Last night, vandals spray-painted “Praise the FSM” and pirate-fish on two Christian churches in Bend, Oregon.
This is not ok. This is counter to everything we stand for and acts like these only set back our cause. I don’t know who did this, but I will try to find out.
From KTVZ in Bend:
"Praise the FSM": These are the words written, spray-painted and tagged across not one, but two churches on opposite sides of Bend Sunday night.
When Pastor John Bluebaugh of Christian Life Center got the news Monday morning, his first thought was, "Not again."
"Really, what went through my mind was, about six months we were tagged as well," said Bluebaugh. "It was the same kind of deal — different symbols, different sayings, but the exact same places."
There are markings left six months ago from vandals who drew Harry Potter-type slogans across the church.
Now, they’ve got a whole different mess to deal with. The graffiti apparently refers to The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, an online group of people who claim they do not believe in religion but rather in what they call Pastafarianism.
Let’s set an example and clean this up.
Hemant Mehta of Friendly Atheist has started a cleanup fund. Please chip in if you can.
From Hemant:
I don’t know how much the cleanup will cost, but if more money is raised than they need, I’ll give the rest to Foundation Beyond Belief (an organization that encourages atheists to give to secular charities).
Just a note: I know there is a feeling by some that it’s not our place to raise money for Christian churches. But let’s be clear, this is only about making a bad situation right. It’s in our interest to send a message that we don’t approve of vandalism. Ideally it will be our response that people remember, not the vandalism by a few who don’t get what we’re about. So, let me just say thank you to everyone who has chipped in, and especially to Hemant for organizing the fund.