Church Leaders Tired Of Non-Stop Vandalism

Vandals are testing the patience of one local church.  They spray painted graffiti, cracked windshields and broke out windows on several of the church's vehicles this past weekend and it's not the first time.  The News On 6's Steve Berg reports vandals have hit the church not once, not twice, but four times in the last 6 months and they're hoping someone will put a stop to it.

Nobody said spreading the Gospel would be easy, but this seems a little uncalled for.

"We're out here, this is God's work, trying to reach folks and help the community.  And there's people inside the community that are sabotaging what we're trying to do, so it's discouraging," said Cornerstone Baptist Church Pastor Ben Langley.

Langley says a church worker discovered most of the damage last Saturday morning.  The word most is used because some of this damage happened during the other three times the church's vehicles have been vandalized.  They also tagged the sign out front, but it's the vehicles that hurt worst, because they use those for their neighborhood outreach.

"Plain and simple, we go out and bring kids and families to church that otherwise wouldn't have a ride," said Pastor Langley.  "Trying to tear up vehicles that we use for that purpose, I don't think I can find the words to describe it."

It's not just the church.  Pastor Langley says several cars in the neighborhood have been spray painted too, as well as the post office right down the street.

For safety reasons, he says they can't really use the vehicles until they get fixed, and they have modest resources.

"We don't have millions of dollars," said Pastor Langley.

Langley says the vandals have to be punished so they understand what they're doing is wrong, but he also says they might try going to church instead of tearing up the church.

"If these kids that did this, whoever they are, the people that did this, if they would come, obviously we would be there with open arms to receive them, if they came this Sunday to our services, obviously we would do that," said Langley.

The church says the latest damage happened either late Friday night or early Saturday morning.  With so much damage in the neighborhood, they're hoping that somebody knows something.