Two Baptist church buildings in Cleveland County, N.C. were set on fire Friday night in what investigators are treating as cases of suspected arson. Family Research Council has compiled 1,384 acts of “Hostility against Churches in the United States” from 2018 through 2024, and these latest attacks only extend that trend. “This is a reflection, really, of what Paul wrote about in Second Thessalonians [2:7],” declared FRC President Tony Perkins on “Washington Watch,” where Paul writes that “the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.”
Both churches sustained minor damage to the buildings’ exteriors. At Tabernacle Baptist Church, flames had scorched the siding where a fire had been built against the building’s side handicap entrance. Calvary’s Cross Baptist Church sustained damage to its siding and eaves where the fire had been set next to some shrubbery.
The fires were reportedly set after dark, between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. on Friday, October 17. Fortunately, both fires were quickly noticed by passing neighbors. At Calvary’s Cross, Boy Scouts returning home from a camping trip doused the flames with water and tea they had with them. At Tabernacle, one of the church’s 35 members saw the flames and called the fire department, said Pastor Homer Tessner.
“The fact that there are assaults on Christians and on churches across America is real, and I think that we have to come to the place that we accept that very reality,” said Rep. Mark Harris (R-N.C.), a former pastor, on “Washington Watch.” “Thank the Lord that there were citizens [who] saw the flames and were able to stop and were able to help get it put out.”
The suspected arsons are all the more shocking in light of the quiet, rural nature of the community in which they occurred. The targeted churches are less than seven miles apart near Casar, N.C., a town of around 300 located directly between Asheville and Charlotte. Tabernacle Baptist Church is tiny, with only 35 members and what appears to be a one-room (plus foyer) building. Calvary’s Cross is larger but still modest, with an aluminum shed providing extra space. Both church buildings are neighbors to fixed-foundation mobile homes and lots of open space. These are country churches, surrounded by country folk, in the foothills of the North Carolina mountains.
“We’ve never had anything like this happen before, and the church has been in existence for 50 years,” said Calvary’s Cross Pastor Billy Boone.
Thus far, investigators have yet to identify a motive or make any arrests. One aspect of the American countryside’s pastoral appeal is the lack of surveillance cameras, but that appeal becomes a disadvantage when an arsonist is running around torching churches. While they await answers from investigators, the pastors of both churches urged prayer for the perpetrator.
Formerly, “we didn’t see this level of hostility, where they’re attacking and burning and even sometimes having these shootings that are taking place” in churches, said Perkins. “Unfortunately, we’ve seen a spike in attacks like these on churches over the past several years, as documented in FRC’s annual report.”
Perkins celebrated the fact that Americans now “have an administration that has vowed to take action against such targeted attacks … in sharp contrast from the last administration.”
However, despite a more favorable administration, “the reality is we live in a fallen world where lawlessness is running rampant,” Perkins continued. Like any weapon of the enemy, this lawlessness is especially directed against Christians, such that “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12).
In light of this reality, Harris urged pastors to boldly proclaim the whole counsel of God, even amid the sharpest pangs of opposition, citing 2 Timothy 1:7, “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” Harris further encouraged pastors to “be willing to be bold,” both in prayer and in “equip[ping] the saints for the work of ministry” (Ephesians 4:12). “We’ve been praying for another Great Awakening,” Harris counseled. “We need to be ready as pastors and churches.”
Such counsel is consistent with Paul’s teaching concerning the presence of lawlessness. After warning the Thessalonian church against the coming lawless one, he reaches the application: “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter” (2 Thessalonians 2:15). As churches in America remain under assault, Christians cannot do better than to obey the scriptural command: stand firm.
