Published: April 22, 2008 06:45 pm      

Racial slurs, ‘666’ inked at Port Arthur church

By Darragh Doiron

The Orange Leader

PORT ARTHUR — Vandals ripped pages from the Bible and left a crumpled American flag on the floor at Stonegate Missionary Baptist Church, 4325 FM 365 in Port Arthur, sometime between Monday night and Tuesday morning.

A “666” drawn in ketchup greeted members Tuesday who came to investigate the damage. They found every pew cover slit, the aisle strewn with ketchup and ranch dressing and stopped-up toilets and sinks flooding the floors. The vandals backed out with a fire extinguisher, erasing footprints and leaving a chalky dust over the mess.

“It was just devastating,” Matthew Butler, a church member, said.

Butler was mowing grass Tuesday morning when he found a butcher’s knife in the grass that he thought belonged to the church. He went inside to discover the damage, including a message and a “666” drawn on a kitchen counter with blue ink.

“You’ve got to see the note,” Linda Noble, another church member, said.

Her sandaled feet squished through wet carpet on the way to the “old kitchen” where “I hate (racial slur for African Americans)” was scrawled with a marker. “The devil rules and he’s cumin 666 4 U all who worship God will die” was also written on the counter.

In the sanctuary she maneuvered around the overturned remembrance table, past the dusty “extinguished” piano and found the slit pew with the overturned Bible on it. It was almost too much to discover half the pages cut out of it, she said.

The crumpled flag in the aisle had been taken from a smashed glass-lidded triangular case. Another American flag on the altar area was lowered and scraping the ground. Splatters of red and white soaked into the blue carpeted aisle.

“I think it’s ranch dressing,” Noble said.

She said police found the bottle under a pew. The other substance appeared to be ketchup.

“They think it’s kids,” she added.

Sonny Carlin is Stonegate’s temporary minister. Members said the church was fine Sunday evening. Butler said the water was still warm, so the damage must have been recent. Port Arthur Police are investigating the incident, but had not returned calls placed to the department as of press time.

Butler said he was disturbed by the racial slur.

“I don’t want people to think we’re a church like that. We welcome everyone,” he said.

Members said they welcomed media exposure Tuesday in the hopes of catching the vandals. Butler showed pellet indentations of a front door and where he found broken glass about a week ago. He said that desecration was not reported to police.

Members had moved back into this sanctuary about a year ago after making repairs from Hurricane Rita. They began their latest round of cleanup as soon as they were allowed.

“Oh, we’re gonna keep on going. Tomorrow night, if this isn’t ready, we’re meeting in the kitchen,” Butler said.

Ken Williams, another member, compared the church trials with those of Christ.

“Did Jesus quit when he was crucified? No. We’re gonna keep on keepin’ on,” he said.