SULTAN — The Rev. Dale Sorgen was hardly surprised when he learned Sunday morning that vandals overnight ravaged his Sultan Baptist Church and two other churches. He was saddened and concerned.
“That was my first reaction, sadness that those things would happen,” Sorgen said. “I’m just very concerned about where things like this lead.”
Three Sultan churches were vandalized overnight. Somebody broke into both the church in downtown Sultan and Hillcrest Baptist Church and sprayed fire extinguishers throughout the sanctuaries, broke windows, tore down crosses, and ransacked kitchens and sound equipment, Sorgen said. Nothing was stolen.
A vandal or vandals also threw rocks through the windows of Mountainview Christian Fellowship but didn’t venture inside, he said.
What happened this weekend is ugly, but the most disturbing part is that it wasn’t the first time, Sorgen said. It will most likely not be the last. “I’m concerned that these things seem to be increasing in severity and frequency,” he said.
In the middle of January, Sultan Baptist Church’s sign was painted with graffiti. “It’s gruesome,” Sorgen said.
Somebody broke into Hillcrest Baptist Church just two weeks ago and threw rocks through its church sign, said the Rev. Ed Lehman, who is the pastor there. The sign was only recently replaced after it had been destroyed in another attack last summer.
It took about four hours Sunday to clean up the mess, Lehman said. “That takes resources we could be using elsewhere to do good in the community,” he said.
Besides the many hours it takes to clean up, the church is now looking at several thousand dollars in damage, Lehman said. “Whoever it is, they are targeting churches. What’s the point in that?”
The fact that Sultan is a small town doesn’t protect it from vandalism, Sorgen said. But the acts brought the community closer together. Members hurried to Sultan Baptist Church on Sunday morning to help clean up, Sorgen said. After that, “we rolled right into our Sunday morning events … We wound up having a great church service.”
Katya Yefimova: 425-339-3452, kyefimova@heraldnet.com.
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