Sixty-nine acts of vandalism against churches occurred in the first quarter of the year, constituting a significant increase in the number of attacks compared to previous years.
The Family Research Council, a socially conservative think-tank based in Washington, D.C., released a supplemental report outlining “Hostility Against Churches” in the first quarter of 2023. The data builds on an earlier report published in December, which documented attacks on churches between January 2018 and December 2022.
January saw the highest number of church attacks, totaling 43 documented incidents. Fourteen acts of vandalism occurred in February, while 12 occurred in March.
The number of attacks against churches during the first three months of 2023 represents a marked increase in the number of incidents that occurred in the first three months of the previous five years. The Family Research Council recorded 15 attacks against churches in the first three months of 2018, 12 in the same period in 2019, 14 in the first quarter of 2021, and 22 in the first four months of 2022. 2020 saw no attacks on churches in its first three months.
The report documents the damage done in the attacks on churches by organizing them into five categories: vandalism, arson and/or fire, gun-related incidents, bomb threats and an “other” category. It categorized 53 of the attacks on churches as an example of vandalism, 10 as arson and three as gun-related incidents. The report measured three bomb threats and two incidents that fell into the “other” category. Two instances of vandalism fell into more than one category.
The attacks cited in the report span 29 states. North Carolina experienced the highest number of incidents at seven, followed by Ohio and Tennessee with five each and Florida, Missouri and Pennsylvania experienced four each.
California, Montana, New Jersey, New York and Oregon each saw three attacks, while Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Washington each had at least one. The remaining states did not have any attacks cited in the report.
Source: 63 churches attacked in the first 3 months of 2023: report | U.S. News (christianpost.com)