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Nation First exposes the absurd campaign to silence a Christian preacher for proclaiming repentance and faith inside a Christian school.

A Christian preacher walked into a Christian school, opened the words of Jesus, and told students to repent and believe.

Naturally, modern Australia treated this as a scandal.

Jonathan Vickers, a ministry trainee at St Lucia Bible Church, addressed Year 7 and 8 students during chapel at St Peters Lutheran College in Indooroopilly on 27 August.

Media reports claimed students had effectively been warned that gay people, and those who waited too long to become Christians, could go to hell.

There is just one rather important problem with that story.

Christian School Chapel Receives Christian Sermon

According to St Lucia Bible Church, homosexuality was not mentioned. No sexual identity was singled out. Vickers’ message concerned Jesus’ parable of the heavenly banquet in Luke 14:15–24, where everyone is invited but not everyone accepts.

All the students were urged to repent of their sins and put their faith in Jesus Christ.

That is Christianity.

It is not homophobia, vilification, or psychological abuse. It is the Christian gospel delivered inside a school that publicly calls itself Christian.

Vickers has said his message was taken out of context.

“I did not target any particular group or sexuality,” he explained. “But all students were urged to repent of their sins and put their faith in Jesus.”

He also pointed out the obvious:

“St Peters advertises very clearly that they are a Christ-centred community, so a talk based on Jesus’ words should be unremarkable.”

He is absolutely right.

But the defence of Vickers does not depend upon homosexuality being absent from his sermon.

Apologising for Preaching Biblical Christianity?

Even if he had explicitly preached that homosexual acts are sinful, and that those who wilfully persist in such sin without repentance face eternal judgment, he would still have been teaching Christianity.

Scripture is not ambiguous about homosexual conduct. It is sinful. Those who refuse to repent of serious sin place their souls in danger. That is basic Christian doctrine, whether modern parents, journalists, politicians, or school administrators like hearing it or not.

Historic Christianity teaches that every human being is a sinner, that sin separates humanity from God, that judgment is real, and that salvation is found through Jesus Christ. The call to repentance is not an optional extra that can be removed whenever somebody feels uncomfortable. It stands at the centre of the Gospel.

Without sin, repentance means nothing. Without judgment, salvation means nothing. Without the Cross, Christianity becomes little more than a school wellbeing program decorated with religious language.

Yet St Peters responded to complaints by sending three messages to parents and distancing itself from aspects of the presentation. College leaders referred to “homophobic language, discrimination, vilification or the demeaning of another person”, despite the church’s categorical statement that homosexuality was never mentioned.

Head of College Tim Kotzur said the college regretted that some comments had caused concern. He said the Christian faith should not be communicated through “fear or shame” and announced a review of the chapel service and the process for selecting external speakers.

There is a vast difference between shaming someone and warning that sin has eternal consequences.

Jesus Christ spoke repeatedly about judgment, repentance, and hell. These teachings did not originate with Jonathan Vickers, the religious Right, or some American fundamentalist pressure group. They came from Christ himself.

A Christian school cannot retain the comforting parts of his teaching while discarding everything that might disturb a modern audience.

Christian love does not consist of assuring people that every desire is good and every choice is harmless. Sometimes love requires a warning. A doctor who refuses to deliver an uncomfortable diagnosis is not compassionate. He is negligent.

St Peters should understand this better than most institutions. It acknowledges that human beings are “self-centred and broken” and cannot heal themselves at the deepest level. It also says the partnership between the college and families works best when the values of the home and the college are aligned. What are those values? Its own promotional material says the college is shaped by “strong Christian values” in its “Lutheran expression”.

Given their embrace of Martin Luther, it’s interesting that the school has tried its darnedest to disassociate with Vickers and his (alleged) “homophobic” sermon.

That’s because in his Lectures on Genesis, Martin Luther famously wrote:

“The vice of the Sodomites is an unparalleled enormity. It departs from the natural passion and desire, planted into nature by God, according to which the male has a passionate desire for the female. Sodomy craves what is entirely contrary to nature. Whence comes this perversion? Without a doubt it comes from the devil.”

