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pastor quits over ‘Passion’ furor
Swastikas on sign at Lovingway church
2nd desecration case probed; pastor quits over ‘Passion’ furor
Denver police are investigating a second case of swastika graffiti – this time at a church whose leader was accused of anti-Semitism.
Congregants at the Lovingway United Pentecostal Church, 999 S. Colorado Blvd., discovered two spray-painted swastikas on a sign about 9 a.m. Sunday.
The vandalism occurred just one day after several swastikas were found on a Denver synagogue.
The unsettling discovery followed the resignation the previous night of the church’s longtime pastor, who stepped down after creating a furor in late February when he posted the words, “Jews killed the Lord Jesus,” on the same church marquee.
Pastor Maurice Gordon, 73, met with about 40 church members Saturday to apologize and resign.
Gordon did not return a call seeking comment, but his departure comes after distress within his congregation over the sign, which Gordon said was meant to get people to read the Bible.
Assistant Pastor David Wasserburger said he believes the graffiti is related to the recent controversy.
“There’s a lot of people out there who have a lot of hatred in their hearts,” he said.
Wasserburger said the congregation plans to choose a new pastor but will dedicate the next month to prayer and fasting.
“This has been hard for the congregation. A lot of tears have been shed,” said Mark Saiz, who has been a member of the church since 1977 and helped field calls from the public during the uproar last month.
Gordon’s sign prompted a sharp response from the Anti-Defamation League, the Colorado Council of Churches and the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center.
Saiz said he personally opposed the “insensitive” message, which coincided with publicity about the release of Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion of the Christ.
Some have criticized the film as anti-Semitic.
“He thought it would get some attention, but not the attention it did,” Saiz said of the sign.
Saiz contacted police Sunday to report the graffiti.
“To me, (the symbol) means death, even more than death,” Saiz said. “It’s a sign of evil.”
The vandalism occurred about a day after 10 swastikas and Nazi symbols were spray-painted on the outside of the BMH-BJ Congregation synagogue, 560 S. Monaco Parkway.
More than 350 people, from many faiths, went to the synagogue Sunday morning to denounce the hateful messages and scrub the building clean.
Investigators do not know whether the two incidents are related. Police have no suspects.
Rabbi Daniel Cohen of the BMH-BJ Congregation called the act of vandalism at Lovingway terrible. “We condemn any act of hatred against people of any faith,” Cohen said. “We as a community need to stand together, celebrating what unites us, not what divides us.”
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