BOSTON -- For the second time in a month, vandals have torn down a rainbow flag at a Bridgewater church.

About five weeks ago, the First Parish Bridgewater Unitarian Universalist Church started to fly a rainbow flag, a symbol of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population, as a welcoming beacon, the Enterprise reported.

Soon after, church members found the flag and its bracket on the front steps. A note with the flag said it was being returned after the writer saw two men pull it down and put it in a car in a nearby parking lot, the paper reported.

Last week, the flag was again ripped down and later found in some bushes.

Church leaders didn’t call the incidents hate crimes, but wonder if they are being targeted for their beliefs.

"If they persist, I’d be more than happy to call it a hate crime," the Rev. Ed Hardy told the paper. "Two dots don’t constitute a trajectory. Three do."