[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 87 (Thursday, June 13, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6216-S6217]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     SENSELESS BURNING OF CHURCHES

  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President. I have introduced a resolution against 
the senseless burning of churches that we have witnessed and, really, 
just become aware of in recent weeks. The latest one, unfortunately, is 
in my State. So I want to speak out on this issue for a few minutes.
  Let me say, I think all of us have been horrified that a place of 
worship would be a place to be chosen by terrorists to desecrate. We 
all know in this country, whatever our religious preference is, how 
important a part of our lives the place of worship is, that it is a 
part of our communities, part of our families and part of what makes 
America so wonderful, that we do have the freedom of religion and the 
ability to come together to worship God in a way that we want to do.
  It is because of that very special place that churches hold in our 
society that it is particularly awful that we see a burning of churches 
in any way, but especially in what seems to be a pattern. In fact, 
since 1991, there have been 110 such incidents of church arson that 
have been reported.
  I picked up the phone this week and called Chester Thomas, who is the 
pastor at the New Light House of Prayer in Greenville, TX. This church 
was burned to the ground. Mr. President, I never cease to be amazed at 
how wonderful people can be in a time of crisis. And, truly, Pastor 
Thomas is a person that inspires me because he is so upbeat about the 
experience that he has just had. He told me that they have been 
experiencing burglaries in the church and vandalism. But now, of 
course, they have lost the church. It was burned to the ground. But he 
said that he had just come from a service that was put together by 
another church in Greenville, TX, a church that said, ``Come and 
worship with us. Bring your congregation to our congregation, and we 
are going to work together to rebuild what you have lost.''
  You know, that is what America is--reaching out in a time of crisis 
that helps heal the wounds for something that really is unexplainable 
such as burning down a place of worship. But Pastor Thomas was very, 
very upbeat about it. He said, ``We are going to come together, and 
this is going to make us stronger, and I love the people of this 
community. I even love the person that did this terrible act, because I 
know whoever it is is a troubled person.''
  Well, we can learn a lot from Pastor Thomas. I am here today to say 
to Pastor Thomas and to all of the people

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who worship at the New Light House of Prayer in Greenville, TX, as well 
as the people who worship in the Church of the Living God in 
Greenville, TX, which was not destroyed but which was burned and is 
badly damaged, I am here to say to them that all of America cares, that 
this is not right, and we must condemn the burning, the desecrating and 
the destruction of religious property.
  In fact, I am reading from the resolution that condemns the burning, 
desecrating, and destruction of religious property. We urge Federal law 
enforcement authority to expeditiously and vigilantly investigate and 
appropriately punish the perpetrators of these heinous crimes.
  Mr. President, this is something that we can all come together and 
fight for. We will work with the President. We will work with the 
entire U.S. Senate and the entire U.S. Congress to say that we want to 
put teeth in the laws that would keep this from happening, because you 
are tearing down the very spirit of a community when you desecrate a 
place of worship. We do not want to do that. We want to speak out 
against it.
  So I say to Pastor Thomas and to his whole congregation, to the 
people who also worship at the Church of the Living God in Greenville, 
TX, that we must to stand together against this, and by doing so, we 
will learn the lesson from Pastor Thomas. We will be stronger. We will 
be stronger as communities. We will be stronger as a country.
  Mr. President, I wanted to read the list of the cosponsors of this 
resolution. Besides myself, they are Senators Gramm, Faircloth, 
McConnell, Cochran, Thurmond, Coverdell, Helms, D'Amato, Murkowski, 
Warner, Nickles, and Abraham.

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