A Texas minister set himself on fire and died to ‘inspire’ justice

The Washington Post ^ | July 16, 2014 | Lindsey Bever

[Salman]

One Monday in June, 79-year-old Charles Moore, a retired United Methodist minister, drove to Grand Saline, Tex., his childhood home town some 70 miles east of Dallas. He pulled into a strip mall parking lot, knelt down on a small piece of foam and doused himself with gasoline.

Then, witnesses said, he set himself on fire.

...

The Tyler Morning Telegraph obtained a copy of the suicide note from Grand Saline police. In it, Moore lamented past racism in Grand Saline and beyond. He called on the community to repent and said he was “giving my body to be burned, with love in my heart” for those who were lynched in his home town as well as for those who did the lynching, hoping to address lingering racism.

...

[Verginius Rufus]

The Buddhist monk suicides were to protest the Diem regime. Diem’s sister-in-law, Madame Nhu, the Dragon Lady, mocked them as “monk barbecues.” But they probably helped lead to the downfall of Diem in November 1963. That was when the US presence in South Vietnam was still relatively small.

[fella]

"Why is it so many of these so-called men of God don’t know and/or don’t heed Scripture?"

He was a Methodist, checkout what that church has been up to in the last few decades.

[Parmy]

That was when the US presence in South Vietnam was still relatively small.

But, it was already on the books to expand the U.S. presence in Vietnam and it did happen so.