Pastor: ‘Our church is going through hell’

CARVER – Every Sunday morning before church services, Manuel Minix, pastor of the Carver United Baptist Church, spends around an hour picking up beer bottles and cans from in front of the church, by the church sign and some strategically thrown in the baptizing area.

Within an hour of ending their Sunday services, Minix said there will be enough cans in front of the church to clean it all up, again.

Minix said for the last couple of years his church has had numerous break-ins, thefts, and even evidence of parties occurring in the parking lot.

“They mess with the Jesus statue a lot,” Minix said. “They’ve even posted pictures and videos online of a group of them partying in the church parking lot. It’s just evil.”

Minix showed the Independent videos and photos dated from 2021 that had been posted to Facebook by some of the participants of the alleged party at the church, which included the faces of the people involved, as well as the easily identifiable statue in front of the building. Since no one was been charged for any of the videoed or photographed incidents, the SI cannot print or publish the photos with any identifiable information of the men and/or boys involved.

Minix said people have broken into the back window a couple times so that now they’ve boarded off those windows. Usually, he said the cleaning supplies are the main things that are stolen, but the damages and the trash left behind each week are really adding up.

“I’ll probably start sleeping at the church, but at least we’ve got good, padded pews,” Minix said. “But we have a meth fort down the road where they’re basically operating a drug drive-thru every Friday and Saturday night. People are turning in my driveway all hours of the night and they’ve even poisoned my dog for telling on them and waking me up. What kind of people do this?”

The part that really makes the recent events more personal for Minix is the fact his grandmother and uncle were killed by a drunk driver in 1973, something he said he has never forgotten.

“These people doing this are driving drunk or intoxicated,” Minix said. “What if they hit someone? What if they hit a car with my grandbabies inside? I don’t know if I’m going to have to start patrolling the road myself, or what, but something needs to happen. If I could talk to them, I’d tell them I’d like to work them – have them work their injustice off. If I done what they’re doing, my dad would have killed me.”

While he’s put up red tape to discourage entry into the parking lot and is looking into purchasing security cameras, Minix said he will not be intimidated if the recent events are efforts of getting him to stop preaching.

“If I catch them, they won’t need to send the law,” Minix said. “They can’t pay me to preach, and they can’t pay me to not to, but they can’t stop me. I fear God, but I don’t fear man. You don’t have to let people walk all over you and our church is going through hell.”

Anyone who may know something about the break-ins or other trespassing at the Carver United Baptist Church or at Manuel Minix’s home is encouraged to either contact Minix or the Magoffin County Sheriff Department at 606-349-2914.