Hi Laz,
The students, the school, and most importantly their lawyers are currently doing everything they can to disuade anyone from thinking there was some reason they targeted multiple churches and not say, coffee shops. There is good reason for that, seeing that that would make it a "hate crime" covered by hate crimes law, which includes minimum sentencing requirements and would ensure that they received a hefty chunk of jail time. It would also be very bad P.R. for the college. The interesting thing is that federal involvement in solving the crimes was largely predicated on the assumption that these were religiously motivated (not racially motivated as they burned down the church buildings of both Black and White congregations).
It would be interesting to see how the story might have been spun a little differently in the media had it been a bunch of Christian students from a Christian college burning down Mosques or Synagogues. Had that been the case, the idea of it being a "prank" might not have been so readily accepted.
- SEAGOON