Perhaps St Peters ought to disassociate from Martin Luther as well. But, again, such a view doesn’t originate with Luther. Its origins are found in traditional Christian teaching and biblical ethics. And, as St Peters’ very own newsletter reminded parents late last year, “Christians have the Bible to remind us how to live.”

And what of these outraged parents who decided to send their children to a Christian school?

If mums and dads want the facilities, academic reputation, sporting programs, and social status of a Christian school for their children, but erupt whenever they encounter actual Christian doctrine, they are not seeking a Christian education. They are purchasing an expensive secular education with a chapel attached.

They want Christianity as branding. They want pleasant songs, vague encouragement, community service, and reassuring talk about kindness. They do not want repentance, moral discipline, judgment, conversion, or the authority of Scripture.

They want the wrapping without what is inside it.

Parents who find biblical Christianity intolerable have no shortage of alternatives. Queensland operates an enormous state education system, while numerous independent schools will gladly provide an education shaped by secular and progressive values.

Those parents should select a school that reflects what they actually believe, rather than demanding that a Christian institution abandon its own beliefs for their convenience.

Their departure would open places for Christian families who genuinely want their children formed in the faith. It would also make room for non-Christian families who knowingly choose a Christian education because they value its moral foundations and are prepared to hear what Christianity teaches.

Government Overreach

Queensland Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek called the reported incident “unacceptable”. Acting Premier Jarrod Bleijie declared that telling young students they would suffer eternally for being gay was “completely inappropriate”.

Their intervention was disgraceful, regardless of whether homosexuality was explicitly mentioned.

Politicians have no business chastising a Christian preacher for delivering orthodox Christian teaching during chapel at a Christian school.

If Vickers had actually preached that homosexual acts are sinful and that those who persist without repentance face hell, Langbroek and Bleijie would still have been wrong to condemn him.

They are entitled to reject Christian teaching personally. They are not entitled to rewrite Christianity, dictate what may be preached in a Christian chapel, or bully Christian institutions into adopting the moral doctrines of the sexual revolution.

It is particularly pathetic coming from two senior members of an ostensibly conservative LNP government.

Faced with a controversy over religious freedom and Christian doctrine, they did not defend the independence of a Christian institution. They did not defend the right of a preacher to proclaim the historic faith. They adopted the moral language of the activist Left and joined the public pile-on.

Would they rebuke an imam for teaching Islamic doctrine in an Islamic school? Would they condemn a rabbi for explaining Jewish teaching in a Jewish school Christian institutions, however, are apparently expected to apologise whenever Christianity collides with the reigning sexual ideology.

Media Mania

The media followed the usual script. A parent’s second-hand characterisation became a sensational claim that children had been told they would go to hell for being gay. The church’s denial and the universal nature of the message were pushed beneath the outrage.

But even if the media’s characterisation had been completely accurate, the central complaint would remain absurd.

A Christian preacher teaching Christian sexual morality and warning about eternal judgment inside a Christian chapel is doing precisely what a Christian preacher is supposed to do.

This is how the anti-Christian zeitgeist operates.

Christianity may exist as heritage, architecture, charitable work, or private sentiment. It may speak about love, provided love is stripped of truth. It may quote Jesus, provided it avoids the words that modern society finds uncomfortable.

But the moment a preacher speaks about sin, repentance, or judgment, the cries begin. Students have been “harmed”. Parents are “outraged”. Politicians demand action. Administrators announce a review.

The intention is clear. Christian preaching must be domesticated until it no longer challenges anyone, condemns anything, or demands repentance from anybody.

St Peters should not be reviewing how Jonathan Vickers was allowed to preach basic Christian principles in its chapel. It should be reviewing why its leaders panicked when he did. It should also review why parents from supposedly Christian families were outraged by a sermon calling students to repentance and faith, and whether those families would be better suited to an education that makes no claim to be Christian.

A Christian school that is ashamed of Christian teaching will not remain meaningfully Christian for long.

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Republished with thanks to Nation First. Image via Nation First.