St. Mary Baptist fire
Investigators at the scene of the fire that ravaged St. Mary Baptist Church in Port Barre, La. (Photo courtesy of Louisiana State Fire Marshal)
4-10-19
Recent news of three church fires in the state of Louisiana, all black churches, and all at almost the same time, brought back memories of those mysterious "fires of unknown origin."
For 25 years my church mission office developed and directed humanitarian projects in the "Bootheel" of Missouri. That area had/has considerable wealth owned by white folks, and much poverty "owned" by a big black population that once chopped and picked cotton on white land, but was no longer needed or wanted after mechanization took over.
Among our projects was the development of three "wardrobe" stores that offered good quality used clothing and other items at low cost, and free to some. After we established the first store someone came in the early morning and threw a "Molotov cocktail" – gasoline in a glass bottle with a lighted rag for ignition – through a glass window. The store burned down. The sheriff classed it as a "fire of unknown origin." We rebuilt.
Another community needed a wardrobe store. We bought a large Quonset hut and a work team from Minnesota came over Easter holidays, insulated it, and made it a nice small business. Soon a "fire of unknown origin" burned it out. A third store we started in another community was burned down by that same strange fire.
We started a small farmer's cooperative and rented a small barn in which to store our equipment, only to see a "fire of unknown origin" burn it to the ground.
About this time, St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Hayti, MO, was falling apart. The Methodists found an abandoned white church south of town that St. Luke's could use, so they tore down their old church and poured a foundation to fit the white building. A few days before they were to move the white structure to the new site, another "fire of unknown origin" destroyd it. Another abandoned church was found, the foundation changed to fit it, and the night before it was to be moved, it burned down, for a total of six "fires of unknown origin" in the same area.
That's how I learned that a very common practice of expressing racial hate is by those "fires of unknown origin." Don't let them start in your own heart. They will destroy you.
Mel West
The Rev. Mel West
The Rev. Mel West, 95, is director emeritus of Mobility Worldwide MO Columbia: Maker of the Mobility Cart since 1994. He also served as executive director of the United Methodist Rural Fellowship and was the driving force behind a church-wide effort that brought comfort toys to hospitalized Russian children in the 1990s. This post is republished with permission from his Facebook page.