Statue of Jesus Beheaded at Florida Church as Similar Attacks Escalate Across the US
The slew of recent attacks against Christian statues and churches is disturbing and likely represents something darker than mere vandalism.
On Wednesday, a statue of Jesus was discovered beheaded and knocked off its pedestal on the grounds of the Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Miami, WSVN-TV reported.
“This incident has saddened the parish community,” Good Shepherd said in a statement, according to Fox News.
“It is too soon to arrive to any conclusion, but we have seen other churches vandalized around the country. We totally ‘condemn’ this action. We invite our community to pray for peace.”
Jesus statue found vandalized at a church in Kendall. The Archdiocese of Miami wants it investigated as a hate crime @WPLGLocal10 pic.twitter.com/8Xvf0Yhmvk
— Christian De La Rosa (@delarosaWPLG) July 16, 2020
Archbishop Thomas Wenski, who oversees the Miami Catholic parishes, has requested that the police investigate the incident as a hate crime.
The attack came after a far more violent one in Ocala, Florida, on Saturday, when a man slammed his car into a Catholic church, dumped gasoline into the entranceway and set it on fire as parishioners inside had been preparing for Mass.
Meanwhile in Boston, a statue of the Virgin Mary was torched over the weekend.
Further, in California, a fire erupted at the 249-year-old San Gabriel Mission. Investigators are looking into the origin, but it came just days after the mission moved a statue of Franciscan Father Junípero Serra out of public view after other statues of the 18th-century missionary were toppled elsewhere in the state over the last several weeks, the Los Angeles Times reported.
OVER THE WEEKEND: Statue of the Virgin Mary, torched and desecrated at St Peter’s in Boston, MA on Saturday.
The same day, a man drove his car into Queen Of Peace Church in Ocala, FL—setting fire to it—and a suspicious fire devastated Mission San Gabriel, CA#CatholicTwitter pic.twitter.com/dQS1FRbc6h
— Bree A Dail (@breeadail) July 13, 2020
In yet another incident this week, this time in New Haven, Connecticut, “a person or group of persons … painted anarchist and satanic symbols on the doors of St. Joseph Church,” according to the Archdiocese of Hartford.
Best-selling author and speaker Eric Metaxas contended on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Monday that a “hatred of God” is at the root of these attacks.
“I think a lot of the nastiness that is being directed at these statues, it really has to do with something deeper,” he told host Tucker Carlson.
“I hate to say it, but there’s something very dark. You saw this in the French Revolution. There was a hatred at the bottom of it of God, of any kind of authority,” Metaxas continued.
“If you really want to cut to the chase, you forget about statues of generals and things, you go right for God,” the radio talk show host said.
Metaxas elaborated in an emailed statement to The Western Journal, explaining it wasn’t just the French Revolution that witnessed attacks on the church, but also the Russian Revolution and Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution in communist China.
“Many who signed on for what they thought was a good thing soon found themselves swept up in a rage that had no bounds and that could never be satisfied, as though envy of those with more, or envy of those in power had been deified and was itself being worshiped — and there can never be any satisfaction for those kinds of dark forces,” Metaxas said.
“They are inherently destructive.”
While lawlessness of any sort should raise red flags, when the attacks are directed against places of worship, all lovers of liberty need to sit up and take notice. The United States was founded in the belief that we all have inherent worth because we are children of God.
The Declaration of Independence makes four references to the Deity, including in its most famous passage: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
The founders wrote in the document that the purpose of government is to secure the people’s God-given rights.
No acts of vandalism should be tolerated — particularly those directed at churches.
The very future of American liberty under God may depend on the choices we make today in response to these attacks.
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