Another Baptist church torched in rural US South Sat Feb 11, 11:46 PM ET Flames engulfed another Baptist church in rural Alabama on Saturday, raising to 10 the number damaged or destroyed in what the FBI is calling possible hate crimes in just over a week. The target of the latest suspected arson attack was the Beaverton Free Will Baptist Church in Lamar County, near the southern U.S. state's northwest border with Mississippi, local authorities said. The other nine churches that fell victim to the spate of fires, which began on February 3, were all in southwest Alabama. Unlike the others, Beaverton Free Will Baptist was set ablaze in broad daylight, as a rare snowfall dusted Alabama. Cristal Oakes, a dispatcher with the Lamar County Sheriff's office, said firefighters were alerted to smoke billowing out of the cinder block Beaverton Free Will church at 4:20 p.m. Jenny Spence, the wife of a local volunteer fireman, said she heard calls over a police scanner for authorities to be on the lookout for a dark sport utility vehicle linked to the other nine church burnings. "They took a big risk," Spence said, referring to how Saturday's attack had not occurred under cover of darkness. "There must be a certain amount of evil in someone who would do something like this. We need people's prayers," said Spence. Alabama is predominantly Baptist. Some of the churches hit by the fires had majority white congregations, like Beaverton Free Will, while the others had mostly black congregations. The FBI has said it is examining whether the fires could be considered hate crimes under the Church Arson Prevention Act. The 1996 law makes it a crime to intentionally damage or destroy houses of worship or use threats or violence to halt the exercise of religion.
I know.... That's why I didn't title the thread: "Terrorism against black Baptist Churches continues."