More on fires

This past weekend, more news about fires in Alabama cropped up. There was another attempt at setting fire to a church, but not by the same people as before.

Sunday morning the pastor arrived early in the morning at Chapman Chapel in near Glencoe in southeast Etowah County. What he found was a small blackened burn mark on the outside siding of the church. This incident was reported about 7:30 Sunday morning. Although it drew the attention of the church arson task force here in AL, they are pretty sure this attempt was not by the same perpetrators as the string of 9 (and a possible 10th) linked fires in west-central AL.
Why does it not appear to be linked? First of all, by looking at a map, one finds that Etowah Co. is is in north-east AL (approximately 80 miles south of Huntsville off US Hwy 431). It is in a different part of the state. Also, the other 10 fires were started inside the church around the pulpit area and the churches that were not destroyed had knocked-in back doors (again showing that the fires would have been started inside). This church had a burn mark on the outside and apparently a broken bottle had been found. This bottle would have been filled with a cocktail of flammable liquids and usually tossed at a distance or from a moving car in an attempt to start a fire. Definitely a different approch to setting the fire.

Although the damage was only cosmetic and easily fixable, we should still pray for people who would try to disrespect the property of others, especially when the attempt is to destroy property. We can't let the mind set that arson (especially on churches) is a crime you can get away without punishment.

Paix du Christ!