A church organist has been arrested for graffiting 'Heil Trump' on the walls of an episcopal church in Indiana days after the presidential election last year.
Nathan Stang, 26, was the person to report the incident when he arrived at St. David's Episcopal Church to play the organ the Sunday after the election. But after a six-month police investigation he was confronted with the evidence and confessed to spray-painting the words himself.
Stang now faces minor charges of criminal damage after he was arrested on Wednesday in the tiny town of Bean Blossom, Indiana, where 97 per cent of the population of less than 3,000 are white.
Images of the graffiti made national headlines at the time and was thought to be a politically motivated hate speech. However prosecutors are now saying Stang, who regularly attends St David's, was hoping to mobilise others who were disappointed by the election result.
Brown County Prosecuting Attorney Theodore F. Adams said: 'Stang stated that he wanted to mobilize a movement after being disappointed in and fearful of the outcome of the national election,' adding that investigators concluded this was not a hate crime.
'Stang denied that his actions were motivated by any anti-Christian or anti-gay motivations.'
Nevertheless Rev Kelsey Hutto, priest-in-charge at St. David's, said the rest of the congregation feels 'like we had the rug pulled out from underneath us' when they found out who had been arrested.
'Nathan is a member of our St. David's family and naturally there is a certain amount of betrayal with this act,' she said in a statement on the church's website.
'Over the coming weeks and days we will process our emotions regarding this hurtful act. I ask that we remember what we have stood for over the past few months – love and forgiveness.'
