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The Daily Mail took aim at Echo Church in Sydney on Thursday with a blistering article that left readers in no doubt about where the publication stands on Christianity and people of faith.

The headline read:

Shall we read together?

The leader of a Sydney megachurch has sparked outrage after declaring that ‘homosexuality will never be normal’ following a series of vile homophobic church sermons.

Megachurch? That made me laugh. It amused Echo Church’s pastor Andrew Sedra too. Serdra’s church is larger than the average Australian congregation, which attracts about 70 on a Sunday. But Echo Church, with a few hundred people, is hardly “mega”.

Note that the media now use “megachurch” as a slur, not as a numerical descriptor.

As for “sparking outrage”, well, only in the mind of the journalist. The journalist relies on a few anonymous social media comments to justify her charge of “outrage”.

Just on that “outrage”, what of it?

The world has been outraged by Christians for 2000 years. If memory serves me correctly, Jesus wasn’t exactly featured on Dancing with the Stars.

As for Pastor Sedra’s outrageous assertion that homosexuality will never be normal, whether Christian or evolutionary atheist, we should hope he is right. It will be the end of the human race if same-sex relationships are ever the norm.

The lead pastor and founder of Echo Church at Leumeah, Andrew Sedra, launched the vile attack on the gay community during pride month.

Vile? Says who? The journalist?

Well, at least we immediately know that this is a hit piece rather than a news report.

Note that Pastor Sedra’s crime is not only to “attack” gay culture, but to do so during their holy month.

Tell me again who the religious people are?

Storm in a Teacup

The church, which was founded in 2017, holds services in a large warehouse-style building, with concert-style lighting, rock music, and controversial preaching from Mr Sedra.

Pffft. It’s not even a real church. I mean, they meet in a warehouse, for goodness sake.

And what’s with the concert-style lighting and rock music? How dare they use electricity and sing songs written post-1854?

I’m being sarcastic, of course.

As for “controversial preaching”, Pastor Sedra’s preaching is quite orthodox. It’s only controversial if you hate the Bible.

It even sells controversial merchandise, including tee shirts that say: ‘I’m Gen Z, and I’m straight.’

Stupid Echo Church. As if anyone in Gen Z is straight!

Mr Sedra has also built up a large following on Instagram, with almost 40,000 followers and his hateful rants gaining thousands of views.

Wait. Forty thousand followers, you say? Damn. Pastor Sedra has more followers than the hit piece will have readers.

He describes Sydney as ‘Sodom and Gomorrah 2.0’ in reference to the biblical cities destroyed by God after residents were caught committing the ‘sin’ of homosexuality.

I love how this ‘news report’ places the word sin in quotation marks. It’s almost like the journalist is implying homosexuality is not a sin, like I’m implying the Daily Mail piece is not a news report.

Hear, Hear

Anyway, the journalist moves on to give examples of Pastor Sedra’s vile rants:

‘Welcome to the progressive cult of secularism. Where Christianity is blasphemy, the Bible is sacrilegious, and not celebrating sexual perversion is the unforgivable sin,’ he said.

I have to say, Pastor Sedra does seem pretty on point so far. The journalist certainly seems to regard Pastor Sedra’s orthodox Christian beliefs on sexuality as blasphemous.

It seemed pretty unforgivable that the church dared to encourage straight young people to wear tee shirts celebrating heterosexuality.

But wait, Pastor Sedra dares to say this:

‘Pride is the most celebrated virtue, and kids are nothing but a sex experiment of our time — grooming children under the disguise of education.

And the inaccuracy here is …?

I mean, the journalist complained in her second sentence that Pastor Sedra had dared to speak against homosexuality during the celebration of Pride month.

As for the charge of “grooming children under the disguise of education”, Pastor Sedra is hardly the first person to make this observation.

The journalist cherry-picks one more quote to make her slam dunk case against the hateful, vile, anti-gay, megachurch, tee-shirt-selling, fancy lighting-loving young pastor:

‘Butchering kids’ body parts in the name of love, tolerance and diversity. Drag queens’ sex shows are perverted men robbing the innocence of our children.’

Is surgically removing the perfectly healthy breasts of a perfectly healthy teenage girl ‘health care’ or ‘butchering’? Meh. You say tomato, I say tomato.

