Fayetteville pastor of church where racist, pro-Nazi messages left reacts to arrests in case

I asked the Apostle Cordelia Challenger on Monday about the three young men who were arrested and accused after multiple downtown incidents of graffiti and vandalism, including at her church. Police are seeking a fourth man, who is also charged.

Challenger serves as pastor of Greater Unity Tabernacle Christian Church, a predominantly Black congregation on Gillespie Street in downtown Fayetteville. Vandals left racist, pro-Nazi, satanic and pornographic messages on an outside wall at the church.

More: Four charged in rash of Fayetteville vandalism, including at a Gillespie Street church

Specifically, I asked Challenger her thoughts on two of the men implicated in the crimes being Black, according to a press release by the Fayetteville Police Department.

She considered the question carefully.

“Any time there are young people like that involved, I began to wonder how much they actually know concerning those things that they wrote,” she said.

I wonder the same. I am thinking they don’t know much about any of it if they did these things, and that is part of the problem. Hate and racism share a similar root — ignorance.

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Arrested are Dominic Smith, 18; Gabriel Kroes, 19; and Raybert Robinson, 21, all of Fayetteville, according to the release. Quantavis Moultrie, 21, of Hope Mills, is being sought, the release states. The Police Department typically includes the race of the suspect and said in its release that Smith is white, Robinson and Moultrie are Black, and Kroes is Hispanic.

Vandals struck Unity Tabernacle twice, spraying one of the walls with KKK symbols, Nazi swastikas, a depiction of male genitalia, Satanic symbols and the word “Hamas,” an apparent reference to the Palestinian organization that launched terror attacks last month against Israel, sparking a wider war.

The men face charges of injury to real property, misdemeanor conspiracy and violating the city’s graffiti code. Police say they made the arrests after watching hours of surveillance video, in the wake of reported vandalism at six different downtown locations.

The men were booked in the jail that is located right across the street from Unity Tabernacle.

Challenger’s church serves a community meal every week and does outreach to seniors. For years, it ran a ministry where it mentored and assisted children of prisoners, which the apostle says grew in part out of an initiative by students at Westover High School, the school from which she retired.

“We thank God for all the things he has allowed us to do,” she said.

A current program, Second Chances, helps young men and women, mostly former felons, find jobs, straighten out their acts and get on a good foot.

“I get them a job and I transport them back and forth,” she said.

Listening to Challenger, it strikes me that the accused men might be better off attending the church instead of defacing the outside.

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Second chances?

Challenger praised the Fayetteville Police Department for “a job well done.”

But she also said she wants to talk to the young men. She wants to have a word with the judge about how restitution could include further cleanup of the vandalism, which she says is needed.

Despite their alleged actions, she would like to see if she can enroll them in Second Chances.

“There may be a cry for help,” she said.

More Nazi, KKK symbols downtown; bomb threat to a Black church

For Challenger the broader context to the vandalism is what she sees as spiritual warfare — and she says too many people of faith are behind the doors of their church, praying, but not getting out to fight against demonic forces.

She thinks that will change. She says the spark is not just what happened to Unity Tabernacle but an apparently unrelated bomb threat to Simon Temple AME Zion Church that caused the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office to bring bomb-sniffing dogs to sweep the church, according to WRAL. Simon Temple, also majority-Black, is one of the city’s largest congregations.

In another recent incident, someone spray-painted a KKK symbol, a Nazi symbol and genitalia on a vehicle parked in a deck on Hay Street, according to a Facebook video posted four days ago by LaVern S. Oxendine, a commissioner with the Greater Fayetteville Chamber. It is not clear if the graffiti is related to the vandalism arrests.

Oxendine wrote in response to the video: “What? Not in Fayetteville!”

Challenger is inviting church leaders of all races to an event at 3 p.m. Sunday at the church where they can talk about what happened and devise a plan to fight for their community.

Pastor throwing a lifeline

By wanting to meet with the accused, Challenger is throwing the young men a lifeline potentially. I do not mean in the legal sense.

The court process has to play out, but the charges in this situation — while they carry a high disgust factor — are not severe.

What I mean is this could be a turning point in their whole lives.

That’s if they are willing to walk on the right side of Gillespie Street and not on the jail side.

Myron B. Pitts can be reached at mpitts@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3559.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Fayetteville pastor wants to talk to young men accused in vandalism