MIDDLEBROOK,
Va.
—
FBI
officials
confirmed
this
week
that
the
agency
is
investigating
an
arson
attack
on
a
gay-friendly
church
in
this
rural
Shenandoah
Valley
town.
Michael
Foster,
the
supervisor
working
on
the
case,
said
the
FBI
is
actively
pursuing
all
angles,
including
the
possibility
that
the
arson
was
carried
out
by
a
member
of
a
domestic
terror
organization
that
targets
racial
and
other
minorities,
including
gays.
St.
John’s
Reformed
United
Church
of
Christ
was
burned
on
July
9,
just
days
after
the
UCC’s
national
conference
passed
a
resolution
backing
equal
marriage
rights
for
same-sex
couples.
The
text
of
the
messages
spray-painted
on
the
church
referred
to
this
issue:
“Gays
lover,”
“Lesb
hell,”
“UCC
siners”
and
“sinners.”
“The
writing
on
the
wall,
literally,
tells
the
story,”
Foster
said,
“This
was
a
politically
motivated
attack
because
of
the
gay
issue,
and
the
FBI
is
going
to
investigate
it.”
St.
John’s
is
the
third
UCC
church
in
the
Shenandoah
Valley
that
has
been
intentionally
damaged
in
recent
months.
“Two
other
attacks
came
after
we
launched
the
‘God
is
Still
Speaking’
campaign,”
said
Chuck
Currie,
a
St.
Louis-based
UCC
minister
who
maintains
a
blog
on
UCC
issues.
The
“Still
Speaking”
campaign
included
a
commercial
depicting
a
church
welcoming
gay
congregants.
NBC
and
CBS
rejected
the
ad
last
year,
Currie
said,
after
the
networks
decided
it
had
a
political,
rather
than
religious,
message.
Although
many
UCC
members
believe
that
the
earlier
Virginia
attacks
were
also
motivated
by
the
church’s
pro-gay
policies,
only
the
Middlebrook
case
is
currently
under
investigation
by
the
FBI.
“I
think
there
is
a
direct
correlation
between
the
rhetoric
that
has
been
unleashed
by
the
political
and
religious
right
comparing
[gay
and
lesbian]
sexuality
to
murder
or
other
violent
crimes,”
Currie
said.
“This
gives
people
the
political
and
theological
cover
to
attack
gay
people
and
the
churches
that
welcome
them.”
In
2003,
the
most
recent
year
for
which
data
is
available,
the
FBI
investigated
284
hate
crimes
at
places
of
worship.
Of
those,
34
were
found
to
be
motivated
by
race,
227
by
religion,
11
by
sexual
orientation
and
12
by
ethnicity
or
national
origin,
according
to
Steve
Kodak,
a
spokesperson
for
the
FBI’s
national
office.
Generally,
church
arsons
are
down,
Kodak
said,
and
the
FBI’s
Arson
Task
Force,
which
was
formed
after
a
rash
of
church
arsons
in
the
1990s,
was
disbanded
in
2001.
In
cases
in
which
no
one
was
physically
hurt,
the
Church
Arson
Prevention
Act
of
1996
provides
for
one
year
in
jail
for
those
found
guilty
of
damaging
religious
property
because
of
the
religious
characteristics
of
that
property.
The
federal
hate
crimes
statute
does
not
include
protections
based
on
sexual
orientation,
and
the
FBI
does
not
track
all
crimes
motivated
by
anti-gay
bias.
The
FBI
does
track
politically
motivated
violence
against
groups,
however,
and
since
2001
the
agency
has
formed
task
forces
with
police
to
identify
individuals
and
groups
with
political
agendas
and
a
propensity
for
violence,
Foster
said.
The
state
of
Virginia
does
not
have
a
statute
with
specific
provisions
for
dealing
with
crimes
motivated
by
anti-gay
bias.
J.D.
Underwood,
acting
supervisor
for
the
Bureau
of
Alcohol
Tobacco
&
Firearms
office
in
Roanoke,
Va.,
said
that
arson
investigations
often
take
years.
After
the
Middlebrook
attack,
the
News
Virginian,
a
newspaper
in
Waynesboro,
Va.,
published
a
story
about
the
responses
of
three
white
supremacist
groups
to
the
arson.
In
that
story,
Bill
White,
a
Virginia-based
spokesperson
for
the
National
Socialist
Movement,
also
known
as
the
American
Nazi
Party,
condemned
the
arson
but
said
that
he
understood
how
the
actions
of
the
United
Church
of
Christ
could
provoke
such
a
reaction.
White
told
the
Blade
that
he
believes
homosexuality
is
a
mental
illness,
and
that
the
UCC
is
a
“heretic”
church.
“Their
encouragement
of
homosexuality
is
simply
a
modern
extension
of
their
200-plus-year
history
of
anti-social,
anti-white
and
anti-Southern
activities,”
White
said.
The
United
Church
of
Christ
was
active
in
the
anti-slavery
movement,
and
was
the
first
church
to
ordain
women,
African
Americans
and
gays,
according
to
Currie.
“Sometimes
being
first
causes
people
to
attack
your
churches,”
Currie
said,
“but
it
also
draws
people
to
join
them.”
Since
approval
of
the
UCC
resolution
supporting
same-sex
marriage
rights,
the
UCC
Web
site
has
seen
a
record
number
of
“find
a
church”
searches
performed
by
visitors,
according
to
the
denomination’s
news
service.
Earlier
this
summer,
White
wrote
that
“taking
on”
liberal
churches
should
be
a
top
priority
for
area
Nazis.
White
told
the
Blade
that
his
group
is
discussing
“targeting
pro-homosexual
events
being
organized
by
local
‘gay’
churches.”
He
went
on
to
name
the
Metropolitan
Community
Church
of
the
Blue
Ridge
in
Roanoke
as
a
specific
target
of
his
group’s
efforts,
which
he
said
included
distributing
messages
on
leaflets
and
through
direct
mail.
Linda
Czyzyk,
a
board
member
of
the
statewide
gay
rights
group
Equality
Virginia
and
a
Shenandoah
Valley
resident,
said
that
despite
the
arson,
she
believes
the
area
is
becoming
more
accepting
of
gay
people.
There
is
a
growing
gay
population
and
several
pro-gay
social
and
political
organizations
there,
...
