Somebody's Burning Churches in Alabama

There have been a spate of church fires in Alabama, including four last night which follow closely on the heels of five a few days ago.

Fires damaged or destroyed four more Baptist churches across the Alabama countryside Tuesday, less than a week after a string of five blazes that were ruled arson.

Church member Johnny Archibald said smoke was pouring from Morning Star Baptist in Boligee when he arrived around daybreak.

"They had kicked the door in," he said. "Evidently they had set the pulpit on fire and went out the front door."

Tuesday's fires took place at churches off rural roads, about 10 to 20 miles apart. They were in a cluster of three counties, about 60 miles from the Bibb County area where the five other churches were burned early Friday.

Here's a statistic that I found particularly troubling (being in the church insurance business):

Ingram said there have been 59 church fires in Alabama in the past five years, including the nine reported in the past four days, and 19 were ruled arsons.

You have to wonder what's going on down there. The arsonists seem to have a thing for Baptist churches, and the fact that the fires (in some cases) were set in the pulpit, makes me wonder if this is some sort of ritual attack.

Church fires are often started by disgruntled members (or former members), or the pastor who doesn't have the money to fix up the building and decides to let the insurance company do it. I don't think that's the case in this situation. Too many churches all going at once. This time I think they're dealing with a serial arsonist.