US Church vandalism news for first half of July

[struggle4progress]

Vandals strike church, cause over $6,000 in damage
By Dana Yates
Rocks thrown through stain glass windows at Redwood City’s St. Pius Church last week are forcing the parish to pay more than $6,000 in costly repairs ... http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=94578

Three Arrested In Connection With Church Thefts, Vandalism
Reid Adye, 20, Will Face Multiple Charges, Officials Say
POSTED: 8:40 pm PDT July 11, 2008
UPDATED: 9:13 pm PDT July 11, 2008
CLAIREMONT, Calif. -- Officials Friday said that one adult and two juveniles were arrested Thursday in connection with a series of burglaries and vandalism targeting Clairemont churches over the last several weeks ... http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/16860026/detail.html

Police Looking for Suspects in Georgetown Church Vandalism
GEORGETOWN, Del. - Police say they are looking for suspects involved in vandalizing ... the Unity Church of God, located on Hollyville Road ... According to investigators, church members responded to the church on Saturday morning and found that someone had smashed out four windows ... http://www.wboc.com/Global/story.asp?S=8624715

Rural church hit by vandals’ graffiti
By Rich Flowers News Editor
SHADY?OAKS?—?Pastor Robert Deming went to the Rome Church in Shady Oaks Monday with a bucket of white paint .. to cover large red letters vandals spray-painted on the building ... http://www.athensreview.com/local/local_story_186105106.html

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church cleaning up after vandals
07/12/08
By Kevin Myrick, Rome News-Tribune Staff Writer
Volunteers at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church expect to tackle today the last of the graffiti marring the building and grounds on Garden Lakes Boulevard ... On Friday morning, Karch discovered vandals had struck overnight — spray painting on doors, a sign and on the side of the sanctuary wall messages such as “False,” and “there is no God” ... http://news.mywebpal.com/partners/680/public/news914023.html

Vandals strike South Bend church
SBT24/7 News and WSBT-TV Report
This story was originally posted at 12:22 a.m. July 14, 2008.
SOUTH BEND — A South Bend church was vandalized late Sunday, leaving its congregation to wonder why. Police and fire crews were sent to the Church of Christ in the 1800 block of Caroline Street about 9:30 p.m. when the broken windows, graffiti and other damage was discovered ... http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080714/News01/840333539/0/BIZ

published online: 7/6/2008
Crime watch
Reports are taken directly from the daily logs of area law enforcement agencies
... Christ Episcopal Church, 623 N. Fifth St. Vandalism reported at 7:13 p.m. Thursday ...
http://www.thehawkeye.com/Story/cops-070608

Girls in vandalism taken to detention center
ByBDN Staff
Sunday, July 13, 2008 - Bangor Daily News
UNITY, Maine - Two girls who were arrested after a vandalism spree at Quaker Hill Cemetery behind the church on Quaker Hill Road have been placed in a juvenile detention center ... The girls confessed to vandalizing 42 gravestones and the church last Tuesday ... http://www.bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=167045&zoneid=164

Vandalism to BL church
By Lauren Radomski (Contact) | The Daily Journal
Published Friday, July 11, 2008
The Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Office received a report of vandalism to the cross at Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church in Battle Lake Thursday morning ... http://www.fergusfallsjournal.com/news/2008/jul/11/vandalism-bl-church/

Buffalo church stays the course after vandalism
Updated: July 6, 2008 09:10 PM
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - A church in the Queen City has once again fallen victim to vandals ... Over the weekend, Bishop Davis says vandals knocked out windows and broke into his church ... http://www.wivb.com/Global/story.asp?S=8625595

Man arrested after breaking church window
Monday, July 7, 2008
JACKSON TWP. A 25-year-old man is facing criminal charges after ... removing rocks from an unfinished road project and then using the rocks to break a large window at Family of Christ Lutheran Church at 9687 Portage St. NW, police said ... http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=419501&Category=15&subCategoryID=0

Teen church vandals sentenced
By LAURIE MASON
Bucks County Courier Times
MIDDLETOWN - Two teens who admitted defacing a Middletown church in February were sentenced Tuesday in Bucks County Juvenile Court in Doylestown ... http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/111-07092008-1560595.html

Church reports break-in
By JAKE LOWARY • The Leaf-Chronicle • July 6, 2008
Someone broke into the First Church of God ... through a back door and kicked and pried open the doors of the church. Jackson wrote that several of the church's offices also were broken into ... http://www.theleafchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080706/CRIME/807060338

