A recent report by the federally appointed National Church Arson Task Force has confirmed that there never was any evidence of an upsurge in racist, fiery attacks upon black churches, despite the media spotlight of last year. The report told us little that is actually new. Insurance statistics showing that 500-600 churches suffer arson every year were largely ignored, and no comprehensive data ever indicated that black churches were any more vulnerable to attack than white churches.

Still, the federal report was greeted with headlines expressing surprise. For most Americans, it was news that the task force had found no evidence of a racist plot, found that more white churches than black churches were suffering arson, found no evidence that racism had motivated more than a small minority of arsonists, and found that only two or three out of 199 suspects so far arrested for church arson have had ties to white supremacist groups.

Actually, the chief originator of the church arson mania, the Atlanta-based Center for Democratic Renewal (CDR), has admitted that white churches were burning at five times the rate of black churches. According to the National Council of Churches (NCC), which was the CDR’s chief partner in pushing church burnings as a media event, 20 percent of America’s churches are black.

Despite this admission, and despite the federal task force’s findings, the church arson lobby continues to fulminate. In June, at a NCC-sponsored convocation in Washington called “No More Burnings, No More Hate,” speakers repeated the NCC’s and the CDR’s usual inflammatory rhetoric. They were preparing for “Phase 11” of the NCC’s Burned Churches Project, which will go beyond church reconstruction to focus on eliminating the “root causes” of racism.

Featured speaker Jesse Jackson blasted conservatives for their stances on welfare reform and affirmative action, chided President Clinton for supporting government downsizing, faulted the media for losing interest in church arson, criticized black preachers who focus on salvation to the exclusion of politics, and mocked the racial reconciliation efforts of the evangelical Promise Keepers movement. “The right-wing church supported slave laws and segregation laws,” thundered Jackson, as he slammed conservative Christians as especially prone to racism. That evangelicals formed the backbone of the Abolitionist movement he seemed not to recall. He warned of a “rightwing” theology that threatens to infect both white and black churches, and ignores the liberal social action that Jackson believes is mandatory for the church.

The NCC said it will work closely with Reverend Jackson on its “Phase 11” activities, which will proceed in part thanks to the generosity of the former “Queen of Mean,” Leona Helmsley, who has donated $1 million to the NCC’s Burned Churches Fund. Having raised over $11 million in total, the NCC and the CDR have little reason to admit that their claims about church arson as an emblem of surging American racism have not withstood close scrutiny.

At the Washington convocation, a defiant CDR spokesperson condemned the work of the National Church Arson Task Force, declaring that its report had “sabotaged” the CDR’s racial justice effort. Just a few months ago, the CDR released its own report purporting to prove a nationwide conspiracy against black churches, orchestrated by white supremacist groups.

“We’ll continue to work with you,” said the CDR’s Rose Johnson to the federal task force. “But we don’t have to buy or believe anything you say. We’re not going to accept that.” Meanwhile, NCC general secretary Joan Brown Campbell insisted that most white churches that have burned are actually “racially mixed.” She explained, “That seems to incite as much as anything else.”

Race and racism are fixations for the religious left, for whom sin is nearly always societal (racism, corporate greed, militarism) and rarely personal (adultery, intoxication, envy). While attending the “No More Burnings, No More Hate” conference, I found more theological and ethical sophistication among some of the pastors of burned churches who were there as guests of the NCC. A white Pentecostal pastor from Iowa, for example, told me that his church had been burned by a drug addict, who was upset over his Christian girlfriend’s attachment to the church. Because the nearly all-white church conducts an Hispanic ministry, the NCC had classified his church as a potential victim of racism. The NCC loaned a trailer for Sunday School classes, but the church received cash support from the Christian Coalition, Promise Keepers, and the National Association of Evangelicals. The pastor said he did not entirely agree with the political agenda of the NCC and wished there were more emphasis on local church ministry.

A black pastor from Mississippi told me his church had burned and that the police found no evidence of arson, but he was still suspicious. Some local churches had been supportive, but the local newspaper had nearly ignored the burning. At a special service of reconciliation at the church, the town’s mayor showed up intoxicated and berated the congregation for the volume of its music.

President Clinton, probably realizing that the church arson hype is now exhausted, declined the NCC’s invitation to address its Washington meeting. We can only hope that the country has learned its lesson and will decline the next invitation to join the religious left’s crusade against phantom threats.