A photo of the vandalism on the Cathedral of Hope’s Facebook page. (via the Cathedral of Hope’s Facebook page)
A Philip Johnson-designed chapel in Dallas was vandalized last week in what the church believes was a response to comments made by its senior pastor, Reverend Dr. Neil G Cazares-Thomas, on a local conservative radio talk show. Cazares-Thomas was being interviewed about a supposed link between LGBTQ people and pedophilia. In a Facebook post, the Cathedral of Hope — whose campus includes Johnson’s Interfaith Peace Chapel — explained what it believes precipitated the attack on the chapel:
“The radio interviewer kept pushing the notion that LGBT people are linked somehow to pedophilia,” said Reverend Thomas, Senior Pastor. “There is a big difference between sexual orientation and pedophilia,” Cazares-Thomas responded. “The church does not support sexual exploitation of any kind, including child exploitation,” he said.
The graffiti occurred early on January 5, and included the words “kitty porn” in addition to a person’s name, a cell phone number, and the name of a make of car.
A representative of the church told Hyperallergic that there have been no new developments since the police came to record the incident and they did not know why all that information was included in the vandalism.
“We live in a world filled with hate. If your religion causes you to hate, you ought to get a new religion,” Cazares-Thomas said in a post on the church’s Facebook page.
