CONTACT: Linda Bloom, New York (212) 870-3803
March 25, 1998
Nearly two years after the problem of church burnings began drawing national attention, United Methodists are continuing efforts to help congregations hit by the fires.
As of March, more than 80 United Methodist Volunteers-in-Mission teams, comprising more than 1,000 individuals, have participated in rebuilding projects, and additional teams were being scheduled.
Several United Methodist Board of Global Ministries executives traveled to Florida, South Carolina and Mississippi the week of March 16 to consult with denominational leaders in those states. Their goal was "to begin to formulate a deeper response" to the issue of church burnings, according to group leader Robert Walton.
The board's work is coordinated through a team on "Ministries in the Midst of Hate and Violence," created after the Oklahoma City bombing to address the problems of hate crimes and militia groups.
Church arsons have become a major focus of the team, according to chairwoman Lois Dauway.
"The commitment is to help the churches rebuild," she explained. "That means not just their buildings but also some of the ministries that were there."
Another goal is to strengthen existing relationships or establish new ties between the congregations whose buildings were torched and the United Methodist congregations in the community.
Donations are being collected through Advance No. 982700-1, earmarked "church burnings."
Many of the affected churches, according to Dauway, are isolated both by location and lack of any denominational connections. Many of the churches have no insurance.
The deliberate burning of churches is not new, but an alarming increase in arson fires of churches -– especially those with black congregations -– and concern about undertones of racism led the National Council of Churches (NCC) to launch its Burned Churches Project in May 1996.
Between then and the end of 1997, the project has assessed 233 burned-out congregations and directly assisted 117 churches.
Of those, 44 were completely rebuilt, 53 currently are under construction, 16 were refinanced and two were relocated to existing buildings. One church refused funds and another provided its own building campaign seed money.
The Burned Churches Project collected nearly $8 million in donations by the end of 1997. Currently, 116 churches remain in the program, according to the NCC report.
The arsons continue. Although many black churches are targeted, some churches with predominantly white congregations have been burned, such as a cluster of three rural southwestern Pennsylvania churches hit within one week in January. A few of those churches, in various parts of the country, have been United Methodist churches.
While this new pattern of arson needs to be analyzed, "it's becoming clearer that some of the church burnings are the result of people being involved in initiation rites" for white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan or Aryan Nation, Dauway said.
It has been speculated, she added, that juveniles are often used to set the fires because the penalty, at their age, is far less severe if they are caught.
Besides providing assistance to burned-out congregations, the board team is working to educate people about the issue. It also is asking United Methodist Women and anyone else to send newspaper clippings about any suspicious church fires.
Clippings and donations for the Advance can be mailed to Dauway at 475 Riverside Drive, 15th floor, New York, NY 10115.
*Bloom is news director of United Methodist News Service's New York office.
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