Are these folks completely clueless about the church fires in Alabama?

Four churches in Pickens, Greene and Sumter counties burned early Tuesday, two of which were destroyed. Five churches burned in Bibb County, about 60 miles from Tuesday's fires; three of them were destroyed.
Austin Banks of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the federal agency that investigates arson, said there were “a lot of common things involved in all the fires” that point to the suspects targeting religion, although he declined to go into detail about the evidence.

Residents and law enforcement officials confirmed that fires at some of the churches started at the pulpit. They also said church doors had been kicked in.
Banks did not say the suspects were targeting the Baptist faith, the predominant denomination in the region.

He said it does not look like there's a racial motivation in the burnings. The four churches that burned Tuesday have black congregations, but only one of the five Bibb County churches was predominantly black.

You donÂ’t suppose it could be hatred of Christians, do you? After all, all the targets are Christian churches, and appear centered on the pulpit.

But drawing such a conclusion might require a conclusion that we have hate crimes here. Selwyn Duke has this to say on the matter.

Nine Baptist churches, with both black and white congregations, have been burned in a relatively small geographical area within a very narrow time-frame. Okay, the fact that they are all Baptist may not necessarily be significant since itÂ’s the dominant denomination in that area. In other words, it would not require too great a statistical fluke to target nine churches in these counties and happen upon only Baptist ones. Although it should give one pause for thought.

However, to the best of my knowledge, even in the Bible Belt, churches constitute only a very small percentage of the buildings. I suspect that Alabamans have also built schools, stores of various kinds, municipal buildings, residences, offices, barns, warehouses, restaurants and lots of other types of structures. Thus, while IÂ’m no mathematician, I think there are pretty long odds against randomly targeting nine buildings and happening upon only churches. If Morris Dees and company canÂ’t grasp this, they surely didnÂ’t amass their organizationÂ’s $120 million fortune through wagering. Save incense and decorative candles, you donÂ’t burn things you like. This was a hateful act. So, SPLC, donÂ’t pour gasoline down my back and tell me itÂ’s raininÂ’.

Next, could you imagine the reaction if nine synagogues or mosques had been thus burned? The monolithic mainstream media would elevate the story to prominence and exhaust themselves pontificating about how dreadful these hate-crimes were. And the posturing by public officials, oh, the posturing, it would be intense enough to induce backache.

As for this story, thereÂ’s nothing for the media to glom on to. If only black churches were in the crosshairs, there would be the white bigotry angle. The media canÂ’t get enough of that. But the fact that theyÂ’re all Christian? Please! Such concerns arenÂ’t in their programmingÂ… in either sense of the word.

So forgive me for saying it, but the lack of interest in the bias-crime angle seems based upon the bias of law-enforcement and the media, who cannot fathom that Christians might be targeted by those who hate them – Muslims, Satanists, secularists, or socialists – and that those crimes are every bit as deserving of serious condemnation as those committed by cross-burning, sheet-wearing, mouth-breathing racists. And all that is needed for this to be recognized is a paradigm-shift on the part of our nation’s opinion leaders.

Posted by: Greg at 10:39 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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