wfn.org | NCCCUSA On Church Burnings Arrests

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2227
Email: news@ncccusa.org  Web: www.ncccusa.org

20NCC2/25/99              FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NCC GENERAL SECRETARY HAILS ARRESTS IN INDIANA CHURCH BURNINGS
Council's "Church Rebuilding Project" Actively Assisting 
Indiana, Other Burned Churches

 NEW YORK, Feb. 25 ---- National Council of Churches 
General Secretary Joan B. Campbell today hailed the arrest of 
an Indiana man who has admitted to setting some 30 to 50 
church fires in Indiana and other states over the past five 
years.

 Jay Scott Ballinger, 36, of Yorktown, Ind., has been 
charged in conjunction with seven of the fires, the U.S. 
Department of Justice announced Tuesday (Feb. 23).  Two other 
persons also are charged in one of the seven fires, that at 
Concord Church of Christ, Boone County.  Satanic symbols were 
left behind in spray paint at two of the seven burned 
churches.

 The NCC in 1996 called national attention to an epidemic 
of arson attacks on churches (at the time, mostly African 
American congregations across the U.S. South), and has led in 
rebuilding churches burned for reasons of racial and/or 
religious hatred, promoting arson prevention measures and 
winning tougher penalties for persons convicted of burning 
houses of worship - including those recently enacted in 
Indiana and Tennessee.

 "These arrests mark the latest achievement of the 
National Church Arson Task Force, established in mid-1996 as a 
direct result of the National Council of Churches' work," the 
Rev. Dr. Campbell said.

"The task force, a joint program of the U.S. Justice and 
Treasury departments, is working with state governments, 
especially where there are clusters of arsons, and has put the 
issue squarely in front of state fire marshals," she said.  
"The NCC also has been working with Indiana authorities to pay 
attention to the rash of fires in their state."

Cooperation among the U.S. Department of Justice, Indiana 
State Attorney General, Indiana State Fire Marshal and U.S. 
District Attorney for Indiana's Southern District led to the 
arrests of Ballinger, Donald A. Puckett of Lebanon, Ind., and 
Angela Wood, Atlanta, Ga.

 Ballinger is charged with setting fires at Concord Church 
of Christ, Boone County; Liberty Baptist Church, Tipton 
County; Hawcreek Missionary Baptist Church, Bartholomew 
County; Grace Baptist Church, Hendricks County; Ebenezer 
Presbyterian Church, Rush County; Bethel Mission Baptist 
Church in Putnam County, and Christian Liberty Church, Boone 
County.

 The NCC's Church Rebuilding Project is engaged actively 
with Indiana's burned churches (not all of them attributed to 
Ballinger), including the Hawcreek Missionary Baptist Church, 
burned April 21, 1998.  The NCC awarded the church a 
rebuilding grant from its Burned Churches Fund, and put it in 
touch with a Tuscaloosa woman who donated stained glass 
windows to the church.

 The NCC also has awarded a rebuilding grant to 
Blountsville Church of the Nazarene, Losantville, Ind., burned 
July 26, 1998.  And the Council helped Ohio Chapel United 
Methodist Church, Ogilville, Ind., get volunteer rebuilding 
workers (through United Methodist Volunteers in Mission), 
local foundation funding and a municipal hookup for running 
water and sanitation.

 In November, NCC Church Rebuilding Project staff made 
site visits to seven burned churches in Indiana and six in 
Georgia, and talked with many more of them by phone.  Six of 
the seven Indiana churches visited were damaged or destroyed 
by a firebomb, usually between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m., and were 
located in isolated rural areas.

 From June 1996 through December 1998, the NCC's Church 
Rebuilding Project has contacted more than 300 burned churches 
in 33 states, and, after a careful assessment of circumstances 
and needs, has awarded rebuilding grants directly to churches 
and their congregations.  Additional contributions were made 
in the form of volunteer labor and project management services 
and in-kind donations including lumber, construction modules, 
pews, altar furnishings, Bibles, hymnals and choir robes.

Of the 149 funded congregations, 70 have been completely 
rebuilt to date, using a combination of funds from traditional 
commercial financing to an assortment of grants from 
foundations, church groups and the NCC.  Eight congregations 
bought new church homes with NCC grants, and 11 refinanced 
their church debt (eight of those using the HUD Loan Guarantee 
Program).

 There are 39 now under construction, 18 in the planning 
phase, and 42 still being assessed.  Of the other churches, 
two declined assistance, and the remaining 76 either did not 
need the NCC's assistance or were found not to qualify for an 
NCC grant.  

 "When arson destroys a church, it devastates the 
congregation and damages the surrounding community," Dr. 
Campbell noted.  "Rebuilding can bring back the physical 
church, but rebuilding is more than physical repair.  
Rebuilding includes crisis intervention when souls are 
shattered by fire, are isolated by the interruption of worship 
or stunned by the anger expressed by the arson.

 "Our short-term aim is to help congregations continue 
their worship services and life as a congregation," she said.  
"Long term, the goal is to help them heal from the destruction 
of their building and to rebuild physically and spiritually.  
And we continue work to address the hatred that underlies 
attacks on houses of worship."

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