Tag: free welcome christian church

We wrap up our "Religion & Violence" series this week in North Carolina with a decades-old story. Since the bombings that rocked the Free Welcome Holiness Church’s parsonage and sanctuary on Sellerstown Road near Whiteville 35 years ago, pastors hired there often hear something like this: “You mean you’re going to preach at that church that used to get blown up all the time? You’re gonna get shot.” That’s how the Rev. Roger Coffey, the church’s current pastor, remembers the dire warnings he heard in 2001. But for those on Sellerstown Road who experienced the 10 bombings from 1972 to 1978, plus the shootings of a pastor and his wife there, the memories are still close.