Christmas Creche Vandalized in Stratford
December 28th, 2006 by Peter
Another Connecticut nativity scene has been vandalized:
STRATFORD — Stephen Mieczkowski spent nearly 40 hours over four days in early December building an 8-foot-high crche in front of the Knights of Columbus Hall on Main Street — an undertaking inspired by his late father, Joseph, who loved Christmas.
But all that work was reduced to smithereens on Christmas Day when someone ransacked the Nativity scene and smashed its six figurines, including the Baby Jesus and Virgin Mary, to bits.
“It’s devastating. I can’t believe someone would do this,” said Mieczkowski, who turned 57 on Christmas Day, Wednesday morning while surveying the empty Nativity scene and the shattered remains of the 3-foot figurines.
The incident comes two weeks after a statuette of the Baby Jesus was stolen from a crche at Our Lady of Grace Church on Second Hill Lane. On Tuesday, a figurine of an angel in the same crche was vandalized, a church official said.
The destruction of the Knights of Columbus crche was particularly disturbing, Mieczkowski said, because of what the figurines represented: They were his father’s cherished keepsakes, the same ones he used in a glowing display that graced the front porch of the family’s North Avenue home for more than a half-century…
Somebody broke down the wooden back of the crche and broke all six statues by smashing them against a “Right to Life” plaque that lay on the ground in back of the Nativity scene.
The head of a wise man statue, the small feet of Baby Jesus, and the Virgin Mary’s arms and legs separated from her body were among the fragments left on and around the stone plaque.
That led some, including Mieczkowski, to speculate that the destruction may have been carried out by those with political or anti-religious motivations…
In a similar incident, Monsignor William F. Schultz, pastor at Our Lady of Grace Church and the local Knights’ chaplain, said the crche at his church was also vandalized twice during the past two weeks.
On Dec. 13, he said, somebody stole the Baby Jesus, and then on Tuesday it was discovered that an angel’s wing in the Nativity scene had been broken.
He said he called police after the first incident but never made out an official police report.
“It looks like these acts are possibly connected,” Schultz said. “I think it’s probably someone very disturbed going around doing it. “
Others speculate that these crimes may have been caused by “teenagers just being jerks.” But given the shrill anti-Christian rhetoric commonly used by some of our opponents–plus the wave of vandalism against Connecticut churches displaying pro-family banners a few years ago–one has to wonder.
Rats! Foiled again. The joint team of anti-Christian vandals at Democratic State Central, CT Local Politics, Love Makes a Family, and the Courant editorial board are exposed by those too-clever sleuths at the Family Institute! Back to the drawing board….
Peter:
Ummmm. I thought only we “Christian fundamentalists” were guilty of “hate crimes”.
Rich
C’mon, if their is a group of militant atheists operating in CT, could you please point them out to me?
It’s absolutely horrible that some punks would wreck a creche. Sickening. But to pretend that it was motivated by anti-Christian sentiment is quite a stretch. I just haven’t run into many Jesus haters in my lifetime. People deeply mistrustful of organized religion, (think Jim Bakker or Ted Haggard), yes. But hateful enough to lash out? Haven’t ever come close to witnessing anything near that.
Rich, right-wing Christian fundamentalists are motivated more by hate and fear than others, except usually your fear of hell keeps you from doing anything too drastic. I think what you tend to identify as “hate” tends to be more of a broad annoyance with the whiny moralizing that you tend to exude. I’m a christian who thinks that groups like the FIC are detrimental to the common good.
Whoaa there Peter. Let’s not go CRAZY!!!! Smashing baby Jesus’ head, at Christmastime, on the granite pro-life marker – you’ve had way too much egg nog to think that is expressing anti-christian sentiment. I think it more rational to take a deep breath and consider what TrueBlue has suggested. . . think about it, haven’t you met many more lawn-adornment jihadists, anti-plaster enthusiasts, or youthful, violent kitch-o-phobes than anyone who hates the baby Jesus in CT? Your constant jumping to conclusions, and willy-nilly, far-fetched assertions are shutting down discourse on these important issues- and that is making me sad on New Year’s Eve.
I would say more, but the fear of Hell is preventing me from doing anything more drastic.
I miss the ol’ time Christmas of my childhood, when these sort of things would be blamed on Heavy Metal. Man, those were innocent times!
Hate crimes are on the rise in the U.S. and around the world.
Most hate crimes are directed at racial minorities and homosexuals — and are committed by people and/or groups who claim affiliation with “christian” groups. In fact, most White Supremacist, neo-Fascist and homophobic groups base their hate rhetoric on biblical citations.
I do not see posts deploring hate crimes in general here on the FIC blog. I see people twisting themselves inside out to “prove” that senseless vandalism is somehow motivated by anti-Christian zealots; that non-biased newspaper reporting/editorializing is somehow “anti-Christian;” and that the goverment, by not writing bias into our laws is somehow on a campaign to wipe out Christianity.
This is simply shrill paranoia — or an attempt to hide an agenda which would declare a religious war on anyone who isn’t a particular sort of Christian.
The FIC would have a lot more credibility if it took a stand against ALL hate crimes, especially those perpetrated by nominal “christians” who misuse the words of Christ to declare war on people of color and homosexuals.
chele, well said
er, um . . .ya, well said Simon. On another note, hate crimes = thought crimes, and as the new world order of totalitarian secularist ideology marches from eastern Europe to the United States you are going to see more hate crimes because, well, there are just so many of them! They’re everywhere, and that is not just shrill paranioa. Why can’t more people just care about crime-in-general instead of adding penalties to crimes commited while thinking. I’ll answer my own rhetoric by telling you that hate crime legislation is the State attempting to control your, and your children’s minds (to the extent you have one, or have not lost one from raising children). Anyway, i’ll tell you what is a real “hate crime”. It is called “meta-misdirection”. An example is when you make a single assertion – like: smashing a baby Jesus figurine should make you wonder if someone is anti-christian. And your blogoppono, in lieu of challenging your facts or addressing your original assertion, hyperventilizes over broader, unsubstantiated, effemorous issues, and your responsibility therefore – such as: hate crimes in general. Thus questioning your very right to, well, make the original assertion! This can be especially hateful when it is accompanied by unsupported generalizations and twisty labels to make you feel bad personally. Now that really would be a silly hate crime.
Thoughts aren’t crimes, nor is debating thoughts once they’re made public. So that’s where it all falls apart, no?
Example: Hating minorities is legal. Talking about hating minorities is legal. Proselytizing about hating minorities is legal. Debate about whether or not it is right, or moral, or acceptable to hate minorities is legal. Burning minorities out of their homes because you hate them is a crime. Murdering homosexuals because you hate them is a crime.
[…] That Christians are a powerful majority responsible for most of the world’s suffering appears to be a deeply held article of faith on the Left. When I last blogged on the epidemic of local Christmas creche vandalism one liberal even responded by claiming that “Most hate crimes…are committed by people and/or groups who claim affiliation with ‘christian’ groups.” In fact, no other topic provokes more negative reactions from our liberal readers than the suggestion that Christians are also the victims of bias and bigotry. […]