Wheelchair-Bound Minn. Man Charged With Vandalizing Pro-Gay Church

Jason St. Amand READ TIME: 1 MIN.

A man has been arrested and charged in Maple Grove, Minn., a town of 61,567 located just 17 miles north-west of Minneapolis, for vandalizing a pro-gay church four times since June, according to CBS Minneapolis.

Lonny Lloyd Roseland, 45, who is wheelchair-bound, was charged with third-degree damage to property and disorderly conduct (both are minor offenses) for writing anti-gay marriage rhetoric and bible verses on the Pilgrims United Church. The church's members fully support marriage rights for same-sex couples.

The complaint says the church was vandalized four times in the past few months. In June, the Pilgrims United Church was vandalized three times. Members of the LGBT-friendly church discovered that the building had been egged, handcuffs were locked on the front door, and graffiti covered the church. One of the messages written read, "Gay Pride? NO! Shameful Sodomites!" Another time, the members found "Church of Sodom" and "Church of Gomorrah Lev 18:2" written on the building, CBS Minneapolis reports.

On July 26, police installed a camera on the church and on July 28, the church was once again egged and vandalized. The footage caught a man in a wheelchair, which led police to Roseland, who admitted to vandalizing the church using colored crayons and eggs.

He said he is against marriage equality and that "any church that recognizes gays can be married in the eyes of God is not a church, but a cult."


by Jason St. Amand , National News Editor

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