Family First’s National Director Lyle Shelton interviewed Pastor Andrew Sedra of Echo Church in southwest Sydney on his podcast and found it hard to rein his interviewee in from making some wild accusations. Lyle Shelton would have already known that there are Christians further right than he, who entertain conspiracy theories. The Other Cheek thinks that Shelton simply chose the wrong one to interview. An editorial mistake – and of course The Other Cheek is aware this might be a case of sitting in a glass house and throwing stones.
Pastor Sedra’s experience of shariah law in Egypt and a conviction that the same is about to happen in Australia cause him to attack author and historian John Dickson and Alphacrucis College as liberal. The Other Cheek strongly rejects these comments – and is reporting them as untrue allegations. This interview reveals what pastor Andrew Sedra really thinks. On reflection, perhaps we should thank Lyle Shelton for giving Sedra enough rope; maybe it was a masterclass in gentle interviewing. The Other Cheek respects Sedra’s testimony of how tough it was for his family in Egypt, and even some of his caution about Islamists in Australia, but not his wilder prophecy. And once again we note that his accusation of LGBT activists attacking his house is yet to be tested in court.
Sedra on Egypt – he has a real history of having been persecuted: “I am a Sharia law survivor. My family immigrated to Australia in 2007 as religious refugees because the religion of peace, moderate Islam, not radical Islam, wanted to kill and butcher my dad and kidnap us and behave us because my dad was preaching the gospel and converting Muslims. So we ended up escaping to Thailand. We lived there until the Lord opened the door for us to come to Australia as religious refugees…
“In Egypt, it’s illegal to preach and proclaim the word of the Lord. In Egypt, it’s illegal to build a church that’s not approved by the city. In Egypt it’s illegal to ever proclaim the supremacy of Christ outside of the four walls of church. In Egypt it’s illegal to invite any person that’s a Muslim to church, to give a Bible to a Muslim person to church, to preach a Bible to any Muslim to church. That is Sharia law, and that is the most moderate form of Sharia law. So in Sharia law , you have apostasy laws and you have blasphemy laws. That’s in every single Muslim nation of the whole entire world, 54 of them; that is why Islam is the biggest existential threat to Australia, America, and the West.”
But Sedra lacks perspective on Alphacrucis and makes an untrue allegation: Sedra describes his family becoming religious refugees after his father’s ministry led Muslims to Christ. After his family arrived in Australia via Thailand, Andrew Sedra went on to study at uni, then Bible college.
“I’m a dropout. I did engineering, civil engineering in University for three to four years, and then God called me to ministry. So I went and did Bible college and then it was very liberal. So I was like, ‘I’m out.'”
Shelton asks: “Where did you go to Bible college?”
Sedra: “Alphacrucis.”
Shelton: “Alphacrucis? Okay. They might dispute that, but let’s let that one go through to the keeper.”
Sedra: “They are too liberal for me.”
Shelton redirects the conversation back to Islam: “Okay. So Western Sydney, where you live and where Echo Church is, has got a massive Muslim population. Our census will probably show a million Muslims in Australia, about 4% of the population.”
Sedra: “Which is a very, very, very, very dangerous place. We’re now heading towards the Islamic phase of domination. So first step is immigration. Step number two is infiltration. Number three is domination. We’re going to be between infiltration and domination, and by 9% end up with the Islamic Revolution, which is happening in France at the moment. So we’re heading towards a lot of violence in this country. Whether people like it or not…”
Sedra says that Christians in Australia are too soft.
“Most Christians in Australia have been liberalised by the spirit of the age, by the wisdom of the age, and by the institution. That’s why I dropped out of [indistinct] College. They worship love. The mark of the gospel Jesus is the way the truth and the life. Jesus said, for this purpose, I was born to testify for the truth.”
Sedra on “Communist” Christians: “We need to address the issue that most Christians and churches in Australia are accidental communists, the separation between church and state, the church, and speak about politics, that is fundamentally. So I have to go to the depth of the ocean to see why a church in Australia believes that.
Shelton: That is chapter three of my book, actually.
Sedra: “So what happened in Australia is that the Marxists have actually taken over all, if not most of institutions.”
Shelton: “That is true.”
Sedra: “So most pastors in Australia are communists accidentally. They’re communists.”
At this stage Shelton is tolerating Sedra’s wilder comments. He would have been wise, in the Other Cheek’s opinion, to push back earlier. But after discussing an alleged attack on Sedra’s home by “LGBT Activists” and the firebombing of the ACL headquarters in Canberra when Shelton was the managing director, Sedra attacks John Dickson – and then Shelton pushes back.
The attack on Dickson: “Yeah, it’s sad, but honestly, what I see in Australia is that the Christians don’t love their country. It’s sad. I’m defending a country I wasn’t even born in. And I’m telling them, ‘You have a very good country. You need to take care of it. You need to love it. You need to be a Christian patriot.’ The Bible says [in] Jeremiah, ‘…another plan I have for you.’ Everybody likes that verse. Nobody likes the part before it says, ‘Seek the welfare of the nation that the Lord has exiled you to, for its welfare will determine your welfare.’ I care about Australia because I grew up in a world where you couldn’t preach the gospel; you couldn’t proclaim the gospel. There was this liberal John Dickson guy, a theologian; he’s a Christian. He was saying, ‘Oh, there’s no persecution in Australia.’ There was an article about the persecution of Christians by the gays, and he commented, ‘This is no persecution.’
“This was lowering down the persecution Middle East. Well, I’m from the Middle East, bro. You are so academic, you don’t even know what the hell is happening. So I’m here to tell you Australia is becoming Egypt.”
Shelton: “I’ve met John Dickson too, by the way.”
Sedra: “He is a joke.”
Shelton: “Well, I like John.”
Sedra: “I don’t even know if he’s a Christian.”
Shelton: “No, he’s a Christian. I like John.”
Sedra: “Who defends the gay rights more than Christians?”
Shelton: “Again, I’m not here to defend John. I’ve had my disagreements with him over the years, but –
Sedra: “Well, I have a proposal. If you’re working for the enemy, I’m not sure what kingdom you’re from. There’s going to have to come a point where you’re going to have to have him pick a side. And there’s a problem in the Christian church across Australia. It’s called apostasy.”
Shelton: I really liked John’s book, Humilitas, many years ago. I think, look, John’s great.
Sedra: Well, I love Tim Keller. I grew up listening to him. The problem with Tim Keller is that he made New York Muslim… If your country, Mr John Dickon, and God bless Tim Keller, I grew up, is becoming more Muslim and you say you’re Christian, I have a problem with you. I have a big, massive problem that you are defending Islamic immigration when Christian are getting killed every single week. The current pope is a heretic.”
Shelton: Jeez, now you’ve really upset all of my audience.
The fact is that many nations that were once Christian have become Islamic. And that not by evangelism, but by subversion and violence.
Another fact is that today’s Church is largely impotent and does not speak up against evil using the word of God. If every Christian did speak up and was willing to suffer for Christ’s sake, the nation would not be in such a sad state. But a person who does not suffer for Christ’s sake is not a Christian. “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake” Phi 1:29 There are far too many Christians who want to be seen to be good by men rather than God. Far too many ministers have the gall to teach when they have not even read the Bible from cover to cover even once. And all Pope’s are heretical. Roman Catholicism is not Christianity.