Thursday, June 13, 1996

Texas black pastors say they don't fear flames

By MICHELLE KOIDIN
Associated Press

HOUSTON - Pastors at black churches around Texas said Wednesday they are not overly concerned that a rash of church fires in the South will spread to their congregations.

Two black churches in the North Texas town of Greenville that were torched by arsonists earlier this week were the latest of 32 fires to hit black churches since January 1995.

Like some other black church leaders, the Rev. Frank Maxie of New Life in Christ Missionary Baptist Church in Houston said he hasn't increased security at his place of worship in the wake of the fires.

"I have people that live close to the church here that kind of watch over things," Maxie said. "I have a particular situation where I don't have to really worry."

But religious organizations should keep tabs on the investigations into the blazes, he said.

"If the law enforcement agencies fail to work fast enough, expediently enough, then we have to get public sentiment up and public knowledge and awareness up to a point where the citizens won't tolerate it," Maxie said.

In Corpus Christi, the Rev. Dale Laster of the predominately black St. Matthew's Baptist Church said his parishioners are troubled by the recent spate of fires, but they're not fearful that the violence will extend to their congregation.

"It's just a frightening situation to think anyone would desecrate the Lord's house for any reason," Laster said. "But this is a quiet community here in Corpus Christi. Nothing has been voiced here as far as people being apprehensive or afraid. They're simply not pleased with that type of behavior."

The Rev. Thomas Ates of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in El Paso said his parishioners aren't panicking either, probably because all of the fires at black churches have occurred far away.

Black churches have burned in Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, Virginia, Mississippi and Georgia. In Texas, the Greenville fires are the only ones under examination by federal authorities.

"Certainly, I would say that if the incidents were happening in their back yard, they would be quite concerned," Ates said. "By virtue of their distance, the impact of it, the full horror of the events, have not been felt by them."

The Rev. E. Thurman Walker of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in San Antonio said there really isn't a fear of the blazes spreading.

"I think there's more concern about what has happened to all of these churches," he said. "I think there's concern about the rise of possibly racial overtones."

The Texas NAACP said it was joining the Texas Peace Officers Association in recommending that churches install alarms, add outdoor lights, report threatening telephone calls and initiate a "church watch program" with members and neighbors.

"The rash of burnings of black churches in the South is an American tragedy," said Gary Bledsoe, president of the state National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

"African-Americans around Texas should rally around their black church to ensure its survival and safety," he said.

The Rev. F.D. Sampson of Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Houston said members of his congregation continue to pray for the churches that have been targeted.

"We are sympathetic for those congregations that have suffered an inconvenience," Sampson said, "but we are counting on their strength and their commitment that this will not throw them off track."