A sign outside the Focus on the Family facility in Colorado Springs, Colorado, was vandalized on Thanksgiving, just days after a mass shooting at an LGBTQ bar left five people dead and 17 wounded.
The morning of Nov. 24, officials reported graffiti at the facility that read: "Their blood is on your hands five lives taken." A piece of metal was left leaning against the large stone sign, which quoted 2 Corinthians 11:14-15.
A day later, the graffiti message was mostly covered with cardboard and plastic.
Focus on the Family President Jim Daly addressed the vandalism, calling for community members to love and pray and not to spread hate.
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"We recognize the community is hurting in the aftermath of the reckless and violent actions of a very disturbed individual. This is a time for prayer, grieving, and healing, not vandalism and the spreading of hate," he said, according to FOX 21.
He added: "Focus on the Family is privileged to be one of many organizations in our city positioned to help and support the needs of struggling individuals and families."
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"The families of the five individuals killed in Saturday night’s senseless attack are in our prayers. We urge everyone to pray for peace and we also pray for the individual or group responsible for this mischievous and unwarranted defacing of our ministry’s property," Daly also said.
Some people have criticized Focus on the Family, a global Christian outreach ministry, for being homophobic as it often differs from the LGBTQ community on issues of sex education and gender ideology, among others.
