Church vandals redefine the word scum
by Pete Cunningham
*As printed July 25, 2007 in The Homer Index

Congratulations on your splendor. I’m sure you made away real nice. What are copper pipes going for these days? About $2.40 a pound? Wow, I’m sure you won’t have to rip the heart out of a community again for at least another month or so with the paycheck that steal brought. What are you going to do when the money runs dry? There are a couple of new senior centers going up across the state that you can probably rip off. Maybe you’ll get lucky and they’ll leave their walkers out, then you can sell those for scrap aluminum as well.

Maybe I’m underestimating your criminal scope by assuming you only steal from the trusting and sick. Perhaps you steal from the helpless as well. In that case, why not start going from playground to playground and dismantling equipment for the spare parts? I’m sure that could at least buy you a couple pairs of designer sunglasses. If you’re really lucky, there may even be a few children around who you can shake down for their ice cream money. That would just put the cherry on top of your larcenous sundae wouldn’t it?

Let’s not stop there. How’s about you startstealing from blind schools? Centers for the mentally challenged. Mosques, temples, high school gyms; they’re all ripe for the picking. The worst thing about your boorish lack of respect isn’t that you stole valuables; it’s that you took items which cannot be replaced with all the copper in the Statue of Liberty.

The fund-raising efforts of a community that has spanned more than six years, irreplaceable. The trust of that community in their fellow manthat their place of worship would be safe from such a despicable act, gone.Worst of all, you stole the spirit, if only for a moment, of a man of God.

Brent Stille, the pastor of the church, called me as soon as he was done speaking with police. I was unsure of who it was at first because his voice was unrecognizable. He just sounded so down. At first I was afraid that he was upset about the article I had written two weeks prior about the new church. I thought that maybe I had accidentally misquoted him, or given the wrong date for the Homecoming festivities. Oh, how I wish that was the case.

As he told me of the atrocities, a spirit that had been in his voice two weeks prior was missing. I can imagine his voice sounded different because his lips were in the proper speaking position as opposed to the permanent smile which adorned his face when we last spoke. As a man of obvious great faith, he reaffirmed his belief that the community would pull through this, but it was clear from the tone of his voice that for a second he wasn’t quite sure how.

For bringing such a feeling to one man and a community for even a second is inexcusable. So enjoy your new car stereo, buy a Playstation, or go on a little vacation. I hope all that money you now have can buy you something to do every night for the rest of your life, because I cannot for the life of me imagine how it is you sleep.

If you or anyone you know has information regarding the individuals responsible for the breaking and entering at the Litchfield First Baptist Church, please do not hesitate to call the Hillsdale County Sheriff’s department at 517-437- 7317.