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 fundamentalist Baptist college and seminary of about 900 students in Knoxville.

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

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 whether 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 6 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 11 after 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."

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Man Sets Fire to Porn Store for Religious Reasons

Knoxville News Sentinel, 5/6/06 - Fire investigators say a Powell man admitted dressing up like a ninja to burn down an adult business, all in the name of God.

Benjamin Daniel Warren, age 20, faces an arson charge that could send him to prison for six years. Warren is out on $5,000 bond while his case goes before a grand jury. Arson investigators had no clue Warren was a suspect until he came in to confess.

Arson investigators say Warren admitted using a fake gun to get the clerk out of the Town and Country bookstore,7011 Clinton Highway, back on January 31. After ordering the employee to leave the store, Warren then pored six gallons of a flammable liquid inside the store and set it ablaze.

The fire did $900,000 worth of damage to the building, which remains closed.

At the time of the asron, Warren was enrolled as a student at Crown College, a Baptist institution in Powell.

Crown President Dr. Clarence Sexton says Warren dropped out of the school a few weeks after the arson. A few months later, someone came to Sexton with information that Warren might have confessed to the crime.

"He (Warren) was in an auto accident and thought God was dealing with his conscience about the thing (fire)," Dr. Sexton says. "He wanted to get right with it."

After hearing the rumor, Dr. Sexton called police. He then confronted Warren over the phone.

"He's confessed to the whole thing," Dr. Sexton says. "From what he has shared with me, he felt like this (adult bookstore)industry has corrupted lots of people and families, and he felt he ought to do this at the time."

Dr. Sexton says he himeslf has serious problems with adult businesses, but that Town and Country Boostore was operating within the law. Dr. Sexton says Warren realizes what he did was wrong and regrets what happened.

"We totally disapprove with what he did," Dr. Sexton says. "He broke the law and should suffer the consequences."

Pastor Says Man's Way was Wrong

Knoxville News Sentinel, 5/6/06 - It's a message preached over and over at Crown College - hate the sin, love the sinner.

Student and arson suspect Benjamin Daniel Warren apparently just didn't get it, the Rev. Clarence Sexton, college founder and pastor of Temple Baptist Church, said Friday.

"This is not Bible Christianity," Sexton said. "This young man was wrong. He broke the law. The apostle Paul didn't burn down Rome. He just preached the Gospel."

Warren is accused of setting fire to the Town and Country adult bookstore on Clinton Highway on Jan. 31. He has told Knox County Sheriff's Office investigators he believed the business was peddling pornography and considered his torching of the place to be God's will.

Weeks after he donned a Ninja-style black mask and clothing, brandished a fake gun to convince the store clerk to leave and then set ablaze some six gallons of an accelerant inside the bookstore, Warren was hurt in an automobile accident.

He told authorities he became convinced his injuries were God's punishment for the burning of the bookstore and wound up surrendering to authorities in April.

Until then, authorities had no clue as to the identity of the arsonist who caused an estimated $900,000 in damages to the still-closed bookstore.

Sexton said Friday Warren abruptly withdrew from the independent college in Powell soon after the bookstore fire.

The pastor later began hearing rumors that Warren was the culprit in the fire.

"Immediately upon hearing the rumors he might be involved in this, I called law enforcement," Sexton said.

Sexton also phoned Warren, who "confessed to this" after conceding the automobile accident had been "working on his conscience," the pastor said.

"As much as I am personally opposed to the adult pornography industry, this is no way to deal with it," Sexton said. "This is what we teach and preach. We don't even march on things.

"We believe we ought to stand against what is wrong, but we believe there are biblical ways to deal with this," he said. "You can't create Christians by force. We should have compassion for the people who operate these places."

Sexton said he did not believe Warren's alleged arson should be considered a hate crime.

"There was no individual singled out in this," Sexton said. "He was thinking about the material they were selling, not the people who worked there."

KCSO spokeswoman Martha Dooley has confirmed that the arsonist warned the clerk to leave the store so the employee would not be hurt in the blaze and also made sure no one else was inside the business.

Jennifer Collins, who manages Town and Country's sister store on Kingston Pike, has said people were hurt by the blaze because employees lost their jobs. She believes the arson should be treated as a hate crime.

Sexton said Warren's actions have harmed his fellow Christians.

"We have all been slandered by this event," Sexton said of the Christian faith and his college, which is hosting graduation ceremonies this weekend. "He hasn't helped change anything. He is repentant. I think he's going to do all right in the end. But he's got to face (the legal system)."

Attorney Don Coffey has waived Warren's case to a Knox County grand jury for consideration. Warren, who lives near the burned bookstore, is free on bond.

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