Worthy Christian News > Christian > Churches around U.S. suffer vandalism; satanic symbols included

Churches around U.S. suffer vandalism; satanic symbols included

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – A number of churches around the US have been vandalized in recent weeks, some with satanic symbols, Christian Headlines reported Monday. It was not yet known who is responsible for the crimes and police are understood to be searching for suspects.

One of the churches targeted is in Shreveport, Louisiana; here the vandals defaced the church doors with a pentagram and an image of the Mark of the Beast, Christian Headlines reports. The church pastor told ChurchLeaders that his congregation had been doing a lot of outreach recently, and he could not understand why their building would be targeted.”My wife was telling me ‘what’s that on the door?’ and I was like ahh I was focusing on driving and then when I pulled up I said wow! I really don’t understand why this church because there are a lot of other churches doing a lot of great work as well,” the pastor said.

Another church, in Kentucky this time, was not only vandalized but also robbed, the pastor of that congregation told WIBW. “Almost every door and drawer and cabinet in this church had been ransacked,” the pastor said. In this attack, the vandal left a message saying: “I am not Godless, I have spoken to the Father, and I will stop and repent. Don’t let hate into your hearts. Forgive me as he has…not good but not evil. -Tophet-.” Tophet is the Hebrew word for Hell and apparently has significance in satanism, Christian Headlines notes.

Meanwhile, a church in Washington was attacked by a vandal who caused $50k worth of damage by setting off the church’s sprinkler system. In a statement to KIRO7, the pastor of the church said: “[The water] got all over everything. The floors, the chairs—and unfortunately it’s … corrosive to metal and we have a pipe organ in that room and the whole organ is going to have to be disassembled and cleaned and reassembled.”

The kitchen at the Washington church was also destroyed, but the congregation was still able to cook food and feed local homeless people, Christian Headlines said.