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The following is excerpted from the Standard Examiner.
Debris from the burned and smashed interior of an Ogden church piled high in a construction dumpster Tuesday as worshipers and workers took stock of the damage inflicted by vandals recently.
“They destroyed this place,” said Matthew Kalil, team lead for Paul Davis Restoration, a contractor cleaning up the desecration for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Shattered windows and doors yawned to the open air as the demolition crew tore out wrecked contents inside the meetinghouse at 550 E. 900 North in Ogden.
Bishop Jacob Bangerter, of the Mount Lewis 3rd Ward, said church functions have been moved to other meetinghouses in the area. The 4th Ward, which shared the building, also was relocated.
“I think it was handled well between the stake and the wards to coordinate all of that effort,” Bangerter said. “It happened on a Friday and by Sunday we were all ready to go at the other locations.”
Bangerter had been bishop of his northern Ogden ward for only about two weeks when the break-in occurred.
Maintenance workers arrived Friday to find broken doors and windows and smelled smoke inside. Several fires had been set.
Damage was estimated at $300,000, but Kalil said that in addition to the extensive wreckage, most of the church was damaged by smoke.
To read the full article on the Standard Examiner, CLICK HERE.
bob powelsonJuly 5, 2019
The time has come for the LDS to stop being semi--pacifist and apologetic about our faith and conduct. Most are unhappy teens who need to be brought up very short.
CraigJuly 5, 2019
This is only going to get worse. As the country becomes more secular, less tolerant of religion, and as the demographics of Utah change with mass immigration, members of the church are going to find themselves targeted more often. We're not at another Hauns mill yet, but that's not out of the realm of possibility one day.