Last Sunday (November 9, 2008) service started out the same way it usually does at Mount Hope Church in Lansing Michigan–announcements, worship songs, and prayers for the sick and for the new new President Elect–then all heck broke loose literally. The attack was summarized in one report:
the Michigan left declared open war on peaceful church goers. They did it with banners, chants, blasphemy, by storming the pulpit, by vandalizing the church facility, by potentially defiling the building with lude, public, sex acts and by intentionally forcing physical confrontations with worshipers.
In another report, it all began outside:
“Outside they were chanting ‘Jesus was a homo’ on a megaphone. They were beating on buckets, presumably to drown out what the pastor was saying inside the church, and carrying an upside-down pink cross. They set off the fire alarm.”
Then apparently more than 20 ‘Bash Back’ activists inside the church began shouting obscenities at church members, throwing confetti and condoms into the pews. The protesters carried a banner that read, “It’s okay to be gay! Bash Back!” and continued to shout out chants: “It’s okay to be gay” and “Jesus was a homo”.
The whole event was recorded on video by the activists and they brought a news reporter with them, hoping to be physically confronted by church members–which did not happen. The police were called in and for some reason the demonstrators were not arrested.
How did the church respond to the event? After the attack was over, Pastor David Williams led the congregation in prayer for the activists.
Mount Hope Church is not some radical group involved in political activism in any way but a peaceful 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.”
Wow! No wonder the church was attacked, they actually help people in the community!