Worshippers at a Bible-teaching church in Lansing, Mich., were stunned Sunday when members of a pro-homosexual, pro-anarchy organization named Bash Back interrupted their service to fling propaganda and condoms around the sanctuary, drape a profane banner from the balcony and feature two lesbians making out at the pulpit.
According to a blog posting by Nick De Leeuw on Right Michigan, the Bash Back organization orchestrated a protest in front of Mount Hope Church to draw the church’s security staff away from the sanctuary.
Then Bash Backers who had dressed up and mixed in with church worshippers took action.
According to De Leeuw, “Prayer had just finished when men and women stood up in pockets across the congregation, on the main floor and in the balcony.
“‘Jesus was gay,’ they shouted among other profanities and blasphemies as they rushed the stage. Some forced their way through rows of women and kids to try to hang a profane banner from the balcony while others began tossing fliers into the air. Two women made their way to the pulpit and began to kiss,” he wrote.
He cited the Bash Back organization’s own announcement of other items members brought into the church, including “a megaphone, noise makers, condoms, glitter by the bucket load, confetti, pink fabric. …”
According to the alternative Lansing City Pulse – which reported it was notified of the protest ahead of time and sent a reporter along instead of warning the church – the protesters also screamed at parishioners and pulled the church facility’s fire alarm. Printed material protesters distributed said, “We specialize in confronting homophobia, transphobia and every and all other forms of oppression.”
The report said Bash Back issued a statement today confirming it targeted Mount Hope, which has about 5,000 church participants, because it participates in “the repression of queers.”
Many demonstrators fled and the rest were quiet after sheriff’s officers were summoned.
“Mount Hope churchgoers were unclear as to what the purpose of the demonstration was,” said a statement from David Williams, a spokesman for the church.
“The leadership of Mount Hope Church does not attempt to identify the church as anti-homosexual, anti-choice, or right wing. The church does take the Bible at face value and believes what the Bible says to be the truth,” Williams’ statement continued.
“According to the Bible, Mount Hope Church believes homosexuality to be a sin, just as fornication, stealing, drunkenness, and lying are sins. No sin greater than the next. Mount Hope Church strives to follow Jesus’ example of loving the sinner but not the sin while helping people change their lives for God’s glory and their improved quality of life. Mount Hope Church also recognizes that to each person God grants freewill.”
The church then offered help for people “caught up in unwanted sexual sin, drug abuse, and many other areas.”
De Leeuw reported “the ‘open minded’ and ‘tolerant’ liberals ran down the aisles and across the pews, hoping against hope to catch a ‘right winger’ on tape daring to push back (none did).
“This is what we’re up against,” De Leeuw wrote. “Amidst worshiping congregants and following unifying prayers that our president-elect be granted wisdom as he prepares to lead our nation through difficult global, social and economic challenges, the Michigan left declared open war on peaceful churchgoers.
“Mount Hope, for the record, is an evangelical, Bible believing church whose members provide free 24-hour counseling, prayer lines, catastrophic care for families dealing with medical emergencies, support groups for men, women and children dealing with a wide variety of life’s troubles, crisis intervention, marriage ministries, regular, organized volunteer work in and around the city, missions in dozens of countries across the globe, a construction ministry that has built over 100 churches, schools, orphanages and other projects all over the world and an in-depth prison ministry that reaches out, touches and helps the men and women the rest of society fears the most. They also teach respect for all human life and the Biblical sanctity of marriage as an institution between one man and one woman,” De Leeuw wrote.
“The church’s response? After things settled down, the blasphemy ended, the lewd props removed and the families safe from fear of additional men and women running into and past them the pastor took the stage and led the congregation in one more prayer … not for retribution, or divine justice or a celestial comeuppance but instead that the troubled individuals who’d just defiled the Lord’s house, so full of anger and hate, would know Jesus’ love in their lives and God’s peace that exceeds human understanding,” De Leeuw wrote.
In a statement posted on the Internet, Bash Back confirmed its “operatives” were in the service, “stood up, declared themselves fags, and began screaming loudly. … Another group threw over a thousand fliers to the entire … congregation. The fire alarm was pulled. Queers began making out in front of the pastor. And within a matter of minutes, everyone had evaded the guards and made their escapes.”
The statement continued, “Let is be known: So long as bigots kill us in the streets, this pack of wolves will continue to BASH BACK!”
The report comes just a day after video documentation of pro-homosexual protesters in California challenging a 69-year-old woman to a fight because she was affirming the biblical perspective of homosexuality.
“This screaming and shouting, name-calling and pushing by homosexual activists is not unlike a small child throwing a fit because he doesn’t get his way,” said Randy Thomasson, chief of the Campaign for Children and Families, a leading California-based pro-family group. “The public is getting a clue that homosexual activists don’t like democracy and are willing to trample anyone and anything that gets in their way.”
California voters by nearly 53 percent to 47 percent last week adopted a state constitutional amendment limiting marriage to one man and one woman.
Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan and co-author of the Marriage Protection Amendment approved by Michigan voters in 2004, condemned the homosexual activist group’s intimidation tactics.
“We will alert churches statewide of this now close-to-home threat of disruption of their members’ freedom to worship in peace and safety,” Glenn said, “but this is not the first time in history Christians have faced persecution or threats of reprisal for standing for their faith and values.”
He predicted Americans, “particularly people of strong religious faith, are not cowards” and would not “be bullied by emotional adolescents who disrespect private property, the rule of law, and anyone who dares hold opinions diverse from their own.”
“We will pray for and offer help to those who have gender identity and same-sex attraction disorders, but Americans will continue to reject their attempts to overturn the will of the people and impose their disorders on our children and society at large,” he said.
Glenn said AFA-Michigan will join the Catholic League in urging Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox to investigate the organized violation of the church’s private property rights and the group’s threat of future disruptions of worship services.
Catholic League president Bill Donohue today issued a statement condemning the group’s actions and accusing the news media of failing to report it with the same intensity they routinely do complaints by homosexual activist groups.
