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Folks, two more churches have just been set on fire, about a mile from each other in Smith County, NE Texas. That makes at least 10 since the beginning of the year!
I think it's time for folks in the area to start putting together "neighborhood watches" around their local churches until this scumbag is caught.

Im in longview and I was just watching this on the news tonight. It messed up that someone or a group of people would start burning down churches for no apparent reason.

It's my understanding that the Feds have now been brought in to assist the investigations. Let's hope they catch those terrorists and show no mercy to them.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention T3hK1w1,

I betcha that these rural churches can probably scare up a couple dozen game cameras out of their congregations. I strongly suggest they start using them.

You can bet if I was a attendee at a east Texas church I would organizing 24 hour security. This brings the total burned to 11.
1 in Canton
1 in Martins Mill
3 in Athens
2 in Tyler
1 in Lindale
1 in Wills Point
and with the 2 last night makes 11.

I am in the Christian Motorcyclists Association and we have members attending some of these churches. We are praying that someone will come forward, someone know something. Many of you probably believe as I do that a church is really the people not the building. But this is real blow to God's work, and we know satan has hand in it.

Sorry for preaching I will go back to my corner now.

That is pretty jacked up. Arson is a crime of a seriously diseased mind in any case, but picking out churches adds a demented twist to it. The perpetrator will get caught at some point. With this many arson's, a mistake is sure to be made.

I just hope this doesn't end up like the last spate of church burnings.... some were racially motivated, then others decided to take advantage of it by burning their own buildings for insurance money. I don't know which of the two was worse.

03Lightningrocks wrote:That is pretty jacked up. Arson is a crime of a seriously diseased mind in any case, but picking out churches adds a demented twist to it.

I agree.

I was discussing this with a friend today and he informed me of the two last night. It was also reported that 3 additional churches had been broken into on or about the same night.

03Lightningrocks wrote:That is pretty jacked up. Arson is a crime of a seriously diseased mind in any case, but picking out churches adds a demented twist to it. The perpetrator will get caught at some point. With this many arson's, a mistake is sure to be made.

The only positive I can pull out of this is at least churches are usually unoccupied in off hours....so unless I missed something, no one has been hurt yet, right?

Buildings can be replaced. At least they haven't managed to kill anyone. Yet.

As a churchman myself, and whose church has been broken into at least twice, I can state that the reason the arson often occurs is to cover up a robbery. Churches are often very negligent in protecting their property, empty 90% of the time, and thus very good targets for thieves. Churches also have high-tech equipment that sells well on the street and in pawn shops.
Close to where we live there have been 2 churches burned. One in Lumberton that happened just before Christmas. The criminal was caught and it was another case of arson to cover up a robbery. The church has decided not to rebuild at that location.
Another took place a couple of years ago in Kountze. They called it arson, but they have never caught the criminal. The church has now been rebuilt and is going strong.

chabouk wrote:I betcha that these rural churches can probably scare up a couple dozen game cameras out of their congregations. I strongly suggest they start using them.

Man, that is one hell of an idea! Game cameras....well done, sir. I just used one to bust my Australian Cattle Dog eating some fancy rug we got for a wedding gift. It was either the Blue Heeler or the German Shepherd. The Aussie got way busted.

Well, seems as though they caught the little miscreants:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... 8a2ae.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

lancermit wrote:Well, seems as though they caught the little miscreants:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... 8a2ae.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Per the article:

He also said Bourque and McAllister used to attend First Baptist Church in Ben Wheeler, which was not targeted.

You wonder what their motivation was. They did not target the church they both used to attend, but had no problem burning others. I would have thought that "used to" might mean they had a problem with church. If so, why not target the one that disappointed them? OTH, if they thought enough of it to want to protect it, why weren't they still attending?

Weird.

They did not target the church they both used to attend

They're saved. Hallelujah.

casingpoint wrote:

They did not target the church they both used to attend

They're saved. Hallelujah.

Only on Sundays.