c. 2006 Religion News Service

DANCY, Ala. _ A charred Bible rested on a table in front of what used to be Dancy First Baptist Church’s pulpit, where investigators believe the fire started.

The Rev. Walter Hawkins Jr., ran his fingers across the book, causing the corners of the pages to flake off.

Wednesday (Feb. 8) was the first time he could walk into his church, one of the nine central Alabama Baptist churches set afire by arsonists in the past week. Five churches were reported burned Friday in Bibb County.

“It’s totally, totally destroyed,” Hawkins said. “There is nothing salvageable. It looks so much better on the outside. I don’t know what to say.”

Investigators sifted through the remains of the four churches set afire Tuesday morning in Greene, Pickens and Sumter counties. Fifty agents from the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives scoured the sites for evidence.

No arrests have been made. No motive is apparent.

“Someone was directly attacking the sanctuaries of the churches,” Senior Agent Austin Banks said. “It seems like a statement was being made.”

The ministers and members of the damaged congregations are struggling to figure out what that statement could be.

Hawkins, whose church is in southernmost Pickens County, just a few miles from the Mississippi state line, leaned close to the Bible, which was left open on the table. The fire consumed most of the words, but some remained: “up the sin of my” read one partial line from Judges 19. “They set their heart,” the next line read.

Investigators had asked Hawkins earlier if that had any special meaning. Anything that could be a message.

According to the Web site Bible.org, the 19th chapter of Judges tells the story of an Israelite’s travels with his concubine.

One night, he gave her over to a group of rowdy men who threatened to sexually assault him and then raped her repeatedly. The Israelite took the woman home, cut her into 12 pieces and sent the pieces “throughout Israel.”

Did it have meaning? Hawkins couldn’t think of anything. Not yet.

He was standing in the middle of the 155-year-old church’s new building, constructed in 1999. Could this apply to his own congregation? Did a congregant leave the Bible there accidentally or had it been placed there by the arsonist? He had only questions. No answers.

Banks said the church’s Bible was being looked at by authorities.

Meanwhile, most community members had far less information to go on. They knew the churches that burned were small and in rural settings.

Nothing had been taken or left at the sites, and two white men in a dark sports utility vehicle were seen near many of the crime scenes. Of the nine churches set ablaze, all were Baptist. Both predominantly black and predominantly white congregations have been hit.

“You would think there has got to be some kind of message,” said Annie Hodges Garner, a member of the congregation from Dancy. “I wish they would use words instead of burning down my church.”

Bettye Simmons, another church member, sat beside Garner, quietly shaking her head. She cleared her throat and stared at the shell of her church as she spoke: “I can’t figure this out. It is frustrating. I just want to know why.”

Other congregations are struggling with the same questions. Why would someone burn their church? What was it about them? Several Baptist churches existed between each of them. Baptist churches are as ubiquitous as hay bales along the back roads of Alabama.

The Rev. Glenn Harris of Spring Valley Baptist Church in Sumter County said using the sanctuaries of the churches as the starting points of the fires made it apparent the arsonists had a beef with the church.

“It seems they’re angry at God,” he said. “God is the only one who can save them. And God still loves them.”

He arrived at his church Tuesday to find 40 of his 300 members outside the burning building. He expected tears. Instead he saw determination. The only questions he got dealt with when they could get in the building to start cleaning up.

All the ministers vowed to rebuild. The Rev. James Posey, pastor of the Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church in Boligee, which is in southern Greene County, said his faith was unshaken.

“The church is going to continue on,” he said. “You are not going to stop it. You can bomb the building, but the church still exists in our hearts.”

MO/JL END RNS

(Andy Netzel writes for The Mobile Register in Mobile, Ala.)

Editors: To obtain file photos of the Alabama church fires, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject. Photos moved Wednesday (Feb. 8).