I agree that Pastor Sedra’s description of Drag Queens “robbing the innocence of our children” is a bit off.

What’s the harm in a man twerking in women’s underwear as children are encouraged to slip dollar bills into his g-string? Most people would agree that — like riding bikes and flying kites — this is a pretty normal part of childhood. Pastor Sedra needs to lighten up a bit.

Throughout his anti-LGBTQIA+ sermons, the pastor repeatedly warns parents their children are in danger of being indoctrinated by the LGBTQ+ community if they are not taught the bible.

Imagine a preacher suggesting that if Christian parents don’t teach their children the Bible, they might grow up to be indoctrinated by a highly sexualised culture! No way!

And, just incidentally, what’s wrong with LGBTQ+ indoctrination? It certainly makes attending Sydney Swans games, watching the ABC, flying on Qantas and navigating public libraries, while men caricaturing highly sexualised women teach children to be inclusive, more comfortable.

Governmental Overreach

Mr Sedra warns that if children received such ‘sex education’, they were in danger of being manipulated to ‘cut their body parts to change their gender, pervert God’s design for sexuality and become a sex clown for kids’.

Well, Pastor Sedra (not Mr) has got a point.

Just last month, a Victorian State School surveyed children, without their parents’ knowledge, asking them if they wished to change their pronouns and offering “next steps” counselling.

It is now the Victorian Government Education Department’s policy to help “mature minors” who express a desire to explore gender fluidity, to socially transition without parental knowledge.

And it is illegal in Victoria to even attempt to talk someone — including children — out of transitioning.

So yeah, children are in danger of manipulation by the gender fluidity cult.

‘When leftist politicians say ‘inclusivity and diversity’, they don’t really mean inclusivity and diversity,’ he said.

‘What they really mean is old, half-naked, hairy men dancing with fishnet stockings around kids, grooming kids to pervert their sexuality and cut their body parts!’

What’s the inaccuracy here?

Has the journalist not heard of Daniel Andrews, the Victorian Premier who recently held a Drag Queen Storytime event for kids in Parliament House so as to demonstrate his commitment to inclusivity and diversity?

It is fair, however, to criticise Pastor Sedra’s description — “old, half-naked, hairy men dancing with fishnet stockings” — of Drag performers.

To be fair, I don’t think they are all old.

The pastor complained that people who spoke out against drag queens were called ‘right-wing, Neo-Nazi, misogynistic, sexist, homophobic bigots’.

After reading the Daily Mail hit piece, Pastor Sedra can add “vile”, “anti-gay” and “controversial” to the list of smears he must endure as a man of God doing no more than shepherding his congregation.

‘The gay agenda war is happening in Australia! The LGBTQ+ sex indoctrination propaganda is already in Australia!’ he continued.

‘It is already in our schools and believed by so many they/them shim-shim pansexual pancake, lesbian blue-headed feminist teachers.’

Stop the presses — a preacher has a flair for words.

It’s wrong to say that everyone with blue hair is a teacher, though.

Much Ado

The pastor has been particularly active during Pride Month, celebrated in June.

That made me laugh.

Pastor Sedra has been “particularly active”!

Also, it’s good of the journalist to remind us when Pride Month is. It’s in June, in case you haven’t yet diarised it for next year. It’s going to be fantabulous.

‘Marriage and sex are holy, God-designed human experiences between one man and one woman for a lifetime,’ he said.

‘Homosexuality will never ever be normal to the people of God no matter how much culture or Hollywood try to normalise it!’

The Christian preacher tells Christian people gathered in a Christian church for their Christian service that they will believe Christian things rather than Hollywood things.

Outrageous.

How dare Pastor Sedra refuse to be conformed to the image of Dylan Mulvaney and Elliott Page.

His homophobic comments have shocked many, with Equality Australia condemning the pastor’s videos. 

‘Hatred packaged up on Instagram and dressed up as some kind of inspired spoken word is still hatred,’ Equality Australia Legal Director Ghassan Kassisieh said. 

“Homophobic”? Says who? The journalist is editorialising again.

Wait. An LGBTQIA+ advocate disagrees with the Biblical view of sexuality? Who would have imagined!

I’m betting this activist also denies the birth, ministry, death, resurrection and divinity of Jesus as well.

