It was 4 AM on March 26, 1996, when the Rev. Harry Baldwin arrived at the place
in Millen, Georgia, where, hours before, Gay's Hill Baptist Church had stood.
Gay's Hill had been founded in 1925. By the time Pastor Baldwin pulled up on
that bleak morning, all that was left was ashes.
"They watched it burn," noted Barbara Campbell. "The fire trucks were there, but they said it was 'too far gone.' They watched it burn to the ground." Campbell--part of the Keysville AmeriCorps Vista Volunteers, who specialize in arson cases and arson prevention--worked on the Gay's Hill case. Although fire investigators determined that the cause of the fire was arson and that gasoline had been used to set it, local officials tried to attribute the burning to a "disgruntled member" or to imply that the pastor of the congregation wanted the insurance money. According to Pastor Baldwin, Gay's Hill Church had reported several incidents of vandalism before the church fire, including a broken-down door and a piano that had been sledge-hammered. Vista followed up the paperwork on the police and fire reports. One of the police reports noted a Caucasian man fleeing the scene. This lead was never pursued by the police department. The arsonist(s) are still at large.
"The insurance money was $28,000. We needed a new church. What were we going to do?" asked Pastor Baldwin. Church members worked hard on several fundraisers for a total of $7000. "That's pretty good for a church of 100 members," the pastor said, "but $35,000 won't build a church today." Fortunately, help was on the way
The Center for Democratic Renewal (CDR)--a national nonprofit hate-crimes research and advocacy organization in Atlanta, Georgia--has been tracking church burnings and other crimes of hate since 1979. From 1990 to 1997, CDR's records show that more than 200 Black and multiracial churches have been burned or firebombed in the United States. More than half the incidents (115) occurred in the South in 1996. Churches of various denominations have been targeted, including United Methodist churches, but 67 percent of the overall total have been Black Baptist churches. Research indicates that church arson is generally committed at night by White males between the ages of 14 and 45, working in groups of two to five people.
In January 1996, the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States (NCC) sent a task force to the Inner City Church of Knoxville, Tennessee, which had been burned on January 8. They called on federal law-enforcement officials to investigate the firebombing of Inner City and other Black and multiracial churches. Council teams visited several dozen more burned churches throughout the spring of 1996. In June, the NCC brought 38 pastors from burned churches--including the Rev. Harry Baldwin of Gay's Hill Baptist--to Washington, DC, to tell their stories to President Clinton and to bring national attention to the rising number of church burnings.
In May 1996, the NCC established the Burned Churches Fund to help restore churches that were burned in crimes of hate. Several national organizations joined the NCC and its member denominations to support the fund, including Jewish, Islamic, Catholic, Orthodox, and Black religious organizations. The NCC was then chaired by United Methodist Bishop Melvin G. Talbert of the California-Nevada Conference.
The NCC has received more than $8 million in donations for the Burned Churches Fund, including $3.2 million donated by more than 25 philanthropic organizations. The grants are distributed to churches through a Burned Churches Fund Grants Committee, chaired by Bishop Talbert and the Rev. Dr. Joan B. Campbell, the NCC's General Secretary. It includes prominent civil-rights leaders, such as Ambassador Andrew Young and Vernon E. Jordon, as well as Protestant, Jewish, Unitarian, and Roman Catholic religious leaders.
Most of the 90 or so churches that the NCC has been working with were burned in 1996, though some are still rebuilding from arson that took place as long ago as 1988. Despite the national attention, church arson continues. CDR statistics for the first five months of 1997 show more than 20 cases of church arson--most incidents still occurring in the South to Black and multiracial churches.
Volunteer teams from various denominations throughout the United States have converged on sites in the South to help rebuild the burned churches. The word help is a key term, since the congregations and pastors of victimized churches are themselves deeply involved in the projects. The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) asked the Southeast Jurisdiction United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (SEJUMVIM) to oversee United Methodist work teams in the area. Most of the church burnings took place within the Southeast Jurisdiction. The SEJUMVIM coordinated more than 500 work teams in 1996 for both national and international work. They were able to mobilize the United Methodist connection to line up teams from all five US jurisdictions. The NCC designated three churches as United Methodist rebuilding projects.
The organization of the UMVIM network in the United States worked so well that the NCC asked SEJUMVIM to take on four more churches. Before long, work teams from other denominations were connecting to projects through the SEJUMVIM office. Joe Hamilton, the project coordinator for SEJUMVIM, estimates that, through 1997, the office has enabled 60 teams from around the country--about 750 volunteers--to work on the seven churches. More churches are contacting the office every day, asking how to send teams in 1998.
Team coordination is not confined to Protestant involvement, however. "When we get the call to work, we meet with the church and pastor and assess the situation. Then we bring in resources from wherever we can," Hamilton explains. "We may have United Methodist teams working with a Presbyterian construction coordinator, using materials paid for by an NCC grant, the United Methodist Advance, and the American Jewish Committee, and following a plan refined by the National Black Evangelical Association. Whatever it takes, that's what we do."
The Gay's Hill Baptist Church, completed in July 1997, serves as an amazing example of Hamilton's observation. Gay's Hill hosted 37 volunteer teams, only about a third of them from Georgia. United Methodists also sent teams from the California-Nevada Conference, Virginia, Massachusetts, Vermont, Florida, Kentucky, Delaware, Iowa, and Michigan. Core contributors to the project included the National Council of Churches ($112,000), the American Jewish Committee, the National Association of Black Evangelicals, the Promise Keepers, World Relief, and local contributors such as Georgia Power, the Causeway Corporation, and the Catholic Dioceses of Savannah.
