MIDDLEBROOK — A layer of soot still coats the sanctuary. The white ceiling is stained dark gray by smoke. Anti-gay graffiti remains spray-painted on the brick walls of St. John’s Reformed United Church of Christ.
One week ago, this Augusta County church was vandalized and set afire in what some are calling a hate crime.
The blaze was set last Saturday – five days after the national church’s General Synod voted in Atlanta to endorse gay marriage.
Although a link between the UCC vote and the vandalism has not been established, the foot-high words written in black spray paint on the church’s wall suggest such a motive: “SINNER. GAYS LOVER. UCC SINERS. LESB HELL.”
The words pain the Rev. Dorcas Lohr each time she walks past them to her office in the back of the church.
“It’s a hateful message,” Lohr said Thursday. “No matter what you think, the hate is so evident.”
As disturbing as the message is to St. John’s parishioners, some think the vandals picked the wrong target. The General Synod’s nonbinding resolution supporting gay marriage has no direct impact on individual churches, and Lohr said her church is not likely to embrace the policy anytime soon.
“I think people resent the fact that the church was judged without knowing where the congregation stood,” she said.
Gay marriage is not an issue at St. John’s, partly because Virginia law forbids it and partly because few in the congregation of 150 seem willing to push such a polarizing topic in this largely conservative county.
Yet at the same time, gays are welcome at the church.
“These are good people,” Lohr said of the members. “I don’t think they would turn anyone away, as long as their lifestyle wasn’t forced on the congregation.”
Dale Taylor, who has been attending services since January with his gay partner, Devin Nicely, said he picked St. John’s after seeing a television commercial that was part of a national advertising campaign stressing the church’s openness.
Taylor said he and Nicely are the only openly gay couple he knows of at the church. But no one made that an issue. “They were very warm, welcoming, very nice people,” Taylor said. “They don’t make judgments.”
A possible hate crime
Coming just one day before the church celebrated its 225th anniversary, the arson left members shocked and saddened – yet unafraid.
“Everybody was upset by what happened, but I don’t think fear was even thought of by anyone,” Taylor said. “You can destroy the building, but you’re not going to destroy the spirit.”
And if the fire prompts more discussion of gay issues in both the church and the community, he added, some good may actually come from it.
“Before the 1960s, blacks were second-class citizens,” Taylor said. “Finally, they got equal rights. And now it’s the gay community that has become the second class. We’re not given equal rights in anything.”
Taylor and Lohr believe the fire was fueled by anger at the national church’s support of gay marriage. The United Church of Christ, which has 1.3 million members in 5,700 congregations across the country, is the largest Christian denomination to back same-sex marriage.
It’s not unusual for hate crimes to follow national publicity about hot-button issues such as gay marriage or terrorist attacks, said Brian Levin, who heads the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University in San Bernardino.
“Most of these acts are done by rather ignorant people, who often are young, who look at this as an opportunity to frame their impulsive anger,” Levin said.
Of the 8,715 hate crimes nationwide in 2003 reported to the FBI, 1,430 involved victims selected because of their sexual orientation. About as many hate crimes were motivated by anti-religious bias, according to the FBI. Race accounted for the greatest number of hate crimes.
The Rev. Bennett Guess, spokesman at the church’s Cleveland headquarters, said earlier this week that he knew of just one other UCC church that might have been targeted because of the General Synod’s July 4 vote. And in that case, it is less clear whether vandalism to an Ohio church was connected to the controversial measure.
In December, a UCC church in Harrisonburg was set on fire and a second one in neighboring Rockingham County was vandalized. The crimes happened about the same time the church launched a national advertising campaign that stressed its openness to gays and other minority groups, said the Rev. John Deckenback, minister of the church’s Central Atlantic Conference.
“There’s just no way you can’t think back and say ‘Gee, that’s a very interesting coincidence,’ ” Deckenback said.
Police said they are not aware of any connection between the incidents and the church’s stand on gay issues. But Harrisonburg deputy fire marshal Arthur Miller said he has been in touch with federal agents investigating last week’s church fire to explore possible similarities.
Federal agents have determined the St. John’s fire was an arson, but there have been no arrests. Bart McEntire, resident agent in charge of the Roanoke office of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said Friday there are no suspects.
McEntire stopped short of calling the incident a hate crime.
“We don’t know what the real motive was,” he said. “We let the facts take us where the facts do.”
Because the arson involved a church, the FBI has joined an investigation that also includes state and local police. Any damage to a religious building is considered a possible civil rights violation, said FBI spokesman Lawrence Barry.
Sending a message
Lohr said she has been “astounded” by the national attention her church has received.
In the past week, the vandalism of St. John’s has been denounced by the Interfaith Alliace, the Human rights Campaign, Equality Virginia and other organizations.
“This is not just an act of hatred against the people of St. John’s United Church of Christ, but also to all the gay and lesbian people of Virginia and beyond,” Guess said. “It’s clear when a hate crime happens such as this, it is about sending a message to a particular group of people that they are supposed to be afraid.”
“So this is an opportunity for the United Church of Christ to say, ‘This is not about same-sex marriage: this is about the safety and dignity of the citizens of Virginia. ‘ ”
William White, a Roanoke landlord who has been a outspoken voice in other national issues involving minorities, issued a statement of his own.
White, who said he was recently appointed leader of the area’s National Socialist Movement unit, said he does not condone what happened at St. John’s. But, he added, he understands why such incidents happen.
“There is no question that those allegedly ‘Christian’ faiths who pollute their doctrine with anti-social, hateful, Jewish ideas, such as the endorsement and spread of homosexual marriages, make themselves targets for violence,’ White said.
As for the church members, Lohr said many have yet to absorb the broader implications as they deal with immediate concerns of cleaning up the mess, arranging for repairs and planning for this Sunday’s service, which will be held in the church basement.
It’s not clear when the services will return to the sanctuary, where flames destroyed the corner of a stage to the left of the altar. The arsonist had apparently piled hymns on the wooden platform to start the fire.
But the blaze didn’t spread far. The fire was smoldering by the time it was discovered by a church member who arrived to mow the lawn early Saturday mornning, Lohr said.
Althought fire damage was limited to the platform and a front pew, smoke and soot spread throughout the worship area – leaving a stain on everything from the words of Matthew on a Bible left open on the altar to the guest registry at the church’s entrance. Damage was estimated at between $50,000 and $75,000.
The condemning graffiti is what Lohr would like to see cleaned first. Thursday afternoon, she was still waiting for a sandblasting crew to show up. She hoped they would arrive before Sunday.