I'm Sickened

There are literally no words to describe how outraged I was to read about the graffiti job at Christ the King Church in Guilderland on Easter Sunday. That’s right. Police are currently searching for the parties responsible for spray painting various messages on the outside of the 10-year-old Christ the King Church Building, and a statue of Christ in front.

Father Jim Fitzmaurice said, "I don't take it personally against Christ the King parish or church. I think just the fact that we're here and somebody had too much on their hands and didn't know what to do with it. The biggest thing I'm upset about is the statue. That's obscene what they did to the statue. That's certainly hateful."

That’s it? That’s the response?

What they did to the Jesus statue, judging by the blacked-out parts of the picture, appears to be something sexual. So let me get this straight: Easter Sunday, graffiti on a church, spray-painting something(s) sexual on a statue of Jesus. This is one of the most heinous things I have heard in a long time. In fact, I think it’s worse than the Kegs & Eggs fiasco back in March. Does it get worse than this?

Truthfully I feel this comes back to the point I’ve been arguing all along. Our younger generation (and I’m sure we can assume persons of a certain age are behind this) are just far too entitled and never taught a thing about respect, and discipline, and earning it. Maybe I’m charting this course because I hear the name Guilderland and crudely assume it’s someone rather wealthy and supremely spoiled, the same way it was with the house party in Pond Hill a year ago. I could be wrong, but I promise you that a city kid from Troy or Albany would never carve up a church yard like this. In so many cases they live with way too much reality and short-ended circumstance, that Jesus and religion loom way too large in their lives. They live with fear, and a certain amount of fear keeps a person balanced. I could be wrong, but I’m getting a mental picture of the kid(s) behind this mess, and I think you are too. Is that stereotypical of me? Maybe. How about this: Let’s see who the police pull out of the garbage heap here. Bet my mental sketch is exactly right.

Either way, if you actually have the fortitude to cause destruction to a church and a Jesus statute on Easter Sunday, I'm not sure you're even human, regardless of any mental sketch. And if you are, you must be so twisted, and/or indulged, and/or mentally ill that consequence and karma mean nothing to you. As for me, if I even thought about doing something like this, I know I could never sleep a sound night again, out of guilt, and regret, and FEAR. Is it because I believe in God? Heck no. I’m not 100% sure that God and Heaven exist. But, Jesus (no pun intended) there are just some things you DON’T do! And don’t try telling me about the difficulties of being young, and how hard it is to stand up against peer pressure, and ‘Come on, Brian, kids will be kids.’ FORGET THAT! Spray painting sexual on Jesus at 7PM on Easter Sunday. I don’t think I could even sell that angle to Stephen King. It’s just so wrong.

I hope these kids (again, I’m assuming) are punished to the fullest extent of the law. No more handling this crap with kid’s gloves (again, no pun intended) and figuring out strategies to curve this behavior. Sometimes the leather belt needs to hit hard. Sometimes, when the act is this horrific, the consequences need to be equally brutal. Because if you let this go unpunished then all of a sudden you have a Kegs & Eggs incident on your hands. Why? Because nobody ever shakes out this super-human feeling of entitlement that is creeping up everywhere, it seems. What can I say? If you spray paint a church on Easter Sunday, you deserve whatever life has in store for you. There’s never an excuse for this. Never.

And the hardest part is this: One day down the road, when one of the persons responsible for this disgusting act is getting wheeled into an operating room, for some scary surgery that we all may face in life, and that person is ready to pray to ‘God’ above, there better be a second prayer for hoping God has a crummy memory. Because no person who graffitis sexual on Jesus’ statue on Easter Sunday can ever look to the universe for a karma boost. All that may sound crazy, I’m sure, but the day will come when it’s not, for all of us, and I just hope that God (whoever or whatever God is) is on MY side when it does.

I’m sickened.

If you have the stomach, read more and see photos: http://capitalregion.ynn.com/content/top_stories/541138/guilderland-police-investigating-graffiti-at-christ-the-king-church/

You are welcome to graffiti my Facebook wall @ the Cat's Pajamas

Brian Huba
4/26/11