When protesters disrupted a worship service at Cities Church in St. Paul in January, the disturbance became the latest example of hostility against churches and places of worship. The Family Research Council tracks acts of aggression against American churches and tallied 415 incidents impacting 383 churches in 2024, the most recent year for which they have analyzed data.
Not every act of aggression is motivated by religious or political antagonism. Sometimes, mental health crises, domestic disputes, and random acts of violence harm churches. And antagonism against Jews far outpaces aggression against Christians. According to the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer, there were 1,380 hate crimes against Jews between January 2025 and January 2026. During the same period, the number of combined hate crimes against Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Protestants, and other Christians was 265.
Here are some recent episodes of church hostility in North America:
Evangelical churches
In January 2026, Windwood Free Will Baptist Church in southeast Oklahoma City was vandalized and set on fire in an alleged arson attack. The church serves as a local voting precinct, offers its parking lot to the school next door during pickup and dropoff times, and was an emergency supply distribution site after a 2024 tornado. It has been part of its community for nearly 30 years.
On August 30, 2025, an arsonist firebombed St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church in Flint, Michigan, causing extensive damage. Flint Councilwoman Tonya Burns said an individual “purposely brought three gasoline cans, used a metal object and fire bombed the church.” The fire burned several classrooms, and the church also had smoke damage and several broken windows. The church has an outreach center that hosts community events and food drives.
Though authorities have video footage of the suspect, he has not yet been identified or arrested. The suspect also allegedly made threats against Peoples Church of Flint and its pastor, Matthew Hogue-Smith. One week before the fire at St. Mark, Peoples canceled its service due to online threats.
Pentecostal and Black Protestant churches
Over the weekend of January 10 and 11, 2026, a person vandalized Union Trinity AME Church in north Philadelphia with racist graffiti. Pastor Tianda Smart-Heath said that she saw the spray-painted graffiti on the outside wall after services finished on Sunday, January 11. She said the church has been vandalized before, but never with racist language until this year.
On October 5, 2025, a masked suspect vandalized three houses of worship in the Queens neighborhood of Far Rockaway in New York City. According to the New York Police Department, the suspect painted “anti-Christian statements” on the façades of The Refuge Church of Christ, The City of Oasis Church of Deliverance, and St. Mary’s Star of the Sea Church. The suspect, who wore a pride mask and pride flag, also painted on the faces of two religious statues on the church property at St. Mary’s.
Mainline Protestant churches
In January 2026, someone smashed the stained glass windows of Denver’s Trinity United Methodist Church. It has historical significance as the first church built in Denver. Authorities said vandalism has been a problem in downtown Denver recently, and they arrested a suspect in connection to the destruction of the windows. Police were investigating whether the suspect was connected to other recent acts of vandalism in the area.
In December 2025, Mayflower United Church of Christ in Billings, Montana, was also vandalized with racist language and swastikas. Members scrubbed the graffiti off the church’s exterior walls, believing the vandalism was a response to the church’s progressive beliefs. Days earlier, someone tore down the church’s pride flag.
In the summer of 2024, five Boston-area churches were vandalized: First Congregational Churches in Norwood, Sharon, and Natick; St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Framingham; and Christ Lutheran Church in Natick. Vandals tore down pride flags, put up Christian flags and “Jesus is King” banners, and left leaflets denouncing homosexuality.
The Massachusetts Council of Churches released a statement decrying the vandalism. “As the Executive Board of the Massachusetts Council of Churches,” it read, “we are particularly heartbroken that Christians would physically attack one another. Our Savior Jesus Christ calls us to be one. Religious violence is never a solution to theological difference,” the group said.
Catholic churches
In the fall 2025, groups of thieves targeted parishioners at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church in Minneapolis on two separate occasions. On October 19, police said, two people leaving the church were confronted by a group of seven or eight attackers. Both victims sustained injuries. Less than two weeks later, two people leaving Saturday evening mass were attacked by three men who attempted to take the victims’ car keys.
In August 2025, a shooter opened fire through the window of a Catholic church in Minneapolis. Nearly 200 children were inside Annunciation Church celebrating Mass to mark the beginning of the school year. Two children were killed, and 17 more were wounded.
Aggression against churches in Canada
After the chief of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation in British Columbia issued a press release in 2021 announcing the discovery of a mass grave on the property of a Catholic residential school and the remains of 215 children, Canadian churches faced arson attacks.
A CBC News investigation found 33 fires that destroyed churches in Canada from May 2021 until December 2023, compared with 14 fires that destroyed churches in Canada from January 2019 to May 2021.
Just two of the 33 fires were found to be accidental. Investigators confirmed arsonists set 24 of those fires deliberately, while the others were either deemed suspicious or were still under investigation.
Some sources put the number of churches vandalized or burned between 2021 and 2024 higher than 100. To date, there has been no evidence that the soil disturbances found at the Kamloops Indian Residential School or at other residential schools have been human remains.
Aggression against non-Christian houses of worship
Other houses of worship have experienced violence in recent months, too. On January 10, 2026, an arsonist set the Beth Israel Congregation synagogue in Jackson, Mississippi, on fire. Authorities arrested 19-year-old Stephen Pittman, who pleaded not guilty to federal and state charges of arson. Authorities are prosecuting the arson as a hate crime.
On September 29, 2025, an assailant smashed a pickup into a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints building in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan. The attacker then opened fire and set the building ablaze during a crowded Sunday service before being fatally shot by police. Four people died, and eight others were wounded in the attack. Authorities identified the shooter as 40-year-old Thomas Jacob Sanford. The FBI led the investigation and considered the attack an “act of targeted violence,” said Ruben Coleman, a special agent in charge for the bureau.
Correction (February 17, 2026): A prior version of this article miscategorized a denomination.
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