The Daily Populous Sunday August 3rd, 2025 morning edition
Authored by cbsaustin.com and submitted by atxgpc

A church in south Austin was vandalized, including having its displayed Pride flag torn down, and the church says this is not the first time an incident like this has occurred.

Life in the City church, a United Methodist church and "radically inclusive and affirming progressive faith community" per its social media, says a person spray painted "Pride was the 1st sin" on the walls of their building in Travis Heights on Friday.

“Today, our church building was vandalized and our Progress Pride flag was torn down. This act was meant to threaten the mission we hold sacred: offering the radically inclusive love of God in Christ for the health and wholeness of mind, body, and spirit," Pastor Glenn Luhrs said. "Sadly, this is not the first time hateful rhetoric has appeared on our walls. And it comes at a time when our city is already hurting. Just days ago, a transgender woman was assaulted at Barton Springs. These are not isolated events. They are part of a growing pattern of violence and dehumanization targeting LGBTQIA+ people and other marginalized communities."

The church hosted a community "creative restoration project" event on Saturday morning following the vandalism.

CBS Austin has reached out to APD for more information on this incident.

thejurdler on August 2nd, 2025 at 22:06 UTC »

Conservatives: "hating the gays is more important than loving Jesus."

CedarWolf on August 2nd, 2025 at 21:40 UTC »

Yep. We put our Pride flag up for Pride month last year and were immediately reported to our HOA with photos of our house dating back months, from April and May, when it had been too wet to mow and the grass was sprouting in days, so weekly mowing was insufficient.

But I swept the snow off my neighbors' drive and walkway last winter, and somehow we stopped getting reported to the HOA. Go figure.

PwAlreadyTaken on August 2nd, 2025 at 21:37 UTC »

Turns out normalizing and validating people’s worst instincts and biases on a national platform gives the worst of us extra courage to be bigots. Who could have guessed?