by Mike Andrew - SGN Staff Writer

A Beacon Hill church was the target of a hate crime on the morning of October 21, with vandals spray-painting a four-foot by four-foot swastika and hate language on the front of the building.

Amor Spiritual Center at 2528 Beacon Ave. S. displays its slogan - 'Love in many languages' - above its front door. Along with the swastika, the attackers also painted the words 'Hate in many languages.'

Ironically, the church also has an SPD-sponsored 'Safe Space' poster taped to its door.

Police say they are investigating the incident as a bias crime.

Neighbors, friends and allies will hold a support rally at the Center on Sunday, October 25, at noon.

Amor Spiritual Center is 'an open and affirming community,' according to minister Allen Mosley, who is Gay.

'I prefer to call this a 'love center,' ' Mosley explained, 'because 'church' implies a Christian place. We're a very mixed community. We have Christians, Catholics, Buddhists, agnostics, everybody. On Sunday we talk about how to love each other, how to create more love in our community.'

According to neighbor Karl deJong, Mosley is well known and well liked in the community.

'He's a great guy,' deJong told SGN, 'very active in the community and always helping people.'

'It was a huge surprise to us,' Mosley said of the hate crime. 'We feed the homeless, we pick up litter in the neighborhood. This week we're going to be a host center for the showing of Oprah's Belief series,' a seven-part documentary on the origins of religious faith.

'We're very untraditional, but we've had no push-back from the community. Not at all. People say 'thank you, thank you.'

'But you know, this is not just happening to us,' Mosley added. 'These crimes happen all over the city.'

Mosley came to Amor Center by a roundabout route.

'When I was 16, my parents found out I was Gay,' he says. 'That was years ago, and it was in Georgia, so I was invited to live elsewhere.'

By 19 he had become a youth minister, but he was never satisfied with the teaching of any particular faith tradition.

'I just believe it's impossible for all love to be contained in just one place,' he explains. 'You know, some people are always arguing about religion. I don't have time for all that.'

Mosley lived in Seattle in 1999, then moved to California.

'I was working for a Fortune 500 company at the time,' he explains, 'and I went where they needed me. Then I got cancer. I lived through that, but it made me wake up. I realized money is not all there is.'

In 2006 Mosley moved back to Seattle and in 2008 met his husband. They were one of the first 100 couples to get their marriage license in 2012, after Referendum 74 took effect.

'December 11 is our anniversary,' he says, 'and that's the day we wanted to be married. We hoped Washington would make it legal by December 11, and it happened!'

Mosley says he is not bitter about the attack on his church, and he will continue to reach out to all his neighbors.

'I feel a real call to love,' he tells SGN, 'and you have to realize - as a Caucasian man - well, sometimes we don't see the things that happen to other communities. There have been five shootings this year, just in this neighborhood.

'We just have to get over this racial, ethnic, sexual division!'

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