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Virgin Mary statue decapitated at Burlington church
By adamg on Tue, 03/29/2016 - 4:52pm
Burlington Police are looking for whoever lopped the head off a statue of the Virgin Mary - and the cut the hands off two other statues - at St. Margaret Parish on Winn Street overnight.
In a statement, Police Chief Michael Kent said:
This is a deeply disturbing crime committed against a religious institution in our community during a major holiday season. We will undertake a thorough investigation and use all assets at our disposal to find those responsible and hold them accountable.
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Comments
the miracle of easter blew her mind
the miracle of easter blew her mind
I'm glad you are so amused by
I'm glad you are so amused by a house of worship being vandalized. It speaks volumes about you.
Reading insulting and distasteful comments like this really make me want to support and donate to this blog. Or not.
Hopefully whoever the police track down whoever is behind this. Something similar also happened in Norwood. Happy Easter to everyone. Seriously, even if you don't celebrate Easter. Happy Easter.
You will be sorely missed
Do you think laughing about it will somehow change anything?
People have made the Virgin Mary an idol. I think there's a Commandment about that somewhere...
look
I know you think your smart, but leave the theology to the professionals.
Hate to break this too you...
That's blasphemous.
Seriously blasphemous. At least, if you are an adherent to a religion where your personal relationship with God is not supposed to be mediated by paying people to tell you what God says.
Sounds like you missed out on those comparative religion classes.
Sigh
I have a very nice MA in theology. It's super useful and does wonders for my employment prospects. It also informs me that idols are worshiped while saints are venerated.
Sure thing!
https://carm.org/roman-catholicism-mary-idolatry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Calvin%27s_views_on_Mary
Weird
I wonder what happened for the 1500 years before Calvin was alive.
Didn't they teach you in your MA?
Theology is like "Whose Line Is It Anyway"?
It's all made up and the points don't matter.
No
They missed that. Maybe you should apply for a professorship.
They'd probably screw up my name on the door
Ugh, it's Dr. Atheist...not Dr. A Theist.
On the upside
The church now has a perfectly good statue of John the Baptist.
Bummer
Whenever I see an act of vandalism against a Catholic church on the news, I can't help but wonder whether or not whoever did it was a victim of a pedo-priest and then I can't really bring myself to get too worked up over it.
If the person who did this is
The odds are pretty good considering that priests raped hundreds of kids. But of course the person who broke a lawn ornament would face a stiffer penalty than most priests got for raping children.
it is gods will
it is gods will
God or the devil
is responsible. The person who did this is obviously not.
Vandalism and desecration of churches is pretty common
It's often just not talked about. I'm Agnostic and have a good amount of contempt for all religions, but shit like this shouldn't laughed at or ignored. If instead of a Catholic church it was a mosque or synagogue vandalized and desecrated, there'd be an uproar and no one on Uhub would crack jokes about it. I seriously doubt it was a victim of a pedo priest who did this, more likely someone mentally ill, high on fill-in-the-blank, teens, and/or possibly someone(s) claiming to be satanist. Alleged satanist vandalizing churches is not uncommon.
lol
you think i wouldnt crack jokes about it
thats cute
heres another one for u
"how can you tell an agnostic/atheist on the internet"
DONT WORRY THEYLL LET YOU KNOW HAHAHHHHAHAHA
Key difference here
I think we'd all agree (maybe with the exception of some of the trolls here) that private property ought to be left alone and that all beliefs and cultures ought to be respected.
That being said, it isn't in fact the same thing when something associated with a majority belief/culture is desecrated versus when it's something associated with a minority culture. If someone vandalizes a synagogue, mosque, or Hindu/Sikh/Buddhist site, there's an additional construct around it beyond just vandalizing property. There's the surrounding hate issue, because the folks associated with these belief systems are marginalized, and these acts perpetuate a sentiment that these folks are viewed as unwelcome and have reason to fear for their safety. When these acts are committed against a predominantly white mainstream Christian church, it's illegal and disrespectful, but there isn't an additional context of marginalization and a sentiment that white Christians aren't true Americans, should go home, should assimilate, are terrorists, etc.
