Matthew Lee Cloyd, 20, arrives in custody at the federal courthouse in Birmingham, Ala., Wednesday, March 8, 2006. Cloyd is one of three Birmingham college students who were arrested Wednesday in a string of arson fires at nine rural Alabama churches. (AP Photo/Rainier Ehrhardt)
College boys: Churches burned as 'joke'
Associated Press
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Three college students, including two aspiring actors known around campus as pranksters, were arrested yesterday in a string of nine church fires that spread fear across Alabama last month.
Federal agents said the defendants claimed that they had set the first few blazes as "a joke" and the others to throw investigators off track.
Benjamin Nathan Moseley and Russell Lee DeBusk Jr., both 19 and students at Birmingham-Southern College, were ordered held on arson charges pending a hearing tomorrow. Matthew Lee Cloyd, 20, a junior at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, also was arrested.
Acquaintances said DeBusk and Moseley were amateur actors who were known as pranksters. They performed in campus plays and appeared in a documentary film.
Investigators said previously that there appeared to be no racial pattern in the Baptist church fires - four were white congregations, five were black.
The three students are white and either attend or previously were enrolled at Birmingham-Southern, a Methodist-affiliated liberal-arts college.
Jim Parker, pastor of Ashby Baptist Church at Brierfield, a Bibb County church that was destroyed, said the congregation had been worried that the arsonists had some "political or religious agenda." He said he understood the defendants were promising students from good families.
"We really are concerned about them as people," he said. "I would just like to know what they were thinking."
photo & story courtesy AP, 03/08/06
22"You simpletons!" she cries. "How long will you go on being simpleminded? How long will you mockers relish your mocking? How long will you fools fight the facts? 23Come here and listen to me! I'll pour out the spirit of wisdom upon you and make you wise. 24"I called you so often, but you didn't come. I reached out to you, but you paid no attention. 25You ignored my advice and rejected the correction I offered. 26So I will laugh when you are in trouble! I will mock you when disaster overtakes you-- 27when calamity overcomes you like a storm, when you are engulfed by trouble, and when anguish and distress overwhelm you. 28"I will not answer when they cry for help. Even though they anxiously search for me, they will not find me.
WHAT DOES TODAY'S SCRIPTURE TEACH US ABOUT THE PROBLEM OF FOOLISHNESS AND HOW TO FIX IT?
Read carefully the study notes from Tyndale's LIFE APPLICATION STUDY BIBLE:
1:22-28 In the book of Proverbs, a "simpleton" or a fool is not someone with a mental deficiency but someone with a character deficiency. The fool is not stupid, but he or she is unable to tell right from wrong or good from bad.
God is more than willing to pour out his heart and make known his thoughts to us. To receive his advice, we must be willing to listen, refusing to let pride stand in our way. Pride is thinking more highly of our own wisdom and desires than of God's. If we think we know better than God or feel we have no need of God's direction, we have fallen into foolish and disastrous pride.
The three college guys who thought burning down churches was a joke are probably not cracking jokes in jail this weekend. Their foolishness is almost beyond belief.
But you know what? They didn't suddenly become "mocking simpletons" overnight. These fire lovers started ignoring God's wisdom a long time ago, step by step.
Let's not be fooled by our own pride. Let's pursue God's wisdom every day.
- memorize Proverbs 1:23 as a reminder to take time every day to listen to God.
- This next week, set aside 5 minutes every day to listen to God's counsel. He will share His heart with you. (This is His promise in Proverbs 1:23.)
- Make a written list in your journal of weekly benefits you experience when you pursue God's wisdom every day.
Daily Devos is published Monday through Friday. Archives can be found at YFC.ORG. Its purpose is to help you apply truths from God's Word every day.
Our writer, Byron Emmert, has been involved with Youth For Christ for 30 years. He's served as Campus Life Staff, as a writer, and in leadership for the DCLA Conferences. Byron is married to Linda and their family includes two married sons and daughters-in-law, and a daughter in college. He loves sports, deep dish pizza, and spending time with his family.