Further Victimizing the Victims
At least part of the problem appears to lie within law enforcement itself. The ATF has invested much of its time, effort and manpower in interrogating clergy and church members, subjecting them to polygraph examinations and rigorous questioning as though they were the perpetrators instead of the victims. Senior citizens have been forced to travel long distances over hot roads to answer bewildering questions about crimes of which they have no knowledge. While investigating the arson of the Inner City Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, agents strapped pastors to polygraphs, fingerprinted parishioners, showed up unannounced at job sites and homes, and implied that church members had burned their own church. Assistant pastor Harold Smith, one of those interrogated, noted, “When your life is in the ministry, it hurts to be asked questions like this.” A 14-year-old girl was reportedly taken from school studies by ATF agents and subjected to extended interrogation regarding details of the personal life of her pastor. The deacon of St. Paul’s Primitive Baptist Church in Lauderdale, Mississippi, who has served his church for more than 20 years, was reduced to tears after one agent ground away with questions while another quoted scriptures. According to a local NAACP official, “The deacon cried ... because he loved his church and felt extremely humiliated that he would be accused of burning it down.”
A Fire on the Cross continued...
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