{"id":1340,"date":"2006-06-08T00:19:06","date_gmt":"2006-06-08T00:19:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2006\/06\/vandalism.html"},"modified":"2006-06-08T00:19:06","modified_gmt":"2006-06-08T00:19:06","slug":"vandalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/06\/vandalism.html","title":{"rendered":"Vandalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

I heard about one, then did a news search, and found another, then another. <\/p>\n

Amid the joking and the wise words about how this whole 6-6-06 was a massive misinterpretation of Scripture anyway, it seems as if some were inspired – we had, it appears, a few incidences of Satanic-themed vandalism on Christian churches over the past few days. <\/p>\n

Vandalism at "Holy Hill" in Wisconsin<\/a><\/p>\n

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When Richard Kontny of Neosho arrived at Holy Hill early Wednesday for his almost daily walk uphill through the Stations of the Cross, he saw a devil’s pitchfork spray painted on the stone arch entrance to Station Way.<\/p>\n

"Hell" was painted on a nearby sign that reads: "This is a Religious Shrine. Please Be Respectful."<\/p>\n

As he climbed uphill, Kontny encountered graffiti painted on several of the 14 stations, including another pitchfork and the word Satan <\/em>at the 13th station. This is the station that depicts the body of Jesus Christ being removed from the cross after his crucifixion.<\/p>\n

Red paint covers the eyes on the statues of Christ’s mother, Mary, and two other figures at the station.<\/p>\n

[snip]<\/em><\/p>\n

Kontny called the Washington County Sheriff’s Department at 5:40 a.m. Wednesday to report the vandalism.<\/p>\n

By that time, Friars at the shrine had found profanities and obscenities spray painted at other locations, Guise said.<\/p>\n

The word Satan<\/em> and "6-6-06," Tuesday’s date, had been painted on a monastery door and a nearby wall.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

St. Joseph’s Seminary in Dunwoodie, NY:<\/a><\/p>\n

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The vandalism took place during the night, in the wee hours after June 6, 2006 \u2014 widely marketed as the satanic mark 666 \u2014 came to a close.<\/p>\n

Black spray paint was used to write 666 on the three steps leading up to the main\"Bilde\"<\/a>  entrance of the Catholic seminary. Just above the number was painted "REIGN IN BLOOD." A large pentagram, believed to be a symbol of the devil, was painted in thick black lines in front of the main door, just where Pope John Paul II stood when he visited the seminary on Oct. 6, 1995.<\/p>\n

Two columns in front of the entrace were defaced on front and back. Upside-down crosses were painted on their fronts, facing the grounds. On the back of the left column, facing the seminary doors, the vandal or vandals wrote "BETTER TO REIGN IN HELL." And on the second, "THAN TO SERVE IN HEAVEN." The famous line comes from Milton’s "Paradise Lost."<\/p>\n

A statue of Jesus in front of the seminary was also vandalized. Upside-down crosses and a pentagram were painted on the base.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Six Christian churches in a Nevada<\/a> community<\/p>\n

Santa Cruz, CA:<\/a><\/p>\n

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Parishioners attending morning Mass at Holy Cross Catholic Church on Tuesday encountered spray-painted Satanic messages on the church facade and stairs, which the Rev. Mark Stetz said was likely tied to Tuesday’s date: 06-06-06.<\/p>\n

"I think it’s a very broad attack on God," Stetz said, noting that it’s the most severe attack he’s seen at the church in a half-decade.<\/p>\n

The messages included "666" and "Christian Holocaust." <\/p>\n

Police are investigating the vandalism as a hate crime, said police spokesman Zach Friend. <\/p>\n

It was the third time in six months that the church has been the target of vandals.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Three in Evanston, IL:<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"Deface0607\"<\/a> Evanston Police were searching for suspects who vandalized three churches early Tuesday — 6-6-06 — with symbols often associated with Satanism and evil in the Christian faith. <\/p>\n

The houses of worship that were desecrated were the Church of God of the New Testament, 1332 Davis St., Malankara Catholic Mission, 1208 Ashland Ave., and Emmanuel United Methodist Church, 1401 Oak St. — all within a six-block radius. <\/p>\n

Several red spray-painted "666s" were discovered on the outside on some of the buildings, according to an Evanston Police source.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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I heard about one, then did a news search, and found another, then another. Amid the joking and the wise words about how this whole 6-6-06 was a massive misinterpretation of Scripture anyway, it seems as if some were inspired – we had, it appears, a few incidences of Satanic-themed vandalism on Christian churches over…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nVandalism - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/06\/vandalism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vandalism - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I heard about one, then did a news search, and found another, then another. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}