ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, July 12, 1996 TAG: 9607120045
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
A SPATE of fires at generally rural black churches throughout the South has led to appeals from religious groups for financial contributions to help rebuild or replace them.
It has also led to arguments by some that the church burnings are a trumped-up story - put out by civil-rights leaders looking for a new grievance, say, or by sensation-hungry news media.
True, the number of suspicious church fires of whatever origin has been - or at least had been, until recent months - dropping steadily over the past decade. True, too, slightly more predominantly white than predominantly black churches have burned.
Such points are perhaps useful for keeping things in perspective. But keeping things in perspective and denying reality are two different things.
The reality is that:
The burnings are disproportionately of black churches. Two analyses have counted 75 white burnings and 73 black burnings since 1990; however, there are six times more predominantly white than predominantly black places of worship in the United States.
Racism has been proved, or is suspected of being, a factor in the burnings of some of the black churches. It is not thought to have played a role in the burning of any of the white churches.
Roanoke parishioners of Gainsboro's historic, black First Baptist Church reluctantly voted this week to raze the shell of their landmark old building, a victim lsat year of nonracial arson. They can tell you that the torching of any church building - regardless of motive, and even if the structure is no longer used as a place of worship - causes pain.
But when racism is involved, the pain is intensified. And when racism arises, its existence should not be denied but, rather, fought and overcome.
LENGTH: Short : 42 linesby CNB