Mars Hill Church before attack

Ground Zero of the Culture Wars is in SE Portland at Mars Hill Church.  The church has been a target of ridicule by Portland radicals before, but never vandalism that I’m aware of.

Early Tuesday morning neighbors reported seeing people dressed in black hurling rocks at the church. When the sun rose they could see at least nine  windows smashed–including two of the old stained glass ones that had been there for decades.  An email sent to KOINLocal6 said a radical gay group calling themselves “AngryQueers@” took responsibility for the attack. In the email they claimed it was a response to the church’s stance on marriage.

In an email to KOIN, a reported member of the group said “Mars Hill is notoriously anti-gay and anti-woman.” The sender took issue with Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill’s head pastor, saying Driscoll has said women need to be subservient to their husbands and that gay people are a cancer. Members of this southeast Portland church deny these claims.

So now churches can expect violence if they don’t shut up about traditional marriage? How tolerant of you. This is what happens when you introduce laws criminalizing ‘thoughts.’ If you aren’t politically correct you’ll be hushed. If you don’t stop preaching your political incorrectness–the gospel– we’ll physically shut you up. Or we’ll pass laws criminalizing your beliefs.

This is happening in Canada, Europe and now in Portland. Welcome to the Terrordome, everybody.

We tried to talk to the folks at Mars Hill Church for the program yesterday but no one was available to talk on the air. They sent out a statement which read in part,

“Our pastors in Portland have made many efforts to build relationships with the homosexual community in Portland,” Dean said. “Even though they chose to destroy our property and scare away people trying to worship Jesus, we wish them no harm.”

Screen Cap from KOINLocal6 Video

Once again the situation points up that Portland–one of the “least churched” cities in the country–seems to welcome only the misanthropes. These bigots will tolerate naked bike riders, gay “pride” parades on Father’s Day and  Occupy anarchists, but apparently there’s simply not enough tolerance that extends to God and His Church. Those Portlanders don’t count, apparently.

Mayor Sam Adams is called on to repudiate this attack by “AngryQueers@.” The folks over at the gay rights organization (BRO) also have remained silent. One bright note, however. Some members of the Q[ueer] Center came to help the church clean up. 

The radical gays in Portland don’t like the church’s stance on marriage which is explained by a Mars Hill pastor:

“We believe there is a difference between marriage and civil union. ‘Marriage’ is a religious term and service for what happens, more so than a civil union. Politics has muddied the water for the conversation by making it a marriage issue. Politically it is a civil-union issue. At Mars Hill we believe that marriage (as a religious term) is between a man and a woman. We are not saying this to influence what political leaders decide, but to describe how we approach ‘marriage’ based on the Bible.”

Apparently that mainstream idea–marriage being between a man and a woman –is so heretical to the gospel of the radical gay community in Portland that they took action Tuesday and committed a hate crime.
Yes, that’s right: a hate crime. Let’s see if the City of Debauchery that considers any assault on gays a hate crime will give equal treatment to the rest of us.