An El Monte church that had been threatened this month with an arson attack over its condemnation of same-sex marriages was damaged early Saturday, Jan. 23, when someone threw a bomb at the building, the FBI said.
No one was injured in the explosion, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said. The First Works Baptist Church at 2600 Tyler Ave. was also vandalized, the El Monte Police Department said.
The FBI is investigating what it called “an IED attack” as a possible hate crime.
“Anytime a house of worship is attacked, we will respond,” Eimiller said. “If it was motivated in any way by hate, that’s always a working theory when a house of worship is attacked, although that has not been confirmed.”
El Monte police heard the explosion at about 1:15 a.m.
“When our units arrived at the scene they found that (the church) … was having some smoke come out of the windows,” Lt. Christopher Cano told reporters. “It appeared that the walls to the church had been vandalized as well as all the windows. (The windows) appeared at first to be smashed, then we realized that the windows were not smashed, that they had actually blown out from some type of explosion.”
First Works Pastor Bruce Mejia filed a report with police after receiving a threat of arson on social media. Mejia said his doctrine since the church was launched three years ago includes condemnation of same-sex relationships.
In El Monte where FBI, LASD and El Monte police are investigating an explosion at First Works Baptist Church on Tyler and Elliott. Looking to chat with folks associated with the church. Not many folks around as law enforcement investigates. pic.twitter.com/RlbzQqUObL
— Nathan Percy (@NDPercy) January 23, 2021
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This month, some residents called Mejia’s sermons and the church’s stance hate speech during public comments at the El Monte City Council meeting. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit advocacy organization specializing in civil rights litigation, lists the church as an anti-LBGTQ group on its watch list.
Protesters gathered outside the church on Jan. 17. The protest was organized by local El Monte activists, including Keep El Monte Friendly, according to the website Medium.com.
Editor’s note: The video below contains some graphic language.
UPDATE: Someone threw a bomb at the First Works Baptist Church in El Monte. It’s currently on fire right now. #keepelmontefriendly pic.twitter.com/IGVU0GviAT
— Jay Tea (@Josh_TheBoss2) January 23, 2021
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The church is a single-story gray building accented with white bricks, near neighborhoods mixed with single-family homes and apartments. It sits across the street from some restaurants. The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department has set up a command post nearby.
On its Facebook page Saturday morning, the church posted two Bible verses:
• Psalm 9:17, which says, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.”
• And Romans 12:19, which says, “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath; for it is written: Vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord.”
Authorities ask anyone with information on the attack to contact the FBI at 310-477-6565 or fbi.tips.gov.
This story is developing. Check back for updates.
City News Service contributed to this report.
First Works Baptist Church Pastor Bruce Mejia said in an interview on Jan. 11 that part of his beliefs and his doctrine is to preach against the homosexual agenda and the LBGTQ community. He said he has been doing so since the church started about three years ago. Some of the members of the community said in public comments during the El Monte City Council meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 5, that Mejia’s sermons and the church’s message are hate speech.
“Some of those within that LGBTQ group caught one of my sermons that are online and they’ve just been harassing ever since, trying to get me out of El Monte, trying to get me and myself and my church out of El Monte by signing a petition,” Mejia said.
Mejia said he wanted to make sure the police were aware of threats against his church and that the church filed a report about arson threats on social media directed at the church.
“We filed it but we’re not going to pursue it,” Mejia said at the time. “We feel it’s not worth it. We’re not the violent ones here. They are the ones that are trying to get violent. We’ve been accused of inciting violence by our rhetoric and by our preaching and our doctrine.”
Mejia said that he was receiving harassing comments and threats online for about nine days before filing a report with police and that one of the members of his church filed the report alerting the police about the arson threats.
“I told the police department my choice of words for these groups of people is nothing in comparison to what they’ve said,” Mejia said. “Threatening to burn down a church or anything for that matter is a hate crime. What I say is not hate crime. If it was a hate crime I’d be in jail by now. The other side is the one who is threatening and trying to incite violence.”
Source: Orange County Register
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