Church attacks in the headlines

albeit in local news headlines, not national media...

The Rev. David J. Bonnar, pastor of St. Bernard Church in Mt. Lebanon, yesterday holds part of the broken statue of the Virgin Mary, which was toppled and vandalized.

The grotto dedicated to the Blessed Mother at St. Bernard Church in Mt. Lebanon was meant to be a place of serenity where parishioners could go to meditate or pray.

But the scene was anything but serene Saturday morning, when a worker opening the church found a statue of the Virgin Mary in the grotto damaged and defaced. The statue had been knocked over, with its left arm and several pieces of the left side broken off.

In addition, 666 was written across the statue's forehead in orange paint..

Father Bonnar said in addition to damaging the statue, the vandal or vandals tore apart the rosary beads and threw the beads around the grotto. "They not only desecrated the representation of Mary in the statue, but they desecrated the rosary as well."

"Evil has no borders or boundaries. Evil is real and it is present among us in our world today. But as Catholics and Christians we believe that good triumphs over evil."

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SEATTLE - Services were moved to the parking lot of a Rainier Beach church after a naked man smashed through a window Saturday, spattering HIV-positive blood inside and leaving a trail of destruction through the house of worship.

Officials believe the 46-year-old suspect was high on PCP during his unholy rampage through the Unity Church of God in Christ - and now the church interior is considered a bio-hazard because of the tainted blood inside.

The rampage went from room to room - a picture gallery was torn from the walls, a trophy case was broken open, mirrors were shattered - and blood was smeared on walls, fixtures and furniture.

But church members say they have already forgiven the man, whose brother hung himself from a tree on church property on the first Sunday of June 29 years ago.

At the outdoor Sunday morning service, the pastor remembered the man in his prayers.

"Oh God, we ask that you look upon the young man who did this - amen. Because our business is forgiveness, yes, Lord."

Church member Billy Williams says, "The Bible says things work together for the good. And we don't understand it but our business is forgiveness and soul-saving, and some strange way God will get the glory out of this."

...your first article is related to another Syracuse story, the confiction of the 17 year old boy that shot and killed the man on the West Side. For those that don't know the story, two 15 year boys were in a house attic when the 47 year old father on to his porch. He was shot in the neck and died. There was no real motive behind the killing. It was completely sensless. A comment from one of the relatives was the the boy had no soul.

Alhough it was a souless act, the lad has a soul. But his soul has never been touched by the Holy Spirit. There was a time when Faith permeated our society and, even those who didn't belong to a church were introduced to Faith. People came in contact with Faith.

Now Faith is to stay on private property, to let it loose in the public square is to violate peoples sesibilities and the Constitution. Faith is now an object of contempt, scorn and ridicule.

I don't know if the Church vandalism is the work of a troll (someone that craves any kind of attention) or an anti-religionist but, we are reaping the rewards of pushing Faith from the public square.

from now about a quarter century ago called The Naked Public Square, where he diagnoses just this attempt to marginalize faith, where the multiculti ideal of tolerance is to hide your light under a bushel so that no one be made uncomfortable by having a light shine on what they prefer to do in the dark. The older I get, the more I think that marginalizing one's faith to a safe little compartment where it doesn't contaminate anything else, like one's career or family or political affiliation, is worse than being without faith at all. That is, I think it's better to avoid a relationship with God than to try to have one where you treat God like some tawdry mistress that you can spare a few secret hours behind everyone else's back.