LGBTQ+ friendly church in Fresno vandalized. Pastor suspects a hate group did it
A Fresno church known for supporting the LGBTQ+ community was vandalized Tuesday morning and its pastor believes a local hate group is responsible.
How does Bill Knezovich, the pastor of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in central Fresno, know who caused what he estimated to be $25,000 worth of damages to his church?
“They left a sticker,” Knezovich said. “It has their name and logo on it.”
That sticker, attached to a church railing, said “Central Valley Proudboys.”
Knezovich said it’s the same group that’s made threats over the phone and left threatening voice messages with the church for the past five months.
Knezovich said the Proud Boys’ hostility toward Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church started in December when the church held what they described as a family friendly drag festival. Several Proud Boy members showed up to protest.
“They basically told us back then: ‘We’re not finished with you and that we better watch our back,’” Knezovich said. “But we are not intimidated by this. It’s made us more determined to stand up to that kind of hate and lawlessness.”
Knezovich said he found the “Central Valley Proudboys” sticker on a railing located next to where one of several church windows were smashed.
The pastor was notified of the early morning vandalism by a church member who knows of residents living near the church.
Fresno police confirmed they were investigating the vandalism, saying 25 windows were broken, Sgt. Diana Trueba Vega said Wednesday. Police have not yet come to a conclusion on the motive.
“The sticker was outside of the building,” she said. “We don’t have any information that we can definitively say the sticker and the vandalism are related.”
She said the investigation is ongoing.
Nearly all the windows to the church’s social hall and Sunday School and office wing, along with a glass entrance door, were broken.
No one was present during the vandalism and no one was injured, Knezovich said.
The Proud Boys is a far-right group with a history of violent confrontations.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, a legal advocacy organization, designated the Proud Boys as a hate group and said they’re known for “anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric.”
Knezovich said the Fresno Police were called to the church near Fruit and Clinton avenues some time after 8 a.m. Officers were searching for neighborhood surveillance video to help figure out who did the vandalizing and how many were involved.
Knezovich said the church didn’t have any big plans scheduled in the coming weeks. But they’ve decided to cancel all events for the time being, including a Friday night kids club event that was to provide dinner for children and their family.
“Where they broke the windows, it left glass everywhere,” Knezovich said. “Shards of glass went into the kids’ toys area, and the area where (teen) dancers practice once a week and they dance with their bare feet.
“We just decided to cancel everything for the time being.”
A Gofundme page was set up Tuesday night to help the church raise money for repairs.
“What’s sad is we’d rather use our money to feed people and do other programs, like help people who are housing insecure,” Knezovich said. “Now we’ll have to spend all this money to replace windows.”
Knezovich said many other churches have contacted him to express disapproval of the vandalism and offered help and support.
Several members of the congregation also came to the church to help clean up the broken glass following the police investigation.
“Our congregation is all in agreement that we’re going to stand firm in our beliefs,” Knezovich said. “Their aim is to frighten those who don’t agree with them.
“But this is who we are. Half of our congregation is part of the LGBTQ community and we will continue to support them.”
