Southern Baptists Minister to Flock of Torched Alabama Church
by Allie Martin
February 9, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Southern Baptist churches in one rural Alabama county are coming to the aid of one of the black churches that was torched by arsonists earlier this week.Last Friday five churches in rural Bibb County, Alabama -- four them predominantly white congregations -- were destroyed or damaged by fires that are now thought to have been set by arsonists. Early Tuesday morning, another four rural churches -- all predominantly black congregations -- were torched. The FBI is investigating the blazes as civil rights violations. (See earlier story)
First Baptist Church of Dancy, located on an isolated stretch of Highway 17 in west Alabama, was among those hit on Tuesday. The interior of the church was destroyed by the suspicious fire. Immediately the Pickens Baptist Association went into action, feeding church members along with a host of federal, state, and local law enforcement officers.
Dr. Gary Farley, director of the Pickens Baptist Association, says churches in the area have worked with each other across racial lines for years. "It's just a lovely place, and they're just lovely people," he says of the Baptist members in Darcy.
"The Association has done some work down there in the community with the [Darcy] folks -- had a health fair and day camps and so forth," he recalls. "It just breaks your heart that somebody would do that to them."
Farley adds that area churches helping the Dancy church are also stepping up security measures.
"We need to be concerned because oftentimes when something like this happens, you have copy cats," the Association director notes. "There's lots of rural churches [in the county], so there's a lot of vulnerability for that kind of thing. So I'm hopeful that we will sort of be on guard."
Farley says all 34 churches in the Association will be encouraged to be on the lookout for any suspicious activity. "I'm going to encourage the pastors to do that," he says, adding that churches are often exposed to attacks. "It happens -- and it's usually some folks who want to thumb their nose at God. Of course, God has the last word on that, ultimately."
State and federal rewards totaling $10,000 have been offered for the first set of fires.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
