Burning Faith

by Strain, Christopher B.; Harold, Stanley; Miller, Randall M.

• ISBN13: 9780813032399
• ISBN10: 0813032393
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-06-01
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Florida

Summary

In the 1990s, churches across the southeastern United States were targeted and set ablaze. These arsonists predominately targeted African American congregations and captured the attention of the media nationwide. Using oral histories, newspaper accounts, and governmental reports, Christopher Strain gives a chronological account of the series of church fires. Burning Faithconsiders the various forces at work, including government responses, civil rights groups, religious forces, and media coverage, in providing a thorough, comprehensive analysis of the events and their fallout. Arguing that these church fires symbolize the breakdown of communal bonds in the nation, Strain appeals for the revitalization of united Americans and the return to a sense of community. Combining scholarly sophistication with popular readability, Strain has produced one of the first histories of the last decade and demonstrates that the increasing fragmentation of community in America runs deeper than race relations or prejudice.

Author Biography

Christopher B. Strain, an associate professor of history at Florida Atlantic University, is the author of Pure Fire: Self-Defense as Activism in the Civil Rights Era.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
fire	p. 1
fear	p. 25
faith	p. 43
doubt	p. 59
law	p. 76
strength	p. 99
hope	p. 125
Epilogue	p. 145
Notes	p. 159
Selected Bibliography	p. 177
Index	p. 181
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