4 More Churches Burned in Alabama

[Laurent]

It'll be interesting if Chris Matthews will have the audacity to continue his bullshit 'homosexuals are burning the churches' theory.

More Alabama Churches Set on Fire

By Verna Gates

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - Three Baptist churches were destroyed by fires in rural Alabama and a fourth was damaged in suspected arson attacks, officials said on Tuesday, less than a week after five churches were torched in the state.

All five of the churches that burned last week also were the homes of Baptist congregations.

The FBI said a special agent investigating the five churches burned last Friday in Bibb County, Alabama, also had been assigned to the latest series of fires. A $10,000 reward was offered for information about the first round of fires.

All of the churches hit in the latest fires belonged to black congregations, local officials said. All were located no more than about 17 miles from each other in the Black Belt of Alabama, named for its rich soil and populated predominantly by African-Americans.

The five churches burned last week in Bibb County also were near other and four of them belonged to predominantly white congregations.

The Dancy First Baptist in Pickens County was one of the churches that burned to the ground on Tuesday.

"It is such a vibrant church and the people were so active," said Mary Paluzzi, city manager of nearby Aliceville. "There is no explaining how mean people can be. They hit people who don't have means and who give so much of their little."

In Greene County, the Morningstar Baptist Church burned completely and arson was suspected, according to an official in the sheriff's office.

Authorities also were investigating a third fire, at the Galilee Baptist Church in Panola, located in Sumter County.

Margaret Bishop, Emergency Management Agency director for Sumter County, said the Spring Valley Baptist Church also was targeted Tuesday, resulting in interior damage.

No injuries were reported in any of the fires.

Black churches in the South sometimes were targeted by white supremacists during the U.S. civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s.



© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

[Grimmlok]

hmmm.. do gays and liberals have anything against blacks?

[GawsipRawksz]

those crazy gays...

[A*O]

I bet it's because there was an anti-gay cartoon in Baptist Weekly

[twitchy]

Maybe it's the mega-churches doing this to eliminate the competition.

[Grimmlok]

can't they just do what their coprorate brethren do, and buy them out.. turn them into drive through chapels, or some kind of fried chicken establishment?

[UndercoverGator]

It's rogue Catholics.