Garland church's buildings vandalized
08:45 PM CDT on Saturday, July 5, 2008
By WENDY HUNDLEY The Dallas Morning News [email protected]
Garland police are trying to determine who sprayed graffiti on two buildings at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church on Friday night. A youth hut and adjacent shed were sprayed with obscene words and pictures, said Father J.D. Brown, rector at the church in the 3200 block of Guthrie Road, near Interstate 30 and Belt Line Road in southeast Garland ... http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/070608dnmetgraffiti.2e219e6.html

Teens charged with ‘tagging' church
July 1, 2008 - 9:12AM
By Laura B. Martinez, The Brownsville Herald
Police arrested two Brownsville teenagers ... early Sunday morning after a citizen reported seeing a group of young men spray-painting a building at Immaculate Conception Church, 700 E. 12th St., police said ... http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/church_88068___article.html/police_group.html

Vandalism costly for church
By STAFF REPORTS
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Recent vandalism at Center Hill Free Will Baptist Church will cost $1,400 to repair, Capt. Mike Alexander of the Harrison County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday. For the second time in two months, a rural African-American church was defaced when black spray paint was used to scrawl the letters, KKK, on the south wall of the white, wooden building and also on the church's sign ... http://www.marshallnewsmessenger.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/070208_WEB_kkk.html

DNA Evidence Leads to Arrest in Church Break-In
Cedar Park police say one suspect is still at-large
7/13/2008
Newsroom
After a year-long investigation, Cedar Park Police say they have made an arrest for the burglary of the Camino al Cielo Church. The small church building on New Hope Road was broken into last June and vandalized. "They did create a tremendous amount of damage inside the church," says Captain Jeff Hayes. "Pretty much everything was destroyed" ... http://www.590klbj.com/News/Story.aspx?ID=95317

Virgin Mary Statues Destroyed At Church
POSTED: 11:15 am CDT July 16, 2008
HOUSTON -- A reward was offered on Wednesday to find vandals who have hit a northwest Houston church three times, KPRC Local 2 reported. Three Virgin Mary statues at All Saints Catholic Church, 215 E. 10th Street in the Heights, were either damaged or destroyed during the past few months, officials said ... http://www.click2houston.com/news/16899783/detail.html

[LiberalFighter]

1. Why isn't God striking down these people when they attempt to violate his property?

The people are despicable with their actions.

There would be less church related vandalism and other crimes if religion was eliminated.

[struggle4progress]

2. I do not much admire your suggestion that church vandalism is to be reduced by eliminating religion

[LiberalFighter]

6. It would be true though

[Donald Ian Rankin]

4. There would be fewer thefts if we committed genocide.

To quote G. K. Chesterton, when there are not enough hats to go around the problem is not solved by lopping off a few heads.

[varkam]

3. Okay. So?

:shrug:

[beam me up scottie]

5. You don't get the correlation?

It's all part of the plan.

Atheists/satanists are obviously to blame.

You know, because christians would never vandalize churches.

[TZ]

7. Yeah you know no TRUE christian has ever done

ANYTHING hateful like umm painting swastikas on Synagoges or even ...vandalizing Mosques...:sarcasm:
Nor do any true Christian do anything so hateful AS PREACHING THAT JEWS KILLED JESUS in their Sunday Sermon (I heard IT).
Yes, only atheists do hateful anti-religious stuff..:sarcasm:

[moggie]

8. Be reasonable, now

I'm sure you can't imagine why Christian kids would have any reason for hating priests. And it's not like kids vandalise secular buildings. These are obviously minions in PZ Myers' vast tentacular conspiracy.

[beam me up scottie]

9. "vast tentacular conspiracy"

:spray:
:rofl:

[knitter4democracy]

10. So? It happens all the time. Churches often have money in them.

People break in to see if they can get the offering money or anything they can pawn off to get money. It happens all the time. It's not so much anger at the church, though that might be part of it, but a symptom of how bad the economy's getting.

[struggle4progress]

11. "rocks thrown through stain glass windows," "large red letters .. spray-painted on the building,"

"spray painting on doors, a sign and on the side of the sanctuary," "broken windows, graffiti and other damage," "vandalizing 42 gravestones," "youth hut and adjacent shed were sprayed with obscene words and pictures," "spray-painting a building," "the letters, KKK, on the south wall," -- I guess I haven't kept up with modern trends in burglary

[moggie]

13. You want to pin KKK graffiti on atheists?

Or could someone who paints "KKK" on a black church perhaps have motivations other than critiquing Christianity?

