Unidentified people have replaced the rainbow flags that hung on the building of the religious organization in the American city of Blacksburg (Virginia) with the flags of the Confederation – the flag of the slave South during the Civil War era, police are investigating, according to WDBJ.
Flags hung from the Wesley United Methodist Church, near the Virginia Institute of Technology. The organization said on its Facebook that the flags were tore off early Saturday morning by unknown people, which was a “constant problem” for the church, but this time they were replaced with “the hated flags of the Confederation.” The church regarded this action as a manifestation of “hatred”.
Soon after the incident, the church hung a new rainbow flag, but inside the building. Images of the Confederate flags were retouched on the organization’s social media photos. The pastor of the church called on the vandalist to “show up” and apologize to the church.
“Sometimes just an apology for what happened is wonderful. We are people of forgiveness and we will do it”, – Pastor Bret Gresham said.
Over the past two weeks, church officials told the channel that unknown persons have pulled down the flags twice.
Law enforcement officers launched an investigation into the theft and intimidation. The demolition of monuments to the Confederates (“Southerners”), who during the US Civil War advocated the preservation of slavery, as well as to some other politicians of the past, began amid racially motivated protests following the death of African American George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis in May 2020.