Perfectly stated
May I cut-and-paste this and use it all over the Internet? It seems so obvious to me, but it clearly isn't to many, I guess.
Ah, UHub and religion
The first comment is an insult to Christians, while e second comment tries to excuse the person who did this.
A mosque in the same town had something similar happen to it. No one made crass jokes. No one said that since there are radical Muslims killing innocents, they could see why it happened, both of which would have been horrible. But no, a Catholic church has this done and this is the reaction.
Pathetic.
idk about pathetic
but taking a look at who might insult what other group of people to justify outrage at some other perceived slight is fucking stupid and you suck for it
sorry i guess this is pathetic because if you were a muslim i'd never think you were such a loser, or something. lol
pls keep getting outraged
Faux real talk?
If a guy were standing next to you at a bar and this came on the news, would you really turn to him and say stuff like that (or in the case of the second commenter, make some crack about pedophile priests)?
I don't know what religious or ethical beliefs you hold, but are there none you wouldn't mind having sneered at by some passerby?
I know the Internet's liberating and all that, but sometimes it seems a bit divorced from the real world - and getting all obnoxious for the sake of seeing just how far you can go seems more than a bit much. Civility has its purpose.
yes
i would have made the same joke about the statue in person
and if the guy had been enough of a dullard to respond with a comment about mosques, i would have responded much as i did here.
also, you people are living in a dream world if you think a joke about a mosque getting defaced wouldnt play well with a massive percentage of the population.
and as far as my religious beliefs go, i find that frequently i roll my eyes at those that theoretically agree with me on religion far more than those that disagree with me. i don't believe in any god- i think you'll find i've already made fun of the agnostic guy here.
believe it or not its possible to make jokes about sensitive subjects without harboring ill will or ire about the recipients. or should anybody read into certain articles about drunk and passed out greenline trains on st patricks day?
I guess some
people are just stupid and looking to provoke others.
perhaps, but
and you would be which?
He who knows not and knows not he knows not: he is a fool - shun him.
He who knows not and knows he knows not: he is simple - teach him.
He who knows and knows not he knows: he is asleep - wake him.
He who knows and knows he knows: he is wise - follow him.
Trying to be hip, misses irony of quote
n/t
The only "pathetic" response
The only "pathetic" response was by the catholic church and its members when their priests were raping hundreds of kids under the approval of Bernie Law.
Here's the problem right here
Who got hurt by sexual abuse by Catholic priests? The faithful (or once faithful, since being traumatized by that would hurt one's faith.) Who got affected by this vandalism? The Catholic faithful. Why is it okay, in your view, that someone beheaded a statue at a church just because the church is part of a larger organization that once turned a blind eye to pedophiles in it's ranks (saying that Law "approved" such activity shows your ignorance) even though none of the staff or parishioners were a part of any of that.
Again, back to the vandalism at the Islamic center in Burlington. Would the peanut gallery just assume that it was an Iraq or Afghanistan veteran who had PTSD, and that his hatred of Muslims is okay? Would it have been okay to joke that at least the vandals didn't use pork based paint when they spray painted the place?
Ok.
Law did out come out and say "hey boys, go have some fun" but the evidence shows that he did ignore the problem of priests raping boys and moving those said priests from parish to parish where they could rape again. That, in my mind, while not "approval" is pretty damn unconscionable. And the fact that he saw no jail time is even more so.
Vandalism is never cool in any situation and I would think most folks would find defacing (or beheading) of a christian icon or the spray painting of a mosque to be equally reprehensible.
You I agree with
On both points.
Another statue was defaced
in Norwood on Friday
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/03/26/virgin-mary-statue-vandaliz...
I guess some people are just stupid and looking to provoke others.
Now a truck at St. Margaret's has been torched
Per the Burlington Times-Union (complete with a, characteristic for that paper, upside-down photo)
Just a personal note: I'm not Catholic, having never completed any of the sacraments and having no interest in pursuing them as an adult, but this is the very parish I attended sporadically with my my Catholic mother as well as my best friend's family on occasion as a child, and it is where my older sister was married. I find this sort of thing cowardly and reprehensible, regardless of denomination.