Brainerd High School graduate John Zachary designed a nontraditional scene with a social message for his church in Claremont, Calif. Vandals who destroyed the the scene, which generated media attention across the country.Brainerd High School graduate John Zachary has designed a nontraditional nativity scene with a social message for his church in Claremont, Calif., for six years. This is the first year that his design made someone angry enough to vandalize the scene depicting the birth of Christ.
This year’s nativity scene at Claremont United Methodist Church featured silhouettes of three couples, each holding hands. When congregants showed up for the 10 a.m. PST Christmas service, they found the male and female couples knocked over.
A sign above the images that read “Christ is Born” also was damaged, according to Zachary, who is a production designer for movies and television in Hollywood.
He said this year’s scene was based on the Martin Luther King Jr. quote, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
The net effect of the vandalism is that it has done on a greater scale what he had intended with the original scene, which was to get people talking. Zachary has placed the damaged pieces into a new art piece, which he said he kind of likes better. He’s also done several media interviews.