In the predawn hours Saturday morning, New Life Missionary Baptist Church — recently renamed United Believers in Christ Ministries — became the fifth St. Louis area church to be set ablaze this month. The church, like several others, has a predominantly African American congregation. A sixth church, which is mixed-race, was found on fire Sunday morning.
Authorities said all of them were intentionally set. Investigators are now trying to find the culprit as well as a motive to see whether it might have to do with race or religion.
“We believe that this fire-setting activity is meant to send a message,” Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said in a statement. “We believe this activity may be the result of stress experienced in the subject’s life.”
Parishioners have called the arson attacks “destructive” and “disappointing,” and say it “disturbs the heart.”
St. Louis’s African American community is still recovering from the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown and a grand jury’s decision not to charge former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for pulling the trigger. It’s a community that, despite distance, remembers the nine African American parishioners at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., who were shot and killed — and, weeks later, the churches that started burning across the South.
And it’s a community that worries about similar crimes closer to home, especially now.
“There’s been speculation that this is a white man coming against black churches, but we don’t know that,” David Triggs, the pastor of New Life Missionary Baptist Church told The Washington Post. “It could be a black man coming against black churches. We don’t know if there’s any race barrier to this; but we know it is a sin issue and it has to be addressed as such — through prayer.
“There’s so much division among the body of believers. I think God is allowing this to happen to bring churches closer together so we can fight a spiritual battle. The arsonist, he’s not my enemy. I forgave him the moment I pulled up to the burning church. I believe he is spiritually sick, and that’s the way we have to address this — by setting our differences aside and praying together.”