On May 22, just eleven days after publicly announcing that her congregation would be hosting migrants when Title 42 expired, the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Douglas, Arizona, watched in horror as the imposing brick-and-wood structure went up in flames.
“When I first got here it was a complete punch in the gut,” Reverend Peggy Christiansen told a TV news crew. Firefighters were busy battling the blaze. “I saw them breaking into the glass windows. And those stained glass windows are historic and they’re kinda part of the identity of the church.”
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Fire at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Douglas, Arizona, May 22, 2023.
Fortunately, no people, migrants or otherwise, were in First Presbyterian that morning when the sanctuary, as well as neighboring St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, were set on fire. Children and staff in a daycare center between the two churches had to be evacuated, but no one was hurt in the conflagration that severely damaged both churches and two adjacent buildings. The churches, each more than 100 years old, were part of a lively faith community in this quiet town across the border from Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico.
Aided by investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, police took less than two days to identify and arrest a fifty-eight-year-old local man in connection with the crime. According to the indictment, Eric Ridenour, who reportedly moved to Douglas about four years ago, burned the churches because he was opposed to women and gay people leading religious congregations. (First Presbyterian is led by a woman, and the pastor of St. Stephen’s is an openly gay man.)
Ridenour was held without bond after a hearing on June 15, in which the prosecutor was able to convince a judge that the accused had shown “cold indifference for human life and property” and represented an ongoing threat.
This crime recalls the dark history of church burnings in the United States, which date back to before the Civil War.
This crime recalls the dark history of church burnings in the United States, which date back to before the Civil War. African-American churches in the South were targeted for being way stations on the Underground Railroad and for supporting Black emancipation. Another wave of church burnings and bombings occurred during the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s, most notably with the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, which killed four young Black girls. The Ku Klux Klan members suspected of plotting that attack never faced charges.
Another spate of church burnings took place in the mid-1990s, prompting President Bill Clinton to form a national task force and Congress to increase penalties for the crime. The task force investigated 670 church arsons, bombings, and bombing attempts between 1995 and 1998. A wave of racially-motivated church arsons also occurred after the June 2015 massacre of nine congregants at an African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina.
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Surveying the damage from the fire at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Douglas, Arizona, May 22, 2023.
The Douglas attack comes amid a nationwide backlash against progress made by gay and trans people, as well as a renewed effort by some churches to purge women serving in leadership roles.
Prosecutors said that a man matching Ridenour’s description and driving his car was seen near the churches just before the fires broke out, and that accelerant used in the fires had been detected on clothes at his home. Interviews with neighbors and others revealed he had frequently expressed opinions that gay people and women should not be leading churches. The pastor of St. Stephen’s reported that Ridenour had visited the church in 2021, and told him he would never attend a church with a gay pastor while also taking pictures of the interior.
Given the timing of the fires and the churches’ location near the border, the hot-button issue of migration also appears to be a factor. Both churches had expressed support for, and offered shelter to, migrants and refugees, even though relatively few migrants pass through Douglas. The cots set up at First Presbyterian went unused after only a handful of migrants came through when Title 42 restrictions expired on May 11. Those who did were bussed two hours away to Tucson, which has shelters and support services for them.
Given the timing of the fires and the churches’ location near the border, the hot-button issue of migration also appears to be a factor.
Nevertheless, Douglas is in Cochise County, which (with the exception of the artists’ colony of Bisbee), is a largely conservative military, ranching, and mining region. It has a history of attracting anti-immigrant vigilantes and militia groups as well as rightwing politicians seeking photo ops.
One of these politicians, Republican presidential hopeful, and governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, recently visited Cochise County to tout his state’s anti-immigrant policies and to call for a nationwide crackdown on the undocumented.
As it turns out, a home-grown, red-blooded American man was a far greater danger to the community than any of the migrants that politicians like DeSantis keep decrying.