c. 2006 Religion News Service

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. _ Ben Moseley is a funny guy. Ask just about anyone.

Students at Clay-Chalkville High School voted him “funniest” in his class in 2004, and picked him as the kid who contributed most to the class.

I heard it so many times this week it wasn’t funny. Those taken with him don’t just say it, they gush it, as Whit Smith did in an October review in the Birmingham-Southern College paper, the Hilltop News.

“Ben Moseley is from Grayson Valley,” Smith wrote. “It is a place where his off-beat sense of humor matured from class prankster to budding theatrical genius. He is in the business of bringing a laugh to any situation on or off the stage.”

I’ve seen Moseley only once, and I didn’t laugh. It was Wednesday (March 8), and the BSC theater student wasn’t on stage, exactly. He was sitting in a federal magistrate’s courtroom.

Not one funny thing about it. Of course, handcuffs aren’t hilarious props. And conspiring to burn down nine churches, as prosecutors claim he and two pals did, is no joke.

Moseley was poised but emotionless as he sat next to co-defendant and fellow BSC student Russ DeBusk. A third suspect, Matthew Cloyd from the University of Alabama-Birmingham, was brought to court later in the day.

Court papers say one of the men claimed the fires started as a prank and went too far, that other fires were set to confuse authorities.

Not funny.

Especially when you consider the resentment _ racial, theological and otherwise _ that lingers from the string of arsons at black churches 10 years ago. Not funny. Especially when you realize a conspiracy conviction could put these guys in federal prison for years. Federal sentencing, you know, allows no parole.

It only makes matters worse that students at a Methodist college are charged with burning down Baptist churches. There’s tension enough between the denominations.

But no, there is really nothing funny about this story. It is only sad. Sad for the young men and their families. Sad for those who put them on a pedestal. And sad, most of all, for the congregations of nine churches that must rebuild because of a prank.

Wednesday should have been a good day for DeBusk and Moseley. The very day they were arrested, the Hilltop News ran a full-page story on them, complete with a glowing prediction for their future.

“This could be said of both DeBusk and Moseley,” the story by Whitney Williams concluded. “After they are finished here at BSC, they may truly be on the road to stardom.”

That’s kind of funny.

But by Wednesday afternoon Williams felt deceived, taken in by Moseley’s confidence and ambition.

Yes, Moseley was amusing, she said. But not as clever as he thought.

“Most of it was making fun of other people,” she said.

Hmm. I’ll say it again. He’s just not that funny.

(John Archibald is a columnist for The Birmingham News in Birmingham, Ala.)

KRE/PH END ARCHIBALD