An antichrist symbol doesn’t necessarily belong on the wall of a church, but in the Oberhausen district of Augsburg the parish community is now happy about it, somehow. Of course, they don’t want their Church of St. Peter and Paul to be daubed and pelted with eggs either. But now they’ve made the best of it and turned the whole mess into a work of art. Marcus Lechner, a member of the management team in the parish council, says it’s a way of talking to people. And lo and behold! It works.
About two weeks ago they noticed the graffiti on the church wall. “FCK Jesus”, “FCK NZS”, “666” was suddenly there. The pastor, the educational officer of the parish community, none of them simply wanted to brush over the mess in silence. “We wanted to comment on it, it was a spontaneous idea,” says Lechner. So they framed the slurs with neon-colored tape and then made posters in the same colors with slogans in youth language.
Adults imitate young people’s language, something like that has sometimes gone wrong, but around the church building in Oberhausen it works very well. “Who’s still writing on the wall today??? Write to us on Insta!” it blares against those who caused it. Or “Uncool, but also had a lot of balls”, and “Digga, we also think Nazis suck!”. It is important to those responsible that the slogans are not only aimed at the sprayers. “They were teenagers, I’m sure of that,” says Lechner. But rather to passers-by, to all people, as a signal to the “very colorful district”, as Lechner puts it: “We also speak your language and are open and able to communicate.”
It shouldn’t be the wagging finger. “Not educational, as you might know from the church.” In fact, a few passers-by stopped at the weekend, curious. It works, says Lechner, in the spirit of Pastor Bernd Weidner: “Most of us are very good at handling outrage. Dismay, too. Standing still doesn’t do much good. That’s why I’m happy about the offer to talk and I’m very curious to see if a kind of dialogue can develop in the district.”