Paul KeenanA Baptist church in the US state of Mississippi has become the focal point for goodwill across the world after it was the scene of an arson attack on November 1.
Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in Greenville was gutted by a fire which took responding firefighters some hours to completely control. Investigators subsequently found evidence that an accelerant had been poured into the building and set alight.
Police detectives, meanwhile, were quick to identify a spray-painted message on the building’s exterior – “Vote Trump” – as a possible motive for the attack, placing the hate crime into a distinct context in today’s America, and have since identified a suspect in the case.
Condemned as a “heinous, hateful and cowardly act” and “a direct assault on people’s right to free worship” by Greenville’s Mayor Errick Simmons, the attack quickly prompted a multi-faith service in the city as a show of solidarity with the church’s congregation and defiance of those behind the attack.
However, it was a subsequent fundraiser established by one sympathetic observer, Blair Reeves – who is neither linked to the church nor Mississippi – which revealed the real depth of solidarity felt by people for the deprived worshippers of Hopewell Missionary.
With a goal to raise $10,000 online via a GoFundMe page towards reconstruction work, by November 3 donations to the page were climbing far in excess of that; by November 4, the figure was approaching $180,000 and has since topped the $200,000 mark.
Just as compelling is the source of the donations. Far from being confined to Mississippi, or even to generous donors in the wider United States, Reeves has reported funds arriving from all parts of the world as people seek to undo the ‘agents of hatred’ who have become emboldened enough to surface on the political landscape this past year – and adding to the toll of black churches all too frequently targeted in the country.
Similarly, in terms of vocal support and pledged money, rather than emanating only from just those opposed to the candidacy of Donald Trump, Reeves has reported that supporters on both sides of the political divide have made donations, rejecting hatred directed towards races and religions in equal measure.
Hope
In a further sign of hope, whatever the outcome of the presidential election (The Irish Catholic went to press ahead of the final result), messages accompanying donations included “It shouldn’t happen in America” and “Bigotry will not stand in 2016”.
Of all the political messages coming from the campaign trail this year, perhaps now the one to believe over all others is that ‘Love trumps Hate’.