Abusing My Religion: F-150 Vandalized Over Owner’s Bumper Stickers
Minnesota F-150 owner claims vandals defaced truck because of his personal beliefs.
If you want to start a fight, as they say, talk about one of two topics: politics or religion. And as Jeff Carter of Crookston, Minnesota found out, sometimes all you need is a religiously-charged bumper sticker or two — or in this case, a pro-atheism bumper sticker — to evoke anger from others with different beliefs. According to Carter, an admitted atheist, he woke up Saturday morning over Easter weekend to find his beautiful red Ford F-150 vandalized.
Carter posted pictures of his truck, covered in eggs, flour and graffiti, in a Facebook post that has already been shared nearly 18,000 times. The truck is covered in statements including “God is great,” “If you don’t like God, go!” and “Jesus is life.” Carter says that his atheist theme bumper stickers were also torn off. According to the Bemidji Pioneer, the Crookston Police Department is investigating the incident.
Despite the alleged incident, Carter doesn’t blame Christians in his community, instead calling it the work of “a handful of idiots” in a follow up Facebook post. He goes on to say, “I have received hundreds of messages from absolute strangers offering to pay for damage to my truck…and apologizing for what happened. Nobody owes me an apology for this except the people that did it. It really is no big deal.”
Thankfully, a good wash has the F-150 looking like new. And it doesn’t seem that the incident has changed Carter’s outlook towards others with different opinions than his own. “I’m not trying to offend people,” he said. “I just want to make it socially acceptable for someone to be open about their disbelief and religion.”
