Atheists Help Churches

Now that headline alone should have you scratching your head, but its actually happening in Bend, Oregon. This past Sunday two churches in the town were vandalized, and now people from across the country want to help.

Both churches were tagged with the image of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The FSM is the deity of a group that call themselves Pastafarians. You can read all about the Church Of The Flying Spaghetti Monster right here on their website.

While the FSM may be a parody of religion, members of the group found nothing funny about the vandalism. Hemant Mehta, also known as "the friendly atheist," created a church cleanup donation fund online from his home in Chicago.

He says his intentions aren't about religion, but about righting a wrong. In less than 24 hours he raised nearly $3000 to help with clean up costs.

"This isn't about what they believe and what we believe. No one is advocating this," Mehta said. "I don't know who did this, and I hope that whoever did it is caught. But in the meantime, this is the least that anyone can do to just help this church."

Agreed, we need more people like Mehta in this world.

Church leaders say that the vandalism has been covered up, and they're not entirely sure of how to spend the money raised. They are grateful none the less.

"You see people who maybe have very different belief systems, and yet come together and realize we are all human." said Mike Alexander with the Westside Church.

Read the entire story here on the KTVZ website.