Clergymen might want to think hard before opening their doors to Occupy Wall Street — unless they like losing property.
It’s a lesson the Rev. Bob Brashear of the West Park Presbyterian Church on the Upper West Side didn’t immediately get.
This month, Brashear noticed that the basin and lid of his baptismal font (worth $12,500) had gone missing.
It was the second major theft since he welcomed the Occupiers to his church after their Zuccotti Park ouster: Three weeks before, his MacBook Air (estimated value: $2,400) vanished into the Occupy ether.
Brashear warned the OWS riffraff against further thefts (the basin was later recovered). Nonetheless, he gave them two more weeks (at least) to stay at the church.
Talk about asking for trouble.
This wasn’t the only time Occupiers showed contempt for houses of worship that welcome them: Rabbi Chaim Gruber, an erstwhile Occupy leader himself, denounced a recent incident where a member urinated on a cross in a Park Slope church.
Everyone knows OWS has no regard for private property; its Zuccotti Park takeover made that plain. Now, it’s clear, church items are fair game, too.
If Brashear wants to let these people stay at West Park, that’s his business. But he might want to bolt everything down first.