Following the murder of nine African American churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina last month, we said the following [4] about the current state of American society:
The riots that left Baltimore in ashes in late April and the massacre that occurred last week at the historic Emanuel AME church in Charleston serve as vivid reminders of the extent to which American society now teeters perpetually on the edge of social upheaval. Increasingly, those who feel ‘the system’ has somehow failed them are turning to violence as a means of addressing their grievances, which betrays a complete lack of faith in the government’s ability to help create the conditions under which groups and individuals with divergent interests can coexist without sinking into a Hobbesian state of nature.
We then made the following admittedly stark prediction: "Ultimately, it appears America has become a country wherein everyone feels marginalized and/or aggrieved in one way or another. In the absence of a dramatic societal reboot, we fear social instability is likely here to stay."
That assessment appears to have been quite accurate because over the course of just two weeks, six predominantly African American churches in the US have burned, with authorities suspecting arson in several of the blazes. NY Times has the story [5]:
Ivestigators sifted through the burned-out shell of a black church here on Wednesday, trying to determine the cause of a fire that has left residents here anguished.
Williamsburg County officials said the fire at the Mount Zion A.M.E. Church, which took more than two hours to extinguish, began around 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday and burned through the church’s roof. Lightning storms moved through the area overnight.
[6]
The fire came as the authorities in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee investigated blazes at other churches, most of them predominantly black. Although the authorities have concluded that some of those fires were arson, officials have not yet described any of the episodes as hate crimes.
One of the fires was caused by lightning and another was electrical. Investigators also said there was no evidence that the fires at the churches were linked.
Still, it’s difficult to ignore the trend — especially in light of recent events. Indeed, Mount Zion has burned to the ground before. 20 years ago, two Ku Klux Klan members pleaded guilty to civil rights charges on the heels of a fire at the church. Here’s AFP [7]:
"There are still a lot of questions to be answered," Williamsburg County chief deputy sheriff Stephen Gardner told reporters in Greeleyville when asked Wednesday about the cause of the Mount Zion fire.
"We haven't ruled anything in or anything out at this point," added Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent Craig Chilcott, as sniffer dogs helped police and fire investigators comb through the church ruins.
Mount Zion last burned to the ground in June 1995, in a fire that prompted the arrest of two Ku Klux Klan members in their early 20s.
The pair got prison terms after pleading guilty to federal civil rights charges, while the church won a $37.8 million lawsuit against the Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and its South Carolina leader.
"Because of its prominence in the African-American community, the church has historically been a target of arson and destruction by bigots and white supremacists," said the department's National Church Arson Task Force, launched by then-president Bill Clinton in the aftermath of the 1995 Mount Zion fire.
In addition to the fire at Mount Zion, Glover Grove Baptist Church in Warrenville, South Carolina burned down on June 26, Briar Creek Road Baptist Church in North Carolina was reduced to ashes on June 24, God's Power Church Of Christ in Macon, Georgia was found on fire with the front doors wired shut on the 23rd, and bales of hay as well as a church van were set alight in front of College Hill Seventh Day Adventist church in Knoxville, Tennessee on June 21. Here are the visuals:
[8]
[9]
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So while the jury is still out (so to speak) on whether there is indeed some discernible connection between the incidents shown above, it does appear that at least some of these fires were set intentionally which would seem to be further evidence that the fabric of American society may be ripping apart at the seams and we suspect that when December rolls around and we once again review [10] the most-read posts of the preceding 12 months, we'll find that for the second year running, "civil unrest" is a common thread.
