CHURCH ARSON IN ALABAMA: A STUDY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL COPING Melonee C. Tubb, William L. Ballew, Danyell

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CHURCH ARSON IN ALABAMA A STUDY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL
COPING Melonee C. Tubb, William L. Ballew,
Danyelle J. Brooks, Shawn E. Geron, Larry W.
Bates, and Richard A. Hudiburg University of
North Alabama
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• Early in February 2006, ten rural Alabama Baptist
  churches were burned. It was determined that nine
  of the churches were burned as a result of arson.

Note The Beaverton Church fire was not the
result of arson
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Nine churches burned as a result of arson

• 1. Rehobeth Baptist Church in Lawley, Bibb
  County, Alabama.
• 2. Ashby Baptist Church in Brierfield, Bibb
  County, Alabama,
• 3. Antioch Baptist Church in Centerville, Bibb
  County, Alabama,
• 4. Pleasant Sabine Baptist Church in Centerville,
  Bibb County, Alabama,
• 5. Old Union Baptist Church in Brierfield, Bibb
  County, Alabama,
• 6. Dancy Baptist Church in Aliceville, Pickens
  County, Alabama,
• 7. Spring Valley Baptist Church in Gainesville,
  Sumter County, Alabama,
• 8. Galilee Baptist Church in Panola, Sumter
  County, Alabama,
• 9. Morningstar Baptist Church in Boligee, Greene
  County, Alabama,

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Ashby Baptist Church Brierfield, Bibb County
Alabama
5
Rehobeth Baptist Church Randolph, Bibb County
Alabama
6
Antioch Baptist Church Centerville, Bibb County
Alabama - Damaged Old Union Baptist Church -
Randolph, Bibb County Alabama - Damaged
7
Pleasant Sabine Baptist Church Centerville,
Bibb County Alabama
8
Morningstar Baptist Church Boligee, Greene
County Alabama In this community there were
three churches destroyed by fires in December
1996.
9
Galilee Baptist Church Panola, Sumter County
Alabama
10
Dancy First Baptist Church Dancy, Pickens
County Alabama - Damaged
Spring Valley Baptist Church Emelle, Sumter
County Alabama - Damaged
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Purpose of Study

• Alabama and other southern states have had a
  history of church burnings. During 1995 through
  1997 there were numerous burning of ethnic
  minority members churches. These burnings led to
  the National Church Arson Task Force and church
  burning to be classified as a federal hate
  crime.
• Some information from this report
• 429 Investigations Launched -- The NCATF has
  opened 429 investigations into arsons, bombings
  or attempted bombings that have occurred at
  houses of worship between January 1, 1995, and
  May 27, 1997.
• 199 Arrested -- Federal, state and local
  authorities have arrested 199 suspects since
  January 1995, in connection with 150 of the 429
  investigations.
• 35 Solved -- The 35 rate of arrest in NCATF
  cases is more than double the 16 rate of arrest
  for arsons in general.
• 110 Convicted -- Federal and state prosecutors
  have successfully convicted 110 individuals in
  connection with fires at 77 houses of worship.

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Purpose of Study

• The burning of a church has a special status as a
  stressful event, especially if it is the result
  of suspected arson. Coping with this
  extraordinary stressor is the focus of this
  study. There has been little psychological
  research investigating coping with church
  burnings.
• Coping with stress is related to ones religious
  outlook. This outlook could be conceptualized in
  terms of the locus of control, either internal or
  external.
• For the religious, better coping with stress has
  been associated with internal-locus and god-locus
  of control (Welton, Adkins, Ingle, Dixon,
  1996).
• A contrasted view is that the church building is
  divinely protected (external) and invoking Gods
  help (internal) may be met by (or with) some
  resistance.
• The purposes of the present study were to
  examine
• The psychological distress of the victims of the
  church burning.
• The loci of control that lead to better coping
  with the stressor.

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Study Procedures

• Demographic Information Questionnaire gender,
  ethnicity, church membership, education, income
• Personal religious history with building
• Research Instruments
• Multi-dimensional Locus of Control Scales God
  Control Revision (MLOCS) (Levenson, 1974) 24
  items measures three types of locus of control
  Internal - belief that outcome is based on ones
  own behaviors, Others - belief that outcome based
  on other people's control, Chance - belief that
  outcome is unordered and random and an 8-item God
  locus of control - belief that outcome is based
  on God's control
• Diagnostic Inventory for Depression (DID)
  (Zimmerman, Sheeran, Young, 2004) 38 items
• State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), State Form
  (Spielberger, Gorsuch, Lushen, 1970) 10 items
• Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) (Cohen, Karmack,
  Mermelstein, 1985) 10 item version

