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Strange things are afoot at the Cottage Avenue Pentecostal Fellowship assembly in Indianapolis, Indian, whose building has been standing on the same Indianapolis block, according to Fox59.com, for over one hundred years. For five of those one hundred years, a slightly larger than life-size concrete statue of Jesus has been positioned by the front door of the congregation’s gathering place. No one has ever made a fuss about its presence until recently. The statue has now been the victim of vandalism, twice in the past two weeks.
The first act of vandalism knocked the head off of the statue’s torso. According to the Indy Star, Pastor Brad Flaskamp discovered the decapitated head not far from the rest of the body. The woman who had given the Jesus statue to the church paid for repairs and had the head cemented back on. It also needed a paint job, which she had planned to provide as well, but the second incident of vandalism prevented those repairs.
The statue’s head, within two weeks of first being knocked off, was again missing, but this time, it was nowhere to be found. TheAmericanMirror.com reports that a home across the street from the church was in the middle of installing a home security system, however the video cameras were not operational at the time. Unfortunately, for the time being, the culprit and his or her reasoning will remain an unexplained mystery. Pastor Flaskamp is at a loss as to who would destroy the property, but he is pretty sure he knows who didn’t do it. “I can tell you that I don’t think it’s kids… It would have to be a kid that can wield a sledge hammer,” he is reported as saying.
Other church congregants have weighed in on the mystery. Sue Meyers, the church secretary believes the person who would decapitate the head of Jesus is someone with deep emotional problems, perhaps anger or depression. Her grandson, Tony, feels it’s someone “who has fun destroying other people’s things.”
The Indianapolis Police are doing some investigative work, but they have admitted it hasn’t been easy. They’ve even forwarded the incident details to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), although Sgt. Kendale Adams, the local police chief, hasn’t clarified whether this type of incident would actually fit the definition required for an FBI hate crime. Seems a bit peculiar that the beheading of a concrete statue would be considered a hate crime, but in today’s society, just about anything is possible.
All the faithful folks who attend the Cottage Avenue Pentecostal Fellowship are praying for whomever needed to decapitate Jesus – and then come back a week later to steal the concrete head. Pastor Flaskamp wants the culprit to know that the members have nothing but love for whoever did the deed and they’ll be pleased as punch to forgive the person, or persons.
But, in the meantime, the Pastor and his flock would surely like Jesus’s head back. They suggest anyone with any information contact Sgt. Adams at the Indianapolis Police Department.
Sources:
(Photo credit: Rt.com)
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