'Respond in Love': Austin church paints Pride mural in response to anti-LBGTQ vandalism

AUSTIN (KXAN) — A south Austin church experienced what its pastor described as an "act of hate" over the weekend. How they chose to respond, though, was the opposite.

Life in the City United Methodist Church, located off South Congress Avenue on East Monroe Street, was vandalized with a message written in red spray paint, and its LGBTQ+ Progress Pride flag that flies in the front of the church was torn down and shredded.

The church's Lead Pastor, Glenn Luhrs, who goes by Pastor Glenn, called it "unnerving" and said the church community feels as though there's been an assault. He said he wouldn't "dignify" the spray-painted message by repeating it, but the church posted photos on its website and social media, asking the community to "respond in love."

"Our community feels as if this has been an assault," Pastor Glenn said. "We recognize this as being a hate crime, and it is our work to respond in love and in community, which is who we are as Christians."

Pastor Glenn said church leadership immediately started communicating about how to respond as a group, and they landed on repainting the facade of the church using the Progress Pride flag colors and a new message that reads, "love is the greatest commandment," referencing Matthew 22:36-40 in the Christian Bible.

"I mean, it's already known and expressed, but now we've just put it on the walls," Pastor Glenn added.

He said the flag will likely be turned into art the same way the spray-painted message was — both acts of hate becoming symbols of the church's work to "continually lean towards transformation," in the pastor's words.

"The paint on the outside of the church is really, it's really an outward sign," Pastor Glenn said. "We can repaint walls. We can repair this flag. We can have it turned into art, and we probably will, but our work is continually leaning towards transformation, and not only for our own transformation, but for that of our community and for the betterment of all of humanity."

Life City made a social media post about the act of vandalism on Friday, saying whoever did it "clearly oppose our mission of radical inclusivity in Christ."

The post went on, saying that Life in the City "strive[s] to welcome those on the outside to the inside of the circle because Jesus’ greatest commandment was for us to love our neighbor as ourselves. And we will continue to do that, even to those who chose to deface our church building…as we know, the church is not the walls, it is the people and the community."

Another post on the church's social media, authored by Pastor Glenn, pointed out a recent attack that happened at Barton Springs, in which a transgender woman and her friends, a man who attempted to intervene, were injured.

"These are not isolated events. They are part of a growing pattern of violence and dehumanization targeting LGBTQIA+ people and other marginalized communities," the post said.

Pastor Glenn, who has only been at Life in the City for about six weeks, has been a pastor for nearly 10 years. Before following that calling, he served in the Air Force for 21 years, then worked in the nonprofit sector for a while.

When asked why he thought someone would do something like vandalize a church, he said, "Well, it's too great to just simply write it off as a misunderstanding, or we interpret Scripture differently than other Christians do."

"Folks carry different ideologies about what Christianity looks like, and they feel a need to respond," he continued. "In this case, the individual that vandalized our church responded with messages that were hateful, and in turn, we are seeking ways to be not just visible in the community, but integral in the community, a place of healing and a place of forgiveness in the community."

The church is doing that not only through the visual aspect of the mural, but they're also holding dedicated services and supporting LGBTQ+ organizations and community members.

On Sunday morning, the church held a celebration service for the new mural, and there will be a Healing Prayer Service on Wednesday evening.

Life in the City is also currently giving 10% of the donations and tithes it receives to OutYouth.

Crystal Paul, the artistic director of Life in the City, said the church has a "community partner" every quarter of the year that they partner with to support. She said the timing of the current partnership with OutYouth is "kind of ironic."

Paul said that affirmation of the LGBTQ+ community is a core part of the church's identity, but the church also works to support all marginalized communities.

Another part of Life in the City's identity has been resilience. Paul said the church has had "a number of big events" worldwide and locally that have impacted the church body, but they keep going.

"When this kind of thing happens — anything in the world, anything in our area, that kind of punches us in the gut — we're going to still stand up, we're going to shake off that dust, and we're going to continue to march in love," Paul said. "We're going to continue what Jesus told us to do, which is to love God and love our neighbor."

"We're very blessed to have Pastor Glenn, who came to us just a few weeks ago," she said. "You know, this has happened early in his tenure... and our prior pastor to that had the COVID pandemic happen. So what that says to me is we are a resilient community."

Pastor Glenn said several other churches throughout Texas have taken the message of what happened at Life in the City and turned it into a message about "changing hearts and minds."

Paul added that church leadership is hopeful that the mural helps amplify the message that Life in the City intends to be a safe "third space" for those who need it.

Paul said the Austin Police Department has increased patrols in the area following the incident.