Bible College Student Torches Adult Bookstore to Serve God

KNOXVILLE, Tenn.

A student from a small independent Bible college claims he set fire to an adult bookstore to serve God, but now realizes it was a sin and has confessed, police say.

Crown College student Benjamin Daniel Warren, 20, has been charged with arson in the Jan. 31 burning of the Town and Country Bookstore near his home. Crown College is a fundamental Baptist college and seminary of about 900 students in Knoxville.

Warren waived his right to a preliminary hearing Tuesday, sending the case on to a Knox County grand jury to decide if he should be tried for the crime. His attorney, Chris Coffey, did not immediately return a call for comment Friday.

Authorities say a man wearing black clothing and a ski mask, carrying a large can of gasoline and what proved to be a fake gun, entered the bookstore and asked the clerk if anyone else was inside. Assured the store was empty, he ordered the clerk to leave to avoid being hurt.

An arrest warrant says the suspect poured about six gallons of "an ignitable liquid" inside the business and set it on fire. No one was injured, but the fire destroyed $600,000 in merchandise and caused up to $300,000 in damage to the building, owner David Stubbs said.

Police had no clue to the masked man's identity until Warren surrendered April 11following an automobile accident and gave a statement.

Warren told authorities he thought he was serving God by destroying what he viewed as a pornography peddling business. But the car wreck convinced him that God was punishing him for the arson and led him to confess, his statement said.

"It's his religion that taught him to hate this sort of thing," said Jennifer Collins, who manages another adult bookstore owned by Stubbs. "Religiously motivated crimes are types of hate crimes, and it should be treated that way."