DakotaGypsy
Active Member
Although I am very sure that such sentiments were bandied about.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/09/national/09arson.html
March 9, 2006
3 Students Held in Church Fires Set in Alabama
By RICK LYMAN
Three college students from the prosperous suburbs of Birmingham, Ala., were arrested yesterday in the burning of nine Baptist churches last month in rural Alabama. Federal officials said the fires were a "joke" that spun out of control while the students were deer hunting.
After initially setting ablaze five churches in the county just south of Birmingham, two students burned four additional churches days later in more remote areas, hoping to divert investigators, the authorities said.
Two students, Benjamin N. Moseley and Russell L. DeBusk Jr., both 19, from Birmingham-Southern College, were arrested on the campus after admitting their involvement in the fires to federal agents, officials said.
The agents were led to the students by tire tracks at several burned churches, officials said.
Several hours later, the authorities arrested Matthew Lee Cloyd, 20, a student at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, whose mother owns the Toyota 4Runner that left the tracks, federal agents said in an affidavit with the criminal complaint.
The identities surprised investigators, who had speculated that the fires were the work of people familiar with the remote rural roads where the blazes were set, not products of the Birmingham upper middle class, one the son of a doctor and another of a county constable.
"This is just so hard to believe," said the state fire marshal, Richard W. Montgomery. "My profile on these suspects is shot all to heck and back."
At a mass gathering on the Birmingham-Southern campus on Wednesday afternoon, the college president, David Pollick promised that the institution would help rebuild the churches.
"Students, faculty and staff of our college are at once shocked and outraged," Dr. Pollick said. "We share the sorrow of our neighbors whose churches represented the heart and soul of their communities."
From the beginning, investigators had theorized that the fires had no racial motive, as there had been for many church fires throughout the Southeast in the mid-90's. And that, they said, was borne out.
Four churches that burned early on Feb. 3 in Bibb County, about an hour south of Birmingham, had predominantly white congregations, and one was black. All four churches burned on the morning of Feb. 7 in an even more remote stretch more than 90 minutes southwest of Birmingham had black congregations.
Officials have concluded that a church fire on Feb. 11 in another rural corner of Alabama was not connected.
"We believe this is an isolated incident," Gov. Bob Riley said. "We don't think there is any kind of organized conspiracy against religion or against the Baptists."
As a result of the arrests, Mr. Riley said, the dozens of parishioners who have been nervously standing guard over their own churches for the last month "can rest a little easier."
Mr. DeBusk and Mr. Moseley appeared briefly before Magistrate Judge Robert R. Armstrong Jr. in the Hugo L. Black Federal Courthouse in downtown Birmingham. They were slender and pale, with dark, floppy hair. Mr. DeBusk wore blue jeans and an orange hooded sweatshirt over a white T-shirt, Mr. Moseley a blue polo shirt and jeans.
Mr. Cloyd appeared separately, after his surrender.
All three were held in custody, at least until a bail hearing tomorrow.
Mr. Moseley and Mr. DeBusk were active in the theater program at their college, acting and helping backstage. This year, they performed in "Extremities," and Mr. Moseley was to appear in the spring in "Young Zombies in Love."
The Hilltop News, the campus newspaper, published yesterday under the headline "Theater Students to Appear in Film" an article that started, "BSC students Russ DeBusk and Ben Moseley are on the road to stardom."
The students were planning to appear in a locally produced independent film about a young man played by Mr. DeBusk who struggled to motivate his slacker friends.
Jenna Wright, who had worked on theatrical productions with Mr. Moseley, said she had a hard time connecting someone who would burn churches with the talented young man whom she knew.
"I am just completely in shock," Ms. Wright said. "This is just so sad. He had so much potential."
The three suspects had their own pages on Facebook.com, a networking Web site for college and high-school students.
(More)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/09/national/09arson.html
March 9, 2006
3 Students Held in Church Fires Set in Alabama
By RICK LYMAN
Three college students from the prosperous suburbs of Birmingham, Ala., were arrested yesterday in the burning of nine Baptist churches last month in rural Alabama. Federal officials said the fires were a "joke" that spun out of control while the students were deer hunting.
After initially setting ablaze five churches in the county just south of Birmingham, two students burned four additional churches days later in more remote areas, hoping to divert investigators, the authorities said.
Two students, Benjamin N. Moseley and Russell L. DeBusk Jr., both 19, from Birmingham-Southern College, were arrested on the campus after admitting their involvement in the fires to federal agents, officials said.
The agents were led to the students by tire tracks at several burned churches, officials said.
Several hours later, the authorities arrested Matthew Lee Cloyd, 20, a student at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, whose mother owns the Toyota 4Runner that left the tracks, federal agents said in an affidavit with the criminal complaint.
The identities surprised investigators, who had speculated that the fires were the work of people familiar with the remote rural roads where the blazes were set, not products of the Birmingham upper middle class, one the son of a doctor and another of a county constable.
"This is just so hard to believe," said the state fire marshal, Richard W. Montgomery. "My profile on these suspects is shot all to heck and back."
At a mass gathering on the Birmingham-Southern campus on Wednesday afternoon, the college president, David Pollick promised that the institution would help rebuild the churches.
"Students, faculty and staff of our college are at once shocked and outraged," Dr. Pollick said. "We share the sorrow of our neighbors whose churches represented the heart and soul of their communities."
From the beginning, investigators had theorized that the fires had no racial motive, as there had been for many church fires throughout the Southeast in the mid-90's. And that, they said, was borne out.
Four churches that burned early on Feb. 3 in Bibb County, about an hour south of Birmingham, had predominantly white congregations, and one was black. All four churches burned on the morning of Feb. 7 in an even more remote stretch more than 90 minutes southwest of Birmingham had black congregations.
Officials have concluded that a church fire on Feb. 11 in another rural corner of Alabama was not connected.
"We believe this is an isolated incident," Gov. Bob Riley said. "We don't think there is any kind of organized conspiracy against religion or against the Baptists."
As a result of the arrests, Mr. Riley said, the dozens of parishioners who have been nervously standing guard over their own churches for the last month "can rest a little easier."
Mr. DeBusk and Mr. Moseley appeared briefly before Magistrate Judge Robert R. Armstrong Jr. in the Hugo L. Black Federal Courthouse in downtown Birmingham. They were slender and pale, with dark, floppy hair. Mr. DeBusk wore blue jeans and an orange hooded sweatshirt over a white T-shirt, Mr. Moseley a blue polo shirt and jeans.
Mr. Cloyd appeared separately, after his surrender.
All three were held in custody, at least until a bail hearing tomorrow.
Mr. Moseley and Mr. DeBusk were active in the theater program at their college, acting and helping backstage. This year, they performed in "Extremities," and Mr. Moseley was to appear in the spring in "Young Zombies in Love."
The Hilltop News, the campus newspaper, published yesterday under the headline "Theater Students to Appear in Film" an article that started, "BSC students Russ DeBusk and Ben Moseley are on the road to stardom."
The students were planning to appear in a locally produced independent film about a young man played by Mr. DeBusk who struggled to motivate his slacker friends.
Jenna Wright, who had worked on theatrical productions with Mr. Moseley, said she had a hard time connecting someone who would burn churches with the talented young man whom she knew.
"I am just completely in shock," Ms. Wright said. "This is just so sad. He had so much potential."
The three suspects had their own pages on Facebook.com, a networking Web site for college and high-school students.
(More)
Do you truly believe that atheists are morally superior? 