[struggle4progress]

29. Why put words in other peoples' mouths, Moggie?

I, frankly, cannot understand the mindset that motivates someone to spray racist slogans on a church -- and if you reread the post you will see that I advanced no hypothesis on the subject

[moggie]

30. Of course

This has NOTHING to do with you going crackers over Crackergate. :sarcasm:

[charlie]

15. While you're on the case

Find out who tagged my garage door last month. If you catch them they're going to art school, because what they did was worse than a crime, it was an embarassment. That same old stupid balloon sculpture style, I'm sick of looking at it. Maybe together we can beat some creativity into these hoodlums, make churches safe for real art again.

Thanks for your consideration.

[cosmik debris]

17. You should be honored

These vandals seem to be hitting places that are considered holy or symbols of holiness.

Your garage must be s shrine of some sort.

:)

[charlie]

19. Must be that box of oyster crackers

in the back of my cupboard. I hear that stuff is like catnip rolled in Spanish Fly to evangelical atheists. It's going out in the Thursday trash.

Cripes, if PZ was anywhere near Texas last month, I'm sending him a turd-o-gram.

[beam me up scottie]

20. How could you eat those poor helpless oysters?

[charlie]

21. I am the Walrus

Goo-goo-ga-joob :D

[knitter4democracy]

25. That kind of crap happened when I was a kid.

Graffiti and broken windows are common in theft, no matter who's the victim. Obscenity makes sense considering it's a church and most vandals are younger and think that's funny. As for the KKK, that's a bit odd but not unusual, especially if you consider the church population.

[charlie]

26. Probably won't encounter someone with a gun in a church

Schools are common targets for the same reason. I'd also guess churches are the least likely buildings to have video surveillance.

[knitter4democracy]

27. That's all true.

My church growing up was robbed twice and had to put in all sorts of stuff after that. They're easy targets with easy-to-fence items and cash.

[Evoman]

12. Yep. Vandals suck.

They broke two of the windows at the bus stop close to my house. When it rains, you can't hide in there. It sucks.

[cosmik debris]

22. I just have to ask...

Does your ass pimple god serve crackers?

Do you really have to eat them?

[beam me up scottie]

23. Dude! You have to capitalize His Name!

:spank:

[Evoman]

24. Believe me...what Ass Pimple god serves, you don't wanna eat.

[and-justice-for-all]

14. Kids, I swear...

How many of these vandalism incidents were done by former members of the church? Members that got pissed off about something that happened while in the church?

Also, how many of these were done to gain sympathy and to point the finger at everyone else but themselves? Self induced injury, by people who are current members of the church? I do not put it past a congregation to do such things, even going as far as to burn down their church.

These could also be random acts of vandalism and nothing more.

[struggle4progress]

28. The snippets appear to show some childish vandalism, some petty burglary and larceny -- and a few

possible hate crimes

I notice you provide no evidence, to support your suggestion that some of these were the acts of "former members of the church ... pissed off about something" or that the acts were "Self induced injury" and "done to gain sympathy." Such unsupported accusations really shed no useful light on much, except your prejudices

[and-justice-for-all]

31. ahh...boo hoo.

give me a break.

My 'accusations' are my opinion, so you do do not like it.

[varkam]

32. Whom do you think perpetrated that hate crime?

Do you think that they were Satanists?

[DeSwiss]

16. I'm not sure what this means.

Are these instances of vandalism an indication of an increase, or a decrease? Is it a world-wide, a national or regional reporting? What were the number of vandalisms to churches that occurred at this same time last year? How many vandalisms aren't reported? Is there a difference between the number of Catholic vs. Protestant church vandalisms? How does vandalism to churches compare to say, secular buildings? Public property? Billboards? Synagogues? Buddhist temples? Why are we only looking at church vandalism? Is vandalism to churches more important than to other buildings?

Without more information or at least a base number from past church vandalisms, I can't tell if the trend is going up or down.

And the primary question I have is: what was the vandal's intent? Can we know what the intent of the vandals is, from the number of vandalisms reported? Just who are these vandals?

Could they be disgruntled former employees of Catholic Churches who were laid off due to the losses of revenue which have gone to pay for priest pedophile settlements? The former priests themselves? Their former victims? People who just don't like Pope Ratzinberger?

Since it appears that quite a few of these cases remain "unsolved", how can we know that its not the priests and/or preachers themselves in some kind of twisted plea for sympathy? And of those who were caught, what did they say was the reason for their acts? Mad at god? Hate god? Don't believe in god? Bored?

- And the main question: was attendance up or down after the vandalism???

[uberllama42]

18. You know, Vandals were once a Germanic tibe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandals

The Thugs were a cult in India:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandals

I often wonder if, once we're gone, "American" won't come to hold the same connotation.