Does that make Kassisieh a Christophobe? Of course not. We all know the ‘hate’ is only allowed to flow one way.

‘This is an abuse of the trust which is placed in religious leaders and is blatant bigotry that does great harm to LGBTIQ+ people, especially those of faith. 

‘These fringe views only serve to alienate people of faith in contemporary Australia.’

Yep, when religious leaders faithfully teach the Word of God to their congregation, it is an abuse of the trust which is placed in religious leaders by LGBTQIA activists.

Don’t believe the Christian pastor about what constitutes genuine faith. Take the word of the LGBTQIA lobbyist.

Mr Sedra has also come under fire on his social media accounts.  

He also has 40,000 followers, so there seem to be far more on social media who agree with the pastor than disagree. But sure, let’s cherry-pick a few of the disagreeables just to spice things up.

The statements about what love IS are great and beautiful! But I’m confused as to why a church would be so focused on opposing one specific group,’ one commented underneath a clip from one of his sermons. 

Maybe the sexualisation of culture, and particularly of children, is the biggest cultural issue of our time. It could be that Pastor Sedra is preaching about the things parents in the suburbs, with kids in public schools and on TikTok, are concerned about.

I wonder if the commenter is confused as to why LBGTQ activists are so focused on opposing Biblical truth. But I digress.

‘Does this level of opposition reflect Jesus? When I see this, I just see worldly arguments and fighting, not Jesus, who has overcome the world and doesn’t need to participate in culture wars.’

Jesus doesn’t participate in the culture wars because, well, culture wars are a Trump thing imported from America and Jesus came before all of that. Therefore a Christian minister should not declare Biblical truth, particularly if it is in opposition to the culture.

Another drink?

‘Can’t believe you’re actually allowed to preach these nasty views in church. I definitely wouldn’t ever come to your church! Jesus loves everybody,’ another said.

Hear, hear.

I can’t believe he’s actually allowed to preach those things either. Pastor Sedra’s sermons should be audited by a government bureaucrat so that the nasty bits (ie anything that anyone doesn’t personally like for any reason) can be erased.

A third wrote: ‘This is dangerous and misinformed. I feel for any LGBT person who goes to this church. Preaching like this causes suicide, depression, and worse — causes people to believe they are not loved by God.’

It’s not the radical gender ideology preached in schools to vulnerable children that is dangerous; it’s the Christian message preached in churches.

Got it.

Oh and yes, every time Pastor Sedra opens his Bible, someone, somewhere self harms or worse. Of course.

It’s weird that you think about sex when thinking about the LGBTQ+ community,’ a fourth commented on a clip from his ‘Christianity VS LGTQ Sex Religion’ sermon.

Good point. I don’t think about sexual orientations when I think about what it means that someone is lesbian or gay; I think about lima beans.

‘Being queer is not a religion. This whole ‘us vs them’ thing is completely made up by people like you. Do you have to call it a religion so you feel justified when you attack other humans like this? Since, to you, the only true religion is Christianity?’

Clearly, the anonymous commenter believes Christianity is not the only true religion — also an exclusive truth claim. Bigot.

Pro-Life

The pastor also repeatedly condemns abortion, with his wife Noleen seen happily posing in an ‘Abolish Abortion’ t-shirt.

Wait. What? No!

Not only is this preacher of the Bible pro a Biblical view of marriage, but of life as well?

And it gets worse. His wife not only wears a pro-life T-shirt — she wears it “happily”!

How dare she be happily dressed in anything but a Pride rainbow.

‘God is pro-life, the devil is pro-choice. God is pro-life, the devil is pro-abortion. The devil came to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus came for people to have life and life to the full!’ he said.

So God’s not into killing babies in the womb?

Sounds like pretty solid Biblical exegesis to me.

Will everyone like it or agree with it? Of course not.

And so they will likely congregate at Mardi Gras rather than at Echo Church. Each to their own place of worship.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Mr Sedra for comment.

Barely. The journalist sent Pastor Sedra a message on Instagram, which Pastor Sedra didn’t see until too late.

It’s not that the Daily Mail wasn’t committed to fair and balanced, it’s just that the Daily Mail wasn’t so committed as to try dialling the church’s phone number.

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Originally published at The James Macpherson Report.

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