(Image: St. Mark’s)
A Capitol Hill faith community is responding to a bout of vandalism targeting its social beliefs with contemplation, a chuckle, and, of course, clean-up.
“I find myself grateful that their message did not target a group of individuals based on race, orientation, or identity, using derogatory terms for injurious purposes,” The Very Reverend Steven L. Thomason, Dean and Rector at Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral writes about the MLK Day graffiti vandalism.
“In the hours since seeing this early this morning, I find myself prayerful—for those whose lives are filled with such hatred that they can justify desecrating a church, for this community that we might bring the fullness of our hearts and souls into this call to be the Body of Christ (even when some in the world choose to hate us), and for this nation whose political discourse seems to condone acts such as this vandalism as justifiable in the course of partisan disagreements.”
The tagging done in black paint marred the cathedral’s limestone wall with a message stating “MARXISM = COMMUNISM” and “communism is the sworn enemy of Christianity.” In 2018, a $10.5 million project to complete the structure’s walls with limestone left unfinished during the Great Depression was wrapped up.
St. Mark’s is the seat of the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia and is known for its progressive causes and welcoming gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer parishioners.
Even with the damage, Thomason says the spray paint message brought an unexpected reaction at the 10th Ave E cathedral — laughter.
“And if I am honest, I am a bit amused by the graffiti—as if the perpetrators think they will have accomplished something by doing this,” he writes. “We are a community that holds a broad swath of political opinions, and we are the richer for that diversity.”
You can read more of Thomason’s response here.
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I love the conflation of Marxism with communism–and, likely though not stated–socialism, too.
Reminds me of the delusional right wing attacks on Obama as “Communist/Socialist/Totalitarian/Muslim/Terrorist/Whatever Else I Think Is Bad”.
So funny…do these people not realize these things are, in fact, different things?
Some of them are, in fact, mutually exclusive.
I guess not.
But, then again, consistency, a commitment to empirical reality, and an understanding of, well, things generally has not be a hallmark of contemporary conservatism.
St. Mark’s is NOT a “community that holds a broad swath of political opinions.” I’m not amused by that ridiculous characterization of St. Mark’s.
Is any religious group though?
Let’s just look at Christianity for a second.
Here we have a primitive, inferior worldview that is centered on a bunch of texts written by a group of pre-scientific savages that lived in what at that time was a backwater of the Roman Empire.
I mean, Palestine? The Romans only wanted control of the region to ensure access to eastern trade routes…they considered (rightly!) the inhabitants to be a bunch of backwoods hicks with little in the way of culture.
How could anything of value come out of such a cultural context?
Answer: it cannot and did not.
It’s one of the main reasons that those who “follow” Christianity today largely do not read the foundational texts, but rather read (highly biased!) commentary on the texts.
And the reason for that? There is absolutely nothing of value contained in the Bible as it is a bunch of garbage stories of questionable morality written by pre-scientific rednecks living in a garbage backwater of the Roman Empire.
I’m not a Christian either, PD, but have some respect for other people’s belief systems.
Spray painters don’t know what they’re saying and haven’t the slightest clue what Marxism is.
Just a bunch of brain dead Fox News types I’m sure
I wonder if they make a distinction between Marxist and Marxian. Maybe spray all in less shouty lower case?
Feels especially silly considering that the city’s leading Marxist Sawant often holds meetings in churches and invites clergy to speak at rallies. Not exactly ‘sworn-enemy’ behavior
Anyone else hearing it was likely the Trump marchers that were goose stepping down Broadway on MLK day?