The success in rebuilding Black churches depends as much on the involvement and support of the local congregation as it does on the help of "outsiders." Pastor Baldwin, Rufus Lee (a member of Gay's Hill Baptist Church who served as volunteer construction coordinator), Hazel Banner, Veeta Reese, and Pearl Holmes contributed hours of work to the project.
The local Millen United Methodist Church regularly hosted a Wednesday evening dinner and worship service for the visiting volunteer teams. The Rev. Charles Cravey, Millen UMC's pastor, produced a monthly newsletter about the site and frequently pitched in to help the volunteer teams with construction. The relationships established during the rebuilding have continued beyond the dedication of the new building. Millen United Methodist Church maintains an ongoing dialogue with the Gay's Hill congregation. Since the perpetrators of the arson have not been apprehended, the Millen UMC is taking a risk. Participation of other local churches and businesses has helped to bolster support for the Gay's Hill church.
Gay's Hill Baptist Church still stands on its isolated road with only the surrounding fields and an occasional abandoned shack on the horizon. Its future depends on the relationships forged between the members of the church and the volunteers who pitched in to rebuild it. Contractor Dennis Wolfe (Caucasian) from the Causeway Corporation noted at the dedication service: "Whenever I pass by this church, I remember the sink we installed and the sheet rock we donated and I think: 'That's my church.'" This feeling of ownership by the wider community creates solidarity between the Black church members and community members, White and Black, outside the congregation. It sends a message to would-be hate-crime perpetrators that says their acts of hate will no longer be tolerated by the community.
When asked what he thought about the fact that the arsonist(s) who had burned Gay's Hill were free to strike again, Pastor Baldwin commented: "I hope they're watching. They thought they were doing harm, but God really blessed this church because of them."
The National Council of Churches is fully aware that rebuilding churches will not solve the problem of hate crimes. So it has extended the Burned Churches Project with a plan to address the racism at the heart of the burnings. "We don't want these new churches simply to become fuel for the next arson," announced the Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell at a convocation held in Washington. The convocation marked the first anniversary of that day when Harry Baldwin traveled with 37 other clergy members to the US capital to tell his story.
The new initiative focuses on developing community dialogues to confront issues of racism and racial justice. Campbell announced: "While continuing to rebuild churches is still very important, the healing process also must address the deep-seated problem of racial hatred that plagues many communities. Our goal is to create communities where burning any house of worship is intolerable and universally condemned."
While the NCC continues its commitment to rebuilding--considering an additional 120 churches for rebuilding aid--it has also joined with state councils of churches throughout the country to sponsor locally based dialogues about race relations. Phase II, "Building Communities of Hope," emphasizes the creation of partnerships between local churches and local or state initiatives--as well as the continuation of interfaith partnerships linking Christians, Jews, Muslims, and others--to coordinate efforts for racial justice. Training, monitoring racial crimes, and an Internet forum are part of the plans for Phase II. The efforts and the dialogues are intended to dovetail with new efforts by President Clinton's Race Advisory Commission and to complement ongoing efforts of the US Civil Rights Commission, according to Don Rojas, Administrator for Racial Justice and Reconciliation for the NCC's Church Rebuilding Project. The Phase II plan will also seek to extend the work of interfaith coalitions that have formed in local communities to rebuild burned churches.
Churches burned down in hatred are being reconstructed with love and dedication by people of different races. "Love, hope, happiness, and sawdust have come out of the ashes," says Harry Baldwin. But some of the churches on the NCC's list have refused the help of outsiders. In some cases, the congregation itself may have access to enough resources to rebuild. But, in other cases, there is no basis for trust. At the Gay's Hill dedication, evidence of profound change on the part of the White volunteers poured forth from the pulpit. "The work wasn't easy; it was hard," said Gary Fisher of the Causeway Corporation. "As a White person relating to Black people, I'm just learning. I was so well received. We had many conversations about hard construction decisions, but the work was done and done well. We remain brothers and sisters in Christ. Thank you for inviting me. It was a great privilege."
Kevin Hale of Chapel Hill United Methodist Church in Battle Creek,
Michigan, and the Rev. Cravey of Millen UMC both commemorated Martin
Luther King, Jr., in their presentations. It seemed that what had for so long been
words and ideas for them became a physical, emotional reality at Gay's Hill.
A rural country road. A Black church burned late at night. A small congregation. Few outsiders concerned. Yet, as warped and twisted as we feel our society has become, there is that spirit that wells up within us when our brother or sister cries out. What Satan tried to accomplish through hate, God conquers and rebuilds with love. Block by block, board by board, Gay's Hill Baptist Church begins to take shape, with volunteer labor from across America breaking down racial and religious barriers. It is not so much the "physical" church being rebuilt as the "spiritual" church. Blacks and Whites [are] working side by side. Martin, your dream has finally come to fruition. It's beginning to work at Gay's Hill and elsewhere across America....The dream IS alive!
--The Rev. Dr. Charles E. Cravey, "A Flower Grows in Harlem."
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Christie R. House is the associate editor of New World Outlook. This article is reprinted from the January-February 1998 issue of NEW WORLD OUTLOOK, the Mission Magazine of The United Methodist Church, by permission of the Editors. Copyright © 1998 New World Outlook. All photographs are copyright © The General Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Church and courtesy, New World Outlook magazine.