla., caught fire during the night of May 9, and burned to the ground. Orlando media reported the fire briefly then the burning faded from the news.

That media coverage, however minimal, is more than most church burnings have received since June 1997 when a U.S. Department of Justice and Treasury report to President Bill Clinton announced there was no evidence of a widespread conspiracy in the burnings of churches that began coming to light early this decade and continue today.

Though churches keep burning, the media no longer treats the fires as news. Recent fires include Black churches, multiracial churches, and churches the media has labeled as "predominantly white," a label that ignores the fact that these churches often are openly welcoming people of color. Churches that openly welcome lesbians and gay men also are being burned.

With individual fires ignored or called isolated incidents or accidents by fire investigators, the U.S. public isn’t hearing the stories of the burned churches. The lack of news coverage also means the ongoing struggles of churches that have burned receive no attention.

So the Women’s Division has become an active part of the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries’ team on "Ministries in the Midst of Hate and Violence," which is working to track fires, work with pastors and members of burned churches to rebuild buildings and programs, and to create public awareness that the hate that fueled the early fires continues to burn.

"Our team’s mission is based upon an acknowledgment that the work is not finished," said Lois Dauway, team chair and assistant general secretary for Christian social responsibility for the Women’s Division. "One of the most troubling aspects of this violence is that we know separatists, white supremacists and militia claim the name of the Lord, claim Scripture, and claim their holiness as a rationale to hate and destroy."

Concerns being addressed by the team include:

Churches burned three and four years ago have yet to rebuild sanctuaries and ministries because banks have refused to make loans and/or the churches don’t qualify for grants because investigators have labeled the fires accidents not arson.
Congregations of some of the burned churches have declining attendance, and thus declining financial resources. Parishioners have moved to other churches because of fear of more attacks.
Pastors of burned churches and their families have no resources available to help them deal with the trauma of the fires, which in some cases have been heightened by ongoing threats of violence to themselves and others in their churches.
There are few or no support services or counseling for youth and child parishioners traumatized by the fires and displaced from community programs.
Emerging and expanding evidence links the fires to attempted murder, white supremacist gatherings and organizations, and suggestions that the fires are the beginning of a race war set to begin with the new millenium. The team has evidence that some of the attacks are part of an initiation rite of passage into hate groups linked to the Ku Klux Klan and other white-supremacist groups.
Limited or no media coverage of recent fires lulls U.S. citizens into believing the fires are in the past.
Some churches have been burned multiple times and the violences has expanded beyond church structures. For example, offices of the Advocate, a Black-owned progressive newspaper in Jackson, Miss., was firebombed in February.
Racial divisions in communities that led to the burnings have not been reconciled, leaving these towns ripe for continuing racial violence.
The worldwide web has become a vehicle for racist messages and is being used to promote racist books, videos and other materials.
Because of lack of media interest and frequent official assessment of fires as accidents, reports of fires represent only a portion of the burnings actually occuring.
Racism plays a part not only in the burnings, but also in their investigations with most inspectors being white and from the local communities that are home to the burned-out congregations.

The Women’s Division’s lead in addressing the burned churches is in keeping with the Charter on Racial Justice Policies and the division’s long history in working for racial justice. For information on the division, the board and the denomination’s commitment to standing with the burned churches, see the General Board of Global Ministries website: http://gbgm-umc.org .

Clarification

The fire at First United Methodist Church in Tavares, Fla., cited and photographed in the AWhen Hate Burns Out of Control@ article in the July/August Response, was determined by the church to be of electrical origin, not arson. It was also determined that the fire at First Baptist Church in Conway, Ark., also cited in the photo caption accompanying that article, was not an arson. Response did not state that these fires were arsons; however use of these photos with the article could result in that inference. We regret any miscommunication.

Sandra Peters is a consultant to the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries working with the team on "Ministries in the Midst of Hate and Violence."