THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, June 11, 1996 TAG: 9606110304
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHARLISE LYLES, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 60 lines
As a boy growing up in Greensboro, Ala., during the mid-1960s, Anthony Paige watched as his hometown church burned to the ground.
About 30 years later, on June 2, he learned that Rising Star Baptist Church, a sanctuary that once stood near his boyhood church, had been reduced to ash and rubble.
That's why Paige, now pastor of First Baptist Church of Lamberts Point, hastened to Washington, D.C., on Sunday to be part of a national outcry against a recent string of black church firebombings.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has been investigating 30 church fires in the South since January 1995. Two fires in Texas on Sunday could bring that total to 32.
According to the National Council of Churches, 45 houses of worship have been ``destroyed or desecrated'' in recent years.
``This has brought back a lot of painful memories to me,'' the Rev. Paige said Monday at his large brick-and-stained-glass sanctuary on 38th Street near Hampton Boulevard. ``I am deeply concerned.''
Paige said he did not know of any local incidents of vandalism against black churches. But he cautioned against a ``wait-and-see attitude.'' ``We need to take steps and be on alert here in Southside Virginia,'' he said. ``We need to have people watching our churches.''
But he gave no specific details on what measures would be taken.
Paige and three other members from his church who went to Washington did not attend the meeting Sunday between Justice Department chief Janet Reno and ministers from churches that had been attacked.
Instead, they gathered later at Pleasant Lane Baptist Church on Capitol Hill with about 220 people, including 30 ministers, some from bombed churches, others who represented several black Baptist organizations. In sermons and songs, they reviewed facts surrounding the fires and strategies to maintain pressure on federal and state authorities to solve what some called incidents of ``domestic terrorism.''
Financial support and rebuilding efforts were also discussed. Many of the burned churches were small, rural and probably uninsured, Paige said.
But Paige warned local churches against mounting fund-raising efforts prematurely.
The Rev. Geoffrey V. Guns, president of the Tidewater Metro Baptist Ministers Convention, a group of more than 100 pastors, also warned against bogus fund-raisers who might take advantage of sympathizers.
``Our position is we don't want anybody in Hampton Roads to give money to any cause to help black churches until we know what the exact needs are,'' said Guns.
Guns worried that in response to the burnings, insurance companies might boost premiums for black churches, and banks might hesitate to lend money for new construction.
Though violence against churches harkens to the angry days of the civil rights movement, Paige said black leaders should not jump to divisive conclusions.
``The truth is we don't know all the facts,'' he said. ``I don't want to declare the white community as everybody's enemy. It's not all white people.
``As responsible citizens and Christian people, we must not start pointing fingers and dividing the community along racial lines. Leaders have to be careful not to fan the fire, but let's try to extinguish it.'' by CNB