A Swastika along with the words “Heil Trump” and the phrase “Fag Church” were spray-painted on an inclusive Episcopal Church in Bean Blossom, Indiana on Saturday night.
The Rev. Kelsey Hutto, priest in charge at St. David’s Episcopal Church, said she was disheartened after finding the graffiti on the walls of the church Sunday morning. But her next thought was more positive.
“Well, we must be doing something right,” Hutto said she thought. “We stated one time that doing the right thing was not always the popular thing. We were targeted for a reason, and in our mind it was for a good reason.”
As Christians, Hutto said they need to respond to hateful acts with love and joy. That’s what God calls on them to do, no matter what color people are, where they came from or who they love.
They just need to respect the differences of every human being, she said.
Since Election Day, there have been more than 200 incidents of hateful harassment and intimidation across the country, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The vandalism echoes a troubling directive to followers from a Neo-Nazi white supremacist website last week urging people to troll LGBT “until they kill themselves.”
Here’s a report from WTHR:
RELATED: Neo-Nazi Site Calls for Harassing LGBT People Scared of Trump: ‘Troll Them Until they Kill Themselves’
The church posted a message to Facebook that it would not be swayed by hate:
Sometime Saturday night St. David’s Episcopal Church in Bean Blossom was vandalized. Three tags were painted on the outside of the church – a swastika, “Fag Church” and “Heil Trump.”
We are disappointed that our safe haven has been vandalized but will not let the actions of a few damper our love of Christ and the world. We will continue to live out our beliefs and acceptance of all people and respecting the dignity of every human being. We pray for the perpetrators as well as those who the derogatory marks were directed at.
We will move forward continuing to be the love of Christ in the world.
Any one is welcome on the sacred ground of the church. This act was an act of separation. Separation of us from each other and a separation from God which is the definition of a sin.
We pray for unification with God, with God’s people and with ourselves.
This is only one image of a worldwide phenomenon in which we are dividing ourselves and the world from God.
We hope and pray that as the days and weeks continue we find a way to bridge this division from God and each other and ourselves.
