c. 2007 Religion News Service

Church Arsonists Given Additional 2-Year State Sentences

CENTREVILLE, Ala. (RNS) Three confessed arsonists pleaded guilty Thursday (April 12) to burning five rural churches last year, and under their plea agreement will serve two years in state prison.

The sentences are in addition to the federal sentences of eight to nine years that Russell DeBusk, Matthew Cloyd and Benjamin Moseley received in federal court on Monday (April 9).

Under an agreement with prosecutors, the men will serve two years of their 15-year sentences on local charges in state prison after they finish serving their federal sentences.

The three men entered their guilty pleas before Bibb County Circuit Judge Marvin Wiggins. The three had sought youthful offender status, but were denied because of the seriousness of the crime, said District Attorney Michael Jackson.

“We wanted them to know burning churches is serious, and state prison will help them understand,” Jackson said, calling the plea agreement a compromise.

Cloyd, 21, and Moseley, 20, were ordered to serve an eight-year federal term for setting fires to nine churches, including five in Bibb County on Feb. 3, 2006. DeBusk, 20, who confessed to setting only the five fires in Bibb County, received a seven-year federal sentence.

The three former college students will be placed on probation for five years upon release from state prison. If they get into any trouble, they will have to serve the remaining 13 years.

Cloyd and Moseley still face prosecution for other fires set in Greene, Pickens and Sumter counties four days later. No trial dates in those cases have been scheduled.

DeBusk, Cloyd and Moseley stood before the judge one at a time to enter their guilty pleas to arson and burglary. Moseley also pleaded guilty to an animal cruelty charge for shooting a cow.

As each pleaded guilty, members of several Bibb County churches that were burned or damaged stood in a cluster like a choir to watch.

Connie Lawley, a member of Old Union Baptist Church, said she would have liked the trio to have been “hit a little harder.”

“I don’t think they realize it was more involved than just buildings,” she said.

_ Val Walton

Sallman Sketch Worth $50,000 Reported Stolen From Church

(RNS) A prized work by artist Warner Sallman worth $50,000 has been stolen from an Omaha, Neb., church, officials said.

Leaders at First Covenant Church said the charcoal sketch of Sallman’s famous “Head of Christ” painting was a gift from the artist, who made it for members when he visited years ago. Sallman died in 1968.

The picture was sketched at the Omaha church, office administrator Naida Aschenbrenner explained on Friday (April 13). “A number of members were there at time,” Aschenbrenner said. “That’s a real loss for them.”

She said the sketch, which had been hanging in the back of the church, may have been missing for several months.

“We started talking about it in October, that it wasn’t there,” Aschenbrenner said. “We had some improvements made in the church and thought maybe someone had taken it down.”

After Christmas, she said they realized it still hadn’t been put back, and the church finally decided it had been taken and filed a report last week to the Omaha Police Department.

The church’s pastor, the Rev. Will Howell, said the sketch “was something the church was excited about having.”

The report is just one in a chain of six art thefts that Omaha churches have reported in the last year. Howell says that he can “only assume the events are connected” because of the close proximity in which the thefts have occurred.

Aschenbrenner said that the theft has caused them to ask if the church “needs to put further rules on locking the doors.”

But, she said, with so much activity within the church, doing so is difficult. She said this wasn’t the first time that something had been reported stolen.

_ Melissa Stee

Final Chapter in `Left Behind’ Series Another Best-seller

(RNS) The last book of the “Left Behind” apocalyptic series was released this month (April) and, as others before it, has been ranked as a best-seller.

“Kingdom Come” is the 16th hardcover book in the Christian thriller series that has sold more than 43 million copies overall. On Thursday (April 12), it was listed as the 16th best-selling book on USA Today’s list of 50 top sellers.

Co-authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins created the fictional series based on the Bible’s Book of Revelation, and their books spawned a range of related products, including movies, CDs, video games and other memorabilia.

First released in 1995, the series has been credited with influencing the introduction of other Christian books onto secular store shelves.

Its publisher, Tyndale House Publishers, has sold out its first printing of 300,000 of “Kingdom Come.”

The series has been credited by its supporters for prompting conversions and rededications to the Christian faith among its readers. Over the years, critics _ including officials of the Catholic Church, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and the Presbyterian Church (USA) _ accused the books of espousing bad theology.

But they have become a publishing phenomenon, with prequels published in recent years before the final novel was released April 3. Less than a week later (on April 9) USA Today cited “Left Behind,” the first book in the series, in the No. 12 spot on its list of 25 influential titles that made an impact on the publishing industry and readers in the last quarter-century.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Quote of the Day: Steve Farase, Attorney for Mary Winkler

(RNS) “Matthew and Mary Winkler had what appeared to everyone, those on the outside, to have had a marriage made in heaven. But behind closed doors it was a living hell.”

_ Steve Farase, defense attorney for Mary Winkler, who is accused of killing her husband, Matthew, who was a Churches of Christ minister. Winkler’s murder trial is currently under way in Selmer, Tenn. He was quoted by the Associated Press.

KRE/LF END RNS