Public Cemetery held Hostage by Church Members

Over 30 years ago land was donated to the Maple Grove community in Ten Mile, Tennessee by a family with the request that a cemetery be established. The family donated the land with the provisions that any person who wished to be buried there could do so for free and regardless of their religious background.   Today members of a church that sits adjacent to the cemetery are literally holding the cemetery and the community hostage.  The public cemetery is chained and padlocked.  Members of the community with buried loved ones in the cemetery have been harassed, photographed and threatened with violence.  Citizens of the community have been arrested and letters representing the church have been sent demanding compensation for cemetery plots or the church will claim headstones as their own property until payment has been made.  This is not a plot for a novel or prime time soap opera. This is a true story and it is happening today.

In the 1970s the land that is now the Maple Grove Community Cemetery was donated to the Ten Mile community.  The family donating the land came to members of the Maple Grove Independent Missionary  Baptist Church because most citizens of the community attended the church to establish a cemetery that would be free of charge and would not discriminate on any religious grounds.  The church did not fund the establishment of the cemetery. Citizens of the Maple Grove community in Ten Mile who did attend the church paid for the construction of the fence.  In fact, the church's only contribution to the cemetery has been the occasional mowing of the grass inside the cemetery fence.  The paved road that runs from both gates of the cemetery was paid for by a family with relatives buried in the cemetery and the paved road replaced a gravel road that was not easily managed in damp or rainy weather.  In the early 1990s the Maple Grove church was burned to the ground by an arsonist and to avoid an ongoing land dispute between landowners (one of which is now part of the group attempting to obtain compensation for the cemetery plots) members of the church at that time voted to move the church to land adjacent to the Maple Grove Community Cemetery.  The turmoil that resulted within the church during the construction of the new church building led most of the members of the church to no longer attend the Maple Grove church or move on to other churches.

Fast forward to the late 2000s, a new set of church members, in a power play worthy of a European parliament fight,  purged many of the remaining members who were present at the time of the establishment of the cemetery.  In this time based on financial documents presented by these members the church was and continues to suffer severe financial hardship and in order to generate revenue and despite legal documents to the contrary these church members with the blessing of the church have laid claim to the public cemetery.  Initially their demands for compensation were ignored by the community and life and death went on as usual.  It was at this time that these church members began chaining and padlocking the cemetery gates and posting signs that all activity had to be approved by them.  Legal documents show that in the 1970s trustees of the cemetery were established within the church with the understanding that their work in support of the cemetery was not part of the church's responsibilities and would carry on whether or not they were members of the church. One of the trustees remains in the neighborhood to this day.  For the record, this trustee is my father.  The community legally and justly repeatedly removed the chains and the padlocks. Based on Tennessee state law, the impeding of access to a public cemetery in the state of Tennessee is a class E felony and the community had every right to remove any illegal impediments to the public cemetery.

The fight between the community and the church came to a head when members of the church threatened to block a hearse and threatened physical harm up to the point of death to citizens if they attempted to bury a woman who had just passed away without compensating them.  This vicious and cruel encounter forced the community to request and obtain restraining orders signed by a sitting judge to prevent members of the church from blocking the funeral procession and burial of a citizen of the community in a public cemetery.

Despite the restraining orders and the simple inhumanity of the church's behavior, the members  of the church continue to harass the community, having citizens arrested for attempting to enter the cemetery and continue to threaten to extort compensation for grave plots they legally cannot obtain.  Pictures included in this story were taken by actual members of the church and provided in court cases to complain about citizens who attempted to access the public cemetery.  The community needs all the legal advice and support we can give it.  Many citizens just don't want to fight against a church and are ashamed of how the community as a whole will appear to the rest of the world.  Many are trying to be decent and hope that members of the church will come to their senses and stop violating the law.  In my opinion they are hoping for a miracle.

On their behalf I have filed a claim with the Justice Department on the grounds that the chained and locked gates are a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  A woman in her 90s and in a wheelchair who's husband is buried in the cemetery a good distance from the gates would have to be carried to her husband's grave because a wheelchair would not function the distance in the rough grass to get her to the gravesite.  Included in the filed claim are complaints that the church is violating citizens' rights of assembly and religion as through their actions they are blocking citizens of other faiths from being buried in the cemetery.  I would appreciate any offers of help or advice I can give citizens of my hometown in stopping this horrific injustice.  I can provide more detailed information including copies of what I call "extortion letters" and a copy of the restraining order used to block church members from stopping a burial.  I do hope this story shocks you as much as it does me.  I would like to see this church stripped of its tax exempt status and charges filed against the individuals who are the masterminds behind this indecency. Churches cannot be above the law and certainly should not be allowed to dictate who can and cannot enter a public cemetery.  Contact me at allenrenfro1@gmail.com.