Man Confesses to Vandalizing Gay-Friendly UCC Church

Earlier this summer, Pilgrims United Church of Christ of Maple Grove, MN, reported several incidents of vandalism due to its public affirmation of gay people and its support for same-sex marriage. Earlier this week, the Maple Grove Police Department released new video footage of a man egging and spray-painting the church.

Now Maple Grove Patch reports today that a culprit has been identified. Not only that, but he has publicly confessed!:

Maple Grove police tracked down Lonny Roseland at his home less than a mile from Pilgrims United Church of Christ, Fox 9 reported Wednesday, and they have turned his case over to prosecutors with gross misdemeanor charges for a bias-motivated property crime.

In an interview with the station, Roseland said he would like to be known as the "Right-wing Early-bird Vandal" and expressed views in line with the anti-gay messages he wrote on the side of the church in four separate incidents in recent months. 

City Pages shares:

Roseland admits he's the man caught on camera Sunday morning, and told Fox the "main reason" he keeps vandalizing the church is because "I am definitely against gay marriage, of course. Although, I know I can't change it."

"Show me in the Bible where gay persons can get married in the eyes of Yahweh," Roseland said. "If they were atheists, I would not have had a problem with them -- but they call themselves the United Church of Christ. They consider themselves a religious organization."

Roseland says he has no plans to vandalize the church again.

So it's okay to vandalize a church whose views you disagree with. That's what we call "religious liberty," I guess.

By the way, you can check out a bunch of Roseland's Facebook statuses here. I've included a couple of my favorites immediately below: