Methodist College Vows to Fund, Rebuild Burned Ala. Churches
A ''service of grief and hope'' over the fires and arrests of three students accused of setting fire to a string of rural churches was held last week at Birmingham-Southern College, where two of the three are enrolled.
A ''service of grief and hope'' over the fires and arrests of three students accused of setting fire to a string of rural churches was held last week at Birmingham-Southern College, where two of the three are enrolled.
On Mar. 16, hundreds of people attended the service to acknowledge the grief and hope over the Alabama church burnings. Among the speakers was BSC president Dr. David Pollick, BSC Baptist Campus Minister Craig Hawkins, and Dr. Jim Parker, pastor of Ashby Baptist Church.
Following the arrests of Birmingham-Southern sophomores Russell DeBusk Jr., 19, and Ben Moseley, 19, and a former Birmingham-Southern student, Pollick said that he wanted the college to have an active role in helping rebuild the burned churches that the students have been accused of setting fire to.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
The entire community of Birmingham-Southern College “pledges to aid in the rebuilding of these lost churches through our resources and our labor,” the BSC president said at a press conference on Mar. 8, according to the United Methodist News Service.
The United Methodist-affiliated college plans to help through financial aid and volunteer labor by working in partnership with the United Methodist Church’s North Alabama Annual (regional) Conference.
“Together, we’ll stand as a reminder of the strength of communities that transcend the differences of religion and place, as well as the effects of mindless cruelty,” Pollick added.
United Methodists in the North Alabama Conference reached out to the congregations impacted by the fires with monetary donations. Local churches sent funds or offered to send construction help. Other congregations have offered meeting space to the burned congregations.
In a Mar. 9 letter to Pollick, the Rev. R. Randy Day, top staff executive of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, also expressed support.
“We are also keeping the congregations and communities affected by the arson in our prayers,” Day said, according to UMNS. The board is ready to help the churches through the network of United Methodist Volunteers in Mission, which includes construction teams, he said.
The Suspects
On Mar. 8, the two Birmingham-Southern College students, along with the former Birmingham-Southern student who transferred to the University of Alabama-Birmingham, were arrested for the early February fires of nine rural Alabama churches. According to news report, the young men set the first fire on Feb. 3 as “a joke” followed by four other churches that day and set another four churches on fire on Feb. 7 to throw off the massive arson investigation.
The students have been suspended and were immediately banned from the campus. If convicted, each church arson carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years.
Pollick and the two United Methodist bishops of the North Alabama and Alabama-West Florida conferences expressed concern for the families of the young men and asked for prayers for all the people affected by the church fires and said he shared “the sorrow of our neighbors whose churches represent the heart and soul of their communities.”
However, the BSC head denounced the actions of the young men.
“These cruel and senseless acts of destruction have profoundly touched our college community,” Pollick said. “Where there once existed such a clear line between the harmless and playful and the harmful and cruel, we increasingly see young adults throughout our nation incapable of distinguishing between healthy and destructive conduct.”
Bishop Larry Goodpaster, of the Alabama-West Florida Conference, agreed that the actions of the students don’t reflect Christian values, according to UMNS.
“Certainly the alleged actions of these young men do not reflect the values and beliefs that we hold as United Methodist Christians,” he said in a March 9 statement. “Let us pray for them and their families and continue to pray for all of those whose lives have been so severely impacted in this tragic sequence of events. We deplore violence and destructive behaviors that injure others, especially people of faith, and that, as in this case, destroy church property.
“Now let us find ways, as so many United Methodists already have, to assist and help rebuild those churches that were lost or heavily damaged by these fires over the last month.”
Investigators said previously that there appeared to be no racial pattern in the fires; four were white congregations, five were black. Also, while all fire-struck churches were Baptist, agents were uncertain if that denomination was a factor as that is the dominant faith in the region.
