PARSONSBURG - Every pew is full for the afternoon service at the Mount Calvary Holiness Church - every pew but one. There wasn't enough time (or stain) to cover "Next time you'll burn," which had been etched into the pew, so it was removed. There is no need to remind everyone of the ugliness that scrawled, ripped and sliced its way into this rural, black church.
"The devil did it to harm us," says Velma Wilson, 68, who first came to Mount Calvary 50 years ago - the year it opened. She has since moved on to another church in another town, but she's here today for the special service, the first held in the church since the vandalism.
The desecration occurred sometime between Dec. 26 and Dec. 28, the day Assistant Pastor Matthew Leonard returned to look in on the church. Electricians had just put in the new chandeliers and paddle fan. The wiring had needed serious work; they couldn't plug in the fan and organ at the same time. But now the wiring was up-to-date, and the carpet was new, too. The insurance man was due out, because Leonard was considering insuring the church for the first time.
Today, a frigid Sunday in mid-January, the Baptist church is packed with its black members and visiting white ministers and guests. When was the last time this roadside church had 40 worshippers! "I think," says Velma Johnson, "that it's going to bring the black and white churches together." Maybe. Certainly for today.
Father, forgive them for they know not what they do, Leonard repeats throughout his sermon. Built like George Foreman, the 42- year-old Leonard recites the passage from St. Luke maybe 20 times and each time, people echo Amen. "It's time to move on," Leonard says. It's time to forgive.
"I don't know what Satan meant by this - but it didn't work," Leonard says in a voice that could rattle any church's windows. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Amen. Still, it's all right to ask God a question, Leonard exhorts. He tells his church that it's all right to ask:
Why?
Parsonsburg (pop. 2,407) was founded in Wicomico County in 1866 by farmers, millers and carpenters all named Parsons. Ocean City to the east, Salisbury just to the west, Parsonsburg remains a rural town - with volunteer firefighters, tilting tombstones, a Ruritan Club, Texaco station (pretty good coffee), a corner grocer offering 99-cent scrapple lunches - and one blip of Parsonsburg Road featuring tennis shoes hanging from telephone lines. It's still a place, as a local saying goes, where people wear pajamas and live life slow.
Visitors making the drive to Parsonsburg might notice it's near a stretch of Route 50 dedicated to the "Moses of her People" - Harriet Tubman, who helped 300 slaves escape to freedom. Motorists might note a highway marker signaling the birthplace of another Eastern Shore native and historical black figure, Frederick Douglass. Beyond these histories, one turns off Route 50 and passes the cemetery, firehouse and Texaco station. Mount Calvary Holiness Church is on the right.
The pastor is Maxine Brittingham. That's what the church sign says. But she has been in a nursing home for a few years, so Leonard returned to his hometown in 2000 to revive Mount Calvary. Twenty-five members or so. "If they all come, you know," he says. When Leonard stopped by the church on Dec. 28, something felt wrong.
The church's upright piano - its keys like coffee-stained teeth - was vandalized. "KKK Rules" was scratched into its wood.
Three high-backed chairs in the pulpit were each marked with a "K."
The back white walls read "WHITE POWER."
Three chair cushions were slashed.
The skins of the drum set were cut.
The church organ bench was marked with "KKK."
The purple curtains were torn down.
The lid of the toilet was crammed in the toilet bowl.
Wine bottles in bags had been left; the smell of cigarettes was pungent.
Recording equipment was stolen.
One pew read, "Next time you'll burn."
The church banner over the altar - "Better is an end of a thing than the Beginning" - was ripped down.
A glass-framed proclamation, dedicated to Brittingham, was shattered then torn. The empty frame was hung back on the wall.
Finally, pages of the church's Bible lay shredded on the carpet near the altar. The 50-year-old, King James', leather-bound bible is damaged beyond repair.
"They took our word and destroyed it," the minister says. "They wanted to inflict pain on us. They were making a statement: 'I don't care about what is sacred. I don't care about your God. I was here, and I want you to know I was here.' "
The assistant pastor called the police that afternoon. He called Brittingham, who told him to try to keep the church doors open. He decided the older members wouldn't be allowed to see their church this way. If he had to, he would put a tarp over the piano to cover the ugliness. The walls would have to be white-washed. In the meantime, they could have Sunday service at his mother's house down the road. But they would get back in their church.
