Earlier this week the doors of a church in Augusta, GA were vandalized. Plenty of churches have been vandalized over the years, but this church was vandalized with a Bible verse.
The Metropolitan Community Church of Our Redeemer is an inclusive church that caters to the LGBT community. The church’s pastor and his partner were one of the first couples to get married when the Supreme Court made its decision to legalize same-sex marriage.
I read through the church’s website and found that it’s part of the Metropolitan Community Church movement, which began in 1968. The MCC was founded to be a place of inclusion for all people, with a special emphasis on the LGBT community. I read through what the Metropolitan Community Church of Our Redeemer believes and was left with a few questions. There isn’t any mention of Jesus’s death or resurrection as the means to redemption, which raises some red flags.
Regardless of the red flags, though, no church or any other building should be vandalized – especially with a passage of scripture.
The vandals spray painted “Burn,” “Lies,” and “Leviticus 18:22.” The idea of using scripture to vandalize the property of another church or person makes me sick to my stomach.
I don’t believe that the Bible supports same-sex marriage but I also know that it doesn’t condone vandalism or hateful behavior. The Bible is filled with messages of God’s love and his Son who reached out to everyone. That same Bible shouldn’t be used to instill messages of hate and fear. It’s a perversion of God’s inspired word that I can’t even begin to understand.
Why would someone do that?
Why would they think vandalism would please God?
Why can someone claim to love God’s word yet miss its most important messages?
I don’t support everything that the Metropolitan Community Church of Our Redeemer believes, but that doesn’t mean I can’t support them against this sickening display of vandalism. Hateful acts like that vandalism deepen the divide between the church and the LGBT community. Hopefully by condemning such acts and showing the actual love of Jesus, we can close that gap and gain greater understanding.
We don’t have to believe the same things to understand each other better, a message definitely missed by these cowardly and hateful vandals.
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