THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 23, 1996 TAG: 9606230086
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: DENMARK, TENN. LENGTH: 47 lines
Meeting in a borrowed sanctuary, the Rev. Walter Thomas draws a chorus of ``amens'' as he promises the tiny congregation of Johnson Grove Baptist Church that the Lord has never left their side.
``If you're going to hang around with someone, the best person you can hang around with is Jesus,'' Thomas proclaims.
On the night of Jan. 13, 1995, arsonists burned two small churches in Tennessee - Johnson Grove, and Macedonia Baptist in Bells, 18 miles to the north. They were the first of more than three dozen fires at churches with black congregations that have earned federal attention over the past 18 months.
The buildings were destroyed, but if the intent was to destroy these communities of believers or undermine trust in their neighbors, the attacks fell far short.
Both churches are rebuilding, with the help of old friends and new.
Lane Chapel, a longtime neighbor, lets Johnson Grove congregants use its sanctuary for early Sunday morning services, and other area churches have held gospel concerts and garage sales to raise money.
Individual gifts have helped, too - some from donors the church doesn't even know, Thomas says.
Ararat Baptist Church, a nearby white congregation, collected $500 for Johnson Grove and has promised to help with new choir robes.
The churches' pastors had not met before the fire.
``We've been very distressed and depressed over what has taken place,'' says the Rev. J.V. Davis of Ararat. ``We feel an empathy for our brothers and sisters in Christ.''
Racism has been cited as the suspected cause in some of the fires, but Thomas and his followers say they have no way of knowing why their church was burned.
``I don't have any right to say because I don't know,'' says church secretary Linda Douglas.
No arrests have been made in either of these Tennessee fires. Since the night they burned, the state has recorded four more arsons at black churches and at least that many at white churches. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
Tennessee's Johnson Grove Baptist Church, one of the first black
churches burned in a string of arsons, is rebuilding. From left,
Mary Thomas, Walter Thomas Jr. and Kenneth Cole check the progress. by CNB