Vandals covered the exterior of two churches in Melbourne, Australia, with messages calling to “crucify no-voters”, or opponents of gay marriage. The disturbing graffiti also included swastikas and references to “bigots”.Pastor Drew Mellor of Glen Waverley Anglican Church said the violent messages in the graffiti had some parishioners fearing for their safety. Undeterred after the discovery of the vandalism, the church released a thorough statement doubling down on its belief in a traditional biblical view on marriage as being between one man and one woman.David O' Brien is the Senior Pastor of Waverley Baptist Church, the other church that was vandalized, and said the incident was "disturbing and concerning."The Australian Coalition for Marriage spokeswoman Monica Doumit told media outlets, "one thing that this process has revealed is that, despite the rhetoric, 'Yes' campaigners do not actually believe in a tolerant society, where people are allowed to 'live and let live. Rather, they will target those who disagree for abuse, for boycott, or for some other type of punishment."This incident is the latest of many of anti-Christian acts preceding a national postal vote regarding Australia’s marriage laws, according to Charisma News.Cella White, a mother from Victoria, was the victim of "relentless" online abuse following an appearance in a TV ad campaign against the redefinition of marriage."I knew it was a touchy subject so I was well aware of the backlash to likely come my way by taking part in the ad, but it's hostile out there,” White said. Despite receiving threats, the mother of four expressed no desire to back down from her convictions on the issue.Recently, an 18-year-old known as Madeline was “dismissed from her job for publicly sharing her opposition to same-sex marriage on Facebook, after she changed her profile picture to say ‘It's OK to vote no,’” Charisma News reports.from: https://hellochristian.com/9960-melbourne-australia-church-vandals-crucify-gay-marriage-opponents
_________________SI Moderator - Greg Gordon
When I read things like this, its understandable that when the Church in Australia had it's chance to stand for truth in decades past, it did something else. Now the outworking of liberalism blossoms into suppression of religious liberty and the persecution of law abiding citizens. Yet, Satan is afraid, his princes and powers are afraid of the Church. The seizing of power to persecute has been a standard operating procedure since the birth of the Church. He knows killing Christians polarizes the populace against Christianity via the political consensus but he also knows God can overthrow the whole thing with a very few Godly Christians willing to die for the sake of Jesus.The way I see it, cults, worldliness, lukewarmness is far more deadly to the Christian...killing them makes martyrs to be imitated and their faith strengthened. Persecution is the last ditch effort because its the true believer he's after, the false and fake Christians are already his. Killing Christians has not done Satan the slightest bit of good overall in China, that has been disastrous for him. The real point of killing Christians is to keep the lost and the unbeliever safely in his grasp. He wants to place the necessity of martyrdom in front of them so that they will turn away from becoming Christian knowing it will cost them their life. Satan wants to add to the gospel...yea..take Jesus and get killed too.
_________________Marvin
