Janitor beaten outside church

08/19/03

Sarah Treffinger
Plain Dealer Reporter militancy

Westlake - A part-time church janitor suspects three men beat him because his pastor preached against homosexuality, police said yesterday.

Richard Bilski, 49, of Sheffield Lake, told police that the unidentified men assaulted him Sunday morning outside the nondenominational Church on the Rise after demanding to know when Pastor Paul Endrei would arrive.

Bilski said the men then fled, one yelling, "This is a message for Pastor Paul."

Capt. Guy Turner said police have no way of knowing the motive for the attack, but Bilski and Endrei said they believe the men were retaliating for an Aug. 10 sermon in which the pastor called homosexuality a sin.

Endrei said in a telephone interview that he preached about the Rev. Gene Robinson, who became the first openly gay Episcopalian confirmed as a bishop.

"I told the congregation, 'The Gospel according to Gene Robinson is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ,' " he said. The point of his sermon was that "we love the homosexual, but we hate the sin."

Buck Harris, a former host of a gay-themed radio talk show, said sermons such as Endrei's can fuel hate crimes.

"If they don't preach tolerance, they are preaching violence," Harris said.

Bilski, who also works as a letter carrier, told police his attackers arrived at 6:45 a.m. in a white Pontiac Firebird. He reported seeing the same car in the parking lot of the Crocker Road church three or four times last week.

Bilski said yesterday that the men confronted him as he took out the trash. A fight erupted, he said, after he told the men he didn't know when to expect Endrei.

"I'm the janitor, not the timekeeper," he recalled telling the men.

At that point, Bilski said, one man berated him with obscenities and another struck him in the face with a tennis racket. Bilski said the trio also punched him and tore off his shirt as a fourth man looked on. He suffered cuts and bruises to his face, arms, hands and ribs.

"I did nothing against anybody and I'm the one in the middle of this," Bilski said.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

streffin@plaind.com, 216-999-3906

© 2003 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.