Someone spray-painted ethnic slurs and white supremacy symbols and messages on a McKinney church and police want to know who.
It happened not once but twice recently at Stonebridge United Methodist Church on Stonebridge Drive.
“The Christian message that's in the bible is that god loves all people,” said lead pastor Jeff Lust. “Here, we don’t teach hate.”
Yet on Sunday, hate landed on the church’s doorstep.
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Before service on Sunday, Lust said a church employee discovered an ethnic slur towards black people spray-painted on an exterior wall.
Lust said the church has predominantly white members, “So that seemed odd, too,” he said.
Then by an entrance, there were more than a dozen swastikas and a message that read "NOT MY BEST WORK yet…”
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“That's probably the one thing that has folks most on edge around here is well, what does that mean exactly?” said Lust.
Sunday is the second time the church has been vandalized. The first was on July 17, exactly six weeks prior, when a message about white supremacy was spray-painted on an exterior wall. The message is now covered up though it could still be made out.
“Our feeling was that was not a message we wanted people to see as they came to church,” said Lust.
Still, the images made the rounds, to other churches and households nearby like the Lloyds.
“I was angry about it and at the same time I was kind of almost in the frame of mind where you're going 'Well, what else is new?'” said Markus Lloyd.
Lloyd is a husband and father of two biracial sons. He also runs a ministry called Threaded which is centered around uniting churches across racial lines.
“People are starting to go 'ok, so what do we do with this now?'” said Lloyd. “I think that's a great response for something like this.”
Wednesday, McKinney Mayor George Fuller met Lust and denounced the vandalism.
“This is the act of some ignorant cowards, quite frankly, and not representative of our community in any way, shape or form,” said Fuller.
McKinney police said they are investigating the graffiti and the dumpster and two plants that were set on fire Sunday. Anyone with information is asked to contact the McKinney Police Department at 972-547-2700.
Lust said the church has had no other threats or communication and is at a loss for who would do this.
He said the church is stepping up security and plans to use what’s happened as an opportunity to unite different walks of faith for good.
“So that we, our church can be an ally in the effort to fight racism,” said Lust.