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Study Procedures

• Study procedure utilized the pastors of the nine
  affected churches. Made many efforts to contact
  the pastors. We were able to meet with seven of
  the nine church pastors. These pastors agreed to
  have church members participate.
• Pastors to distribute questionnaires to church
  adult members
• Approximately 150 questionnaires were distributed
• Return of questionnaires to researchers by mail
• 14 completed questionnaires were returned, a very
  low response rate

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Participants

• 14 Members of 7 Churches in Alabama
• Gender Age Education
• 3 male Mean 53.9 Mean 13.4
• 11 female SD 16.6 SD 2.2
• Race Marital Status
  Damage to Church
• 63.3 Caucasian 78.6 Married 71.4 Church
  Damaged
• 35.7 African American 7.1 Divorce 28.6
  Church Completely
• 14.3
  Widowed Destroyed
•    

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Results

• Correlation analysis
• State anxiety was positively related to both
  perceived stress (r 0.73, p lt .01) and chance
  locus of control (r 0.54, p lt .05).
• Damage to the church building was negatively
  related to state anxiety (r -0.62, p lt .05) and
  perceived stress (r -0.76, p lt .05).
• Gender was related to internal locus of control
  (r 0.67, p lt .01).

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Results

• Analysis of research instruments differences
• Comparing the current participants to the
  composite normative means of the MLOCS, the
  respondents had lower internal locus of control,
  t (13) -5.22, p lt .01, and powerful others
  locus of control, t (13) -9.61, p lt .01, There
  was no significant difference for chance-object
  locus of control, t (13) -.89, p gt .05.
• The respondents reported significantly higher
  mean (M 17.75, SD 7.93) perceived stress than
  found in normative sample of Cohen and Williamson
  (1988), t (13) 2.23, p lt .05.
• None of our participants met criteria for major
  depressive disorder. Participants subscale DIDs
  were significantly lower than the DID outpatient
  psychiatric patient standardization sample,
  symptom severity, t (13) -12.72, p lt .01,
  psychological dysfunction, t (13) -6.35, p lt
  .01, and quality of life, t (13) -6.37, p lt
  .01.
• It was not possible to analyze differences
  between the MLOCS God locus of control or State
  anxiety due to lack of normative means.

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Summary of Results

• Females had higher internal locus of control
• Participants with higher chance-type locus of
  control (LOC) tended to have higher levels of
  anxiety, p lt .05
• Higher perceived stress than norms, p lt .05
• Lower depressive symptoms reported compared to
  outpatient psychiatric population, p lt .01
• Internal and chance LOC was lower than
  standardization sample, p lt .01

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Study Concerns

• Limitations
• Very small sample size
• Low response return rate
• Research Challenges
• Loss of church membership records
• Pastors were bivocational and tended to not live
  in the community where churches were located
• Pastors are gatekeepers to membership
• already overwhelmed with other issues
• building concerns
• press/media
• salespeople/offers for assistance
• not all pastors are comfortable suggesting that
  their membership assist with research
• Reading level of congregation probably varies
  considerably
• Suggestion for future research
• Try to get pastors to let you pitch your study
  directly to the congregation
• Minimize questionnaire length
• Use shorter forms
• Use fewer questionnaires (more focused studies)
• Use simpler version if available

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References

• Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., Mermelstein, R.
  (1985). A Global Measure of
• Perceived Stress. Journal of Health and
  Social Behavior, 24, 385-396.
• Dull, V. T., Skokan, L. A. (1995). A cognitive
  model of religions
• influence on health. Journal of Social
  Issues, 51(2), 49-64.
• Levenson, H. (1974). Activism and powerful
  others Distinctions within
• the concept of internal-external control.
  Journal of Personality
• Assessment, 38, 377-383.
• Smith, P. C., Range, L. M., Ulmer, A, (1992).
  Belief in afterlife as a
• buffer in suicidal and other bereavement.
  Omega Journal of Death and
• Dying, 24, 217-225.
• Spielberger, C. D., Gorsuch, R. L., Lushene, R.
  E. (1970). The State-
• Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) test manual
  for Form X. Palo Alto, CA
• Consulting Psychologists Press.
• Welton, G. L., Adkins, A. G., Ingle, S. L.,
  Dixon, W. A. (1996). God
• control The fourth dimension. Journal of
  Psychology and Theology, 24,
• 13-25.
• Zimmerman, M., Sheeran, T., Young D. (2004).
  Diagnostic Inventory
• for Depression. Journal of Clinical
  Psychology, 60, 87-110.

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Acknowledgements

• This research was supported by a Faculty Research
  grant from the University of North Alabama.
• The authors wish to thank the pastors and members
  of the affected churches for their support of
  this research.
• The authors wish to thank rural Alabama for the
  beautiful scenery and the many food
  establishments for primary reinforcers.