After a statue of Jesus Christ outside an Indianapolis church was decapitated for a second time over the weekend, the congregation is praying for the people responsible, according to its pastor.
The statue, located outside Cottage Avenue Coastal Fellowship, was first vandalized when someone knocked the head off, leaving it nearby. This time, the head was taken off the statue again, but it was nowhere to be found, WVEC reported.
The church’s pastor, Brad Flaskamp, said some of the children who attend the church are heartbroken over the vandalism.
“To them, that’s a symbol that Jesus is always around,” he said.
While the church has been in the community since 1899, the statue of Jesus was erected four years ago.
After the first instance, the woman who gifted the sculpture to the church made the repairs. On Saturday, she cemented the head back on and had plans to repaint it the next day.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police are investigating the incident and have reported it to the FBI. Police have no specified whether the incident qualifies as a hate crime.
While Flaskamp has said he isn’t sure if the vandalism was a hate crime, he speculates that the person responsible has ill feelings toward God.
(H/T: WVEC)
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