Man Charged After He Destroys Statue of Jesus For Religious Reasons

Yesterday's Charleston Post and Courier reports on the arrest last Sunday of 38-year old Charles Jeffrey Short for malicious injury to real property after he hammered off the head of a statue of Jesus that stands near a Charleston, South Carolina Catholic church. Short says he was making a religious statement. He told police he battered the statue with a sledge hammer "because the second or first commandment states to not make an image of a male or female to be on display to the public." Police are investigating whether Short was also involved in a similar incident last Friday in which a head and two hands were broken off another statue depicting Jesus and a child that stands at the same church.