Leonard cried later that day, the Saturday after Christmas.
No arrests have been made.
The Wicomico County Bureau of Investigation is working the case, along with a local agent of the FBI. Given the nature of the incident, it has been classified as a hate crime. Hate crimes are bias-motivated acts of violence against people, property or organizations. Racial bias largely determines hate crimes, with African-Americans the group at greatest risk. In 1999, U.S. law enforcement agencies reported 7,876 hate crimes to the FBI and of those, 4,295 were racially motivated. Church vandalism and bombings, cross burnings, and murder remain the most common types of these crimes.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit organization that tracks hate crimes, says more than 500 hate groups operated in the United States in 1998. The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles monitors more than 2,100 hate sites on the Internet.
Was a hate group responsible for the vandalism at Mount Calvary?
"We don't believe the church was targeted by any group," says Cpl. Carsten Wendlandt of the Wicomico County Bureau of Investigation in Salisbury. "We don't believe it's anything more than kids who did this. But whether it's kids or not, we are not going to tolerate this in our community."
It was not, police say, a sophisticated crime. The building was left a mess and, presumably, the vandals were not too concerned about leaving behind evidence, including possible fingerprints. The shredded Bible was taken by police as evidence, as were the wine bags. One reason Wendlandt suspects kids is the phrase "KKK Rules." Kids tend to say something "rules."
The building itself is hardly an obvious target; it resembles a one-room schoolhouse. "You hardly know it's a church," says Valerie Wagner, a member of nearby Jerusalem United Methodist Church. "It's certainly not a controversial place and certainly not conspicuous." The congregation took up a collection for Mount Calvary, and Wagner drove by to pay her respects after she heard the news on TV.
Area churches, including Melson United Methodist Church down the street and St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Salisbury, have donated money, Bibles and sympathy. As of yesterday, area churches and individuals have donated more than $10,000. Damage to the uninsured church was estimated at $7,000. Leonard hopes to gets the ruined Bible back after the investigation is over. He has plans for their Bible.
Something feels different about the church, as members and visitors file in Mount Calvary for its reopening Jan. 12.
"White Power" is painted over on the back walls.
The organ bench is missing.
The front of the piano, its wood etched with "KKK Rules," has been removed, exposing the piano's wires and hammers.
The purple curtains are back up.
The three high-back chairs near the altar have been stained to conceal the three K's.
The proclamation for Pastor Brittingham is still gone, but so is the broken glass.
Three new Bibles rest on the altar.
Leonard's sister, Dixie Everett, is here, as is his mother, Eunice, and his son, 13-year-old Matthew. Bill Wyatt and the Rev. David Tontonoz are here from St. Peter's Episcopal Church. The service begins with Deacon Warner Wilson saying the Lord has used this crime to unify. Amen. Everett, battling a bit of a sore throat, sings as if no throat could possibly battle her and win. We magnify the Lord! Sing it like you mean it!
Leonard makes his entrance. He checks the thermostat, then takes a seat in one of the high-back chairs - the middle "K." He invites Tontonoz to sit next to him in the pulpit. Leonard will say later he plans to attend their service. And Tontonoz will note how the community is better off this day. They all just might meet again in someone's church.
Now, "Are you glad to be back in the house again?" Leonard asks the congregation. Amen. "If God wasn't on our side, the enemy would have wiped us out." Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Amen!
Leonard dedicates the three new Bibles to Mount Calvary. A new plaque will go up that will list the Bible donors. Also in the glass case, the torn Bible will be preserved "in all its raggedness," the minister says. It was, after all, the church's first Bible, and it will stay with them. It will serve as a reminder of what was destroyed and what can never be destroyed - our faith, says Leonard.
He motions to his son, who approaches the altar to light two candles in the name of the people who desecrated their house of worship. "So that the light of God can shine into their hearts and so that one day they will be saved," Leonard says. It's our responsibility to forgive them. And still, he says, it's all right to ask why.
In Parsonsburg, they say the devil tried to beat Mount Calvary.
They believe the devil lost.
Anyone with information about the church vandalism is asked to call Crime Solvers at 410-548-1776 or the Wicomico County Bureau of Investigation at 410-548-4891.