The county, with slightly more than 100,000 people, sits in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, roughly 60 miles from Charlotte.
The pastor of one of the churches said a member of his congregation saw the fire and called the fire department.
Luckily, both of the fires were put out by civilians before the fire department arrived. Both churches are located in the northern part of the county.
The Family Research Council (FRC) recently released its annual report “Hostility against Churches in the United States.”
FRC documented 415 hostile incidents last year and has documented 1,384 acts of hostility in total since the report began in January 2018.
Congressman Mark Harris is a former pastor and U.S. representative for North Carolina’s 8th District, serving on the House Judiciary Committee. He spoke with Tony Perkins on Washington Watch regarding these recent church attacks.
“I think the fact that there are assaults on Christians and on churches across America is real, and I think that we have to come to the place that we accept that very reality,” says Harris.
He said the investigation into the two Cleveland County fires is continuing.
“There are no motives at this point that have been identified and no arrests that have been made. In fact, I reached out to my colleague, who's a congressman for the 14th Congressional District where this occurred. At this point, they've not made any arrests,” says Harris.
Former President Joe Biden and his administration ignored the violence that was enacted against Catholic churches, charities, and pro-life centers, and there are multiple instances of weaponizing the government against Christians. Harris says that the Judiciary Committee has heard from FBI Director Kash Patel, who revealed his awareness of the weaponization of the Department of Justice against Christians.
Harris also says that he questioned Patel on how he can know this will not happen to him as a pastor and pro-life advocate.
“While he couldn't assure me of what had happened in the past, the FBI is continuing to investigate. But I could be assured that this administration was not going to be involved in such activity as that,” says Harris.
Confidence in administration
In February, one of the presidential actions President Donald Trump put forth was the eradication of anti-Christian bias in government. So far, Harris thinks that this is being seen from both Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“I'm confident that we're going to continue to see folks that are going to enforce the law and are not going to just turn and look the other way when pro-life advocates find themselves being attacked.”
He encouraged people facing trials to consider Paul’s letter to Timothy. Christians were not given a spirit of fear but a sound mind, and they need to have a willingness to be bold.
“One of the greatest things that I've seen in recent days that came out of Charlie Kirk's funeral was when Vice President (J.D.) Vance said that he had been a Christian for a number of years, but as a believer had always been sensitive about speaking and sharing it,” retells Harris. “He went on to say that in the last two weeks he had talked more about Jesus than he had in all of the previous years that he had been a believer and follower of Christ.”
He believes that this is the kind of boldness that pastors should continue to encourage in their congregation.
“Furthermore, I've been saying to pastors over the last month that we've been praying for another great awakening. I think many of us are sensing something is different this time about what's happening in our country. We need to be ready as pastors and church leaders to move forward,” concludes Harris.
