1999 NCC News Archives
NCC General Secretary Hails Arrests In Indiana
Church Burnings
Council's "Church Rebuilding Project" Actively Assisting
Indiana, Other Burned Churches
NEW YORK, Feb. 25, 1999
---- National Council of Churches General Secretary Joan B. Campbell today hailed the
arrest of an Indiana man who has admitted to setting some 30 to 50 church fires in Indiana
and other states over the past five years.
Jay Scott
Ballinger, 36, of Yorktown, Ind., has been charged in conjunction with seven of the fires,
the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday (Feb. 23).
Two other persons also are charged in one of the seven fires, that at
Concord Church of Christ, Boone County. Satanic
symbols were left behind in spray paint at two of the seven burned churches.
The NCC in 1996
called national attention to an epidemic of arson attacks on churches (at the time, mostly
African American congregations across the U.S. South), and has led in rebuilding churches
burned fro reasons of racial and/or religious hatred, promoting arson prevention measures
and winning tougher penalties for persons convicted of burning houses of worship
including those recently enacted in Indiana and Tennessee.
These
arrests mark the latest achievement of the National Church Arson Task Force, established
in mid-1996 as a direct result of the National Council of Churches work, the
Rev. Dr. Campbell said.
The task
force, a joint program of the U.S. Justice and Treasury departments, in working with state
governments, especially where there are clusters of arsons, and has put the issue squarely
in front of state fire marshals, she said. The
NCC also has been working with Indiana authorities to pay attention to the rash of fires
in their state.
Cooperation
among the U.S. Department of Justice, Indiana State Attorney General, Indiana State Fire
Marshal and U.S. District Attorney for Indianas Southern District led to the arrests
of Ballinger, Donald A. Puckett of Lebanon, Ind., and Angela Wood, Atlanta, Ga.
Ballinger is
charged with setting fires at Concord Church of Christ, Boone County; Liberty Baptist
Church, Tipton County; Hawcreek Missionary Baptist Church, Bartholomew County; Grace
Baptist Church, Hendricks County; Ebenezer Presbyterian Church, Rush County; Bethel
Mission Baptist Church in Putnam County, and Christian Liberty Church, Boone County.
The NCCs
Church Rebuilding Project is engaged actively with Indianas burned churches (not all
of them attributed to Ballinger), including the Hawcreek Missionary Baptist Church, burned
April 21, 1998. The NCC awarded the church a
rebuilding grant from its Burned Churches Fund, and put it in touch with a Tuscaloosa
woman who donated stained glass windows to the church.
The NCC has also
awarded a rebuilding grant to Blountsville Church of the Nazarene, Losantville, Ind.,
burned July 26, 1998. And the Council helped
Ohio Chapel United Methodist Church, Ogilville, Ind., get volunteer rebuilding workers
(through United Methodist Volunteers in Mission), local foundation funding and a municipal
hookup for running water and sanitation.
In November, NCC
Church Rebuilding Project staff made site visits to seven burned churches in Indiana and
six in Georgia, and talked with many more of them buy phone. Six o the seven Indiana churches visited were
damaged or destroyed by a firebomb, usually between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m., and were located
in isolated rural areas.
From June 1996
through December 1998, the NCCs Church Rebuilding Project ahs contacted more than
300 burned churches in 33 states, and, after a careful assessment of circumstances and
needs, has awarded rebuilding grants directly to churches and their congregations. Additional contributions were made in the form of
volunteer labor and project management services and in-kind donations including lumber,
construction modules, pews, altar furnishings, Bibles, hymnals and coir robes.
Of the 149
funded congregations, 70 have been completely rebuilt to date, using a combination of
funds form traditional commercial financing to an assortment of grants from foundations,
church groups and the NCC. Eight
congregations bought new church homes with NCC grants, and 11 refinanced their church debt
(eight of those using the HUD Loan Guarantee Program).
There are 39 now
under construction, 18 in the planning phase, and 42 still being assessed. Of the other churches, two declined assistance,
and the remaining 76 either did not need the NCCs assistance or were found not to
qualify for an NCC grant.
When arson
destroys a church, it devastates the congregation and damages the surrounding community,
Dr. Campbell noted. Rebuilding can
bring back the physical church, but rebuilding is more than physical repair. Rebuilding includes crisis interventions when
souls are shattered by fire, are isolated by the interruption of worship or stunned by the
anger expressed by the arson.
Our
short-term aim is to help the congregations continue their worship services and life as a
congregation, she said. Long
term, the goal is to help them heal from the destruction of their building and to rebuild
physically and spiritually. And we continue
work to address the hatred that underlies attacks on houses of worship.
-end-
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