Condoms found at historic church

Originally printed at http://www.nbcaugusta.com/news/georgia/97275099.html

BEECH ISLAND, S.C. - Thousands of dollars worth of damages have been done to a historic church in Aiken County.

Church members spent Saturday morning restoring their church before Sunday’s service.

Three men, who sat in the Susan Union Baptist church in Beech Island as little boy’s 60-years -ago, came in to clean up the mess.

Reverend Abraham Smith Jr. is one of them.

"When we came to church there wasn't too much fooling around when I was growing up,” Smith said.

The 117-year-old church is five miles from the road, nestled in the woods and has service every fourth Sunday of the month.

Smith says this month someone or someones came early.

"Glass was all in the pulpit,” Smith said pointing toward the broken windows. Several chairs were smashed and King James Bible was thrown on the floor.

He tallied up $2,000 in damages.

"The grounds are said to be holy grounds, but they don't even have respect for the grounds,” Smith said.

Aiken County Sheriff’s Investigators say they think teenagers are to blame.

Deacon Fred Key says he caught them once.

"Teenagers come back and park and do what they got to do, drink beer, smoke reefer and they probably got feeling good and wanted to break some windows,” Key said.

Smith pointed out the beer cans and condom wrappers that littered the area around the church.

“No respect, no respect I can’t believe they left them right there,” he said.

Smith says he expects 15 people to show up to the service.

The Aiken County Sheriff's Office is investigating the vandalism at this church as well as several other Aiken County Church vandalism's.