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Two 19-year-old college students have been arrested and a third man is being sought in the case of 10 rural Alabama churches set ablaze during the first two weeks of February, according to CNN.com and other news sources. According to a CBS report, the men will be arraigned today on federal arson charges, but not civil rights violations. A press conference has been scheduled for this afternoon.
No motive for the arsons has been disclosed, but some investigators have speculated that racial or religious hatred might be involved. Five of the rural Baptist congregations had predominantly black congregations; the other five were predominantly white. According to an article in the Christian Science Monitor, deliberate church burnings occur 15-20 times per month across the country, most of the congregations targetted are predominanly white, and theft is usually the motive.
Christian Broadcasting Network reported that members of the affected congregations believe that "spiritual warfare was involved," and have resolved to work more closely together as a result.
Meanwhile, a string of fires in February in church buildings or warehouses in other parts of the state were categorised as accidental by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
The new fires came during the same month that the federal government named the site of one of the nation's most vicious church burnings a national landmark. On February 21, Birmingham, Alabama's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was designated as a national landmark. The bombing of that church on Sept. 21, 1963 by Ku Klux Klan members killed four African American teenaged-girls and seared the nation's conscience. For some. the incident helped to create momentum in favor of civil rights reforms. For others the incident was a reflection of racist intransigence that many feared would never be fully eradicated.
