wfn.org | NCCCUSA Q&A ABOUT BURNINGS OF HOUSES OF WORSHIP

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Contact: Carol J. Fouke, NCC, 212-870-2252
Internet: carol_fouke.parti@ecunet.org

Questions and Answers About
BURNINGS AND DESECRATIONS OF HOUSES OF
WORSHIP

QUESTION: What raised concerns about burnings of
African American churches?

ANSWER: The pattern of an escalating number of
suspicious fires at African American churches,
especially across the Southeast, came to the
attention of the National Council of Churches (NCC)
in January.  The dramatic and persistent increase in
church arsons and vandalisms since 1994, documented
by the Atlanta-based Center for Democratic Renewal
(CDR), was all the more startling given that church
burnings overall had declined in recent years.  The
NCC, CDR and New York-based Center for
Constitutional Rights joined forces immediately to
investigate the attacks through a series of team
visits to burned churches and to call this epidemic
of terror to public attention.

Q: How many churches have been attacked to date?

ANSWER: More than 70 African American and
multiracial churches were burned during the 19
months from January 1, 1995, through July 31, 1996.
That's more than in the previous five years
combined.

Q: What is your source for those data?

ANSWER: There are multiple sources.  CDR, which has
studied white supremacist groups since 1979, counts
75 arson attacks on Black and multiracial
congregations from Jan. 1, 1995, through July 31,
1996, more than double the number (28) counted
during the previous five years combined.  On August
7, USA Today, in its extensive independent
investigation of Black church arsons, reported 74
Black church arsons during the same period.

U.S. Justice and Treasury Department statistics also
point to a dramatic increase in attacks on houses of
worship, especially African American churches, since
January 1995.  The Federal Government has
investigated more than 290 separate attacks
(including 250 fires) on all houses of worship since
January 1990.  190 of the attacks have been since
January 1995, with fully half of those at African
American churches, mostly but not exclusively in the
Southeast. The U.S. Justice and Treasury
Departments' mid-July report bears a sobering
postscript: "We have concerns that the universe of
incidents may be even larger.  We are taking steps
to determine the exact scope of the problem."

Q: So both Black and white churches are burning -- what's
the difference?

ANSWER: It is painful for any congregation when its
house of worship burns, for whatever reason.  (The NCC
never has claimed that all Black church arsons are
motivated by racism.)  But Black churches are burning
in disproportionate numbers, and there is a pattern of
racist motivation that is not true of attacks on white
churches.  Furthermore, the rate of white church
arsons has not increased over the past 18 months as it
clearly has for Black churches (Source: USA Today
8/7/96).

While roughly the same number of Black and white
churches have burned since January 1995,
proportionately four times as many Black churches are
burning.  There are an estimated 65,000 African
American churches in the United States, compared with
235,000 or more white churches (Source: 1996 Yearbook
of American and Canadian Churches).

Incidentally, the Center for Democratic Renewal
investigates all reports of hate crimes regardless of
the target's race.  While most hate-motivated attacks
on houses of worship have been on Black churches,
others have been reported against Vietnamese, Latino,
Native American, Jewish, Muslim and interracial
congregations (examples of the "race mixing" so hated
by white supremacists) and on white congregations that
have spoken out for racial justice.

Q: What evidence do you have of racist motivation in
attacks on Black churches?

ANSWER: The NCC-led team visits to more than 30 burned
churches across the South since March 1996 found
evidence of racist motivation in a majority of cases,
with several clearly connected to white supremacist
groups.  The teams have documented case after case of
spray painting of racist grafitti, use of molotov
cocktails and other incendiary devices, vandalism,
targetting of churches with a history of strong
advocacy for African American rights, and intimidation
-- including death threats and racist insults by phone
and mail.  At least 13 of the attacks on Black
churches since January 1990 have taken place around
the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Others involved in investigating attacks on Black
churches have observed similar patterns.  Deval
Patrick, U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Civil
Rights, said, "Racial hostility is driving many of
these fires."  A USA Today July 2 editorial summing up
that newspaper's extensive investigation said, "Racism
is deeply evident in the wave of burnings."

Q: What points you specifically to white supremacist
involvement in the attacks?

ANSWER: Besides evidence of tactics typically used by
white supremacist groups, several of the persons
arrested have testified about their own racist
motivation and their affiliation with the Ku Klux
Klan, Aryan Faction and other such groups.  For
example, on Aug. 14, two Klansmen pleaded guilty to
federal charges of burning down two Black churches in
South Carolina in June 1995.  They had attended Klan
meetings where members were taught that Black churches
were at the center of the Black community's assault on
white people's rights.

The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C., on June 30
reported that the Christian Knights of the Ku Klux
Klan and Christian Identity, a religious ideology
embraced by several violence-prone supremacy groups,
were circulating a booklet quoting Bible verses they
say call for the destruction of worship sites to
prevent "race-mixing."

August 15, 1996
News Media Contact: 212-870-2252
Public Information Contact: 212-870-2299
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