Mississippi church burned to ground responding with prayer for arsonist

A Mississippi church has vowed to pray for the arsonist who destroyed their building.

First Pentecostal Church of Holly Springs, led by senior pastor Jerry Waldrop, says he never thought he'd see armed police ordering their church to shut down its service. He also never thought he'd see his church burned down by an arsonist.

But earlier this year, both of these occurrences took place at the Mississippi church.

Waldrop shared his thoughts on these events in a commentary published by USA Today in late May 2020.

"On Easter Sunday, police officers with the city of Holly Springs interrupted our service and issued me a citation for violating an unconstitutional stay at home order," Waldorp says. "Ten days later, our peaceful Bible study was shut down although we were following all social distancing guidelines."

Waldrop says it didn't end there, however. The "nightmare" continued when their church building was burned to the ground.

The church is choosing to respond to these difficult events in a different way.

"We recognize that not everyone shares our belief in the Word of God as revealed in the Bible," Waldrop says. "We are not offended that others don't share our firmly held belief that gathering together to worship and to study the Bible is an essential duty and necessary to the growth of the church and its members.

"And we will pray for the soul and peace of mind of someone who would harbor such hatred that he would take from us our cherished spiritual home."

The arson took place after the small church began meeting together again in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, despite a stay-at-home order that had been issued in the state of Mississippi.