LEWISTON – The Rev. Jon Vermilion occasionally shares his thoughts in a letter to the newspaper. Sometimes, he’ll write a few lines for the United Baptist Church newsletter. He never fires off an angry missive and then circulates them at random.

Imagine Vermilion’s surprise then when a nasty pamphlet on homosexuality began to pop up locally with his signature on it.

“It’s a vicious article,” Vermilion said. “It’s hateful and mean. There is no grace or mercy in the language.”

The pamphlet began appearing last Friday, as far as Vermilion could tell. A member from another church called to talk to Vermilion after reading the scathing attack on homosexuality he thought the reverend had written.

“I told him to just throw it away,” Vermilion said.

Tossing out that one pamphlet did not take care of the problem. Others had shown up on a park bench in Kennedy Park. More had been delivered anonymously to another local church.

Vermilion got his hands on some of the pamphlets and turned one over to Lewiston police. Officer Crystal Bourgoin was investigating the matter.

Vermilion said he has an idea who might have signed his name to the missive but doubts it will ever be proven.

In a little more than a month, Vermilion will be leaving United Baptist Church after six years of service. The reverend will move to France to lead a new congregation.

That leads Vermilion to another uncomfortable thought: Might the real letter writer continue to sign the reverend’s name to other, scathing letters? Vermilion hopes his those who know him will realize he would not write such things.

“People should discard them,” he said. “It’s not coming from me.”