Mark Latham got cancelled last night by a group that came out to demonstrate in support of him. An election meeting at St. Michaels Church in Belfield, in inner southwestern Sydney, was closed by the police after 500 back-clad counter-demonstrators surrounded a tiny group of LGBTQIA protestors.
Police and the small protest group were attacked, according to Police Media. “During the event, it is alleged a number of glass bottles and other projectiles were thrown at police,” the police report says.
“Police will allege a projectile that was thrown struck a male constable causing an injury to his hand. He was taken to Canterbury Hospital in a stable condition.
“A 38-year-old man was pushed to the ground and assaulted.
“Additional police resources – including the Public Order and Riot Squad and Operational Support Group attended, after which the crowd began to disperse.
“A 34-year-old man was arrested and taken to Campsie Police Station and charged with encourage the commission of crimes.
“He was given conditional bail to appear before Bankstown Local Court on Tuesday, 11 April 2023.
“A 41-year-old man was arrested and charged with common assault. He was given a court attendance notice to appear before Bankstown Local Court on Tuesday, 30 May 2023.”
The black-clad demonstrators are followers of a group called Christian Lives Matter (CLM), led by a man named Charlie Bakhos.
As with other Christian activist groups, CLM believes that church leaders, in their case, the Catholic church, are not campaigning against the LGBTIQ as vigorously as they should.
CLM attacked the Sydney Catholic leadership for not protesting loudly about LGBTIQA events near St Mary’s Cathedral. More recently, a small group marched through Newtown in inner west Sydney in protest against World Pride.
This morning’s extensive media camera footage comes from a lone cameraperson who attends demonstrations using the social media handle Chriscoveries. CLM and other ultra-conservative groups have warmly welcomed his coverage in the past.
However, he was assaulted this time – the footage used on several TV channels of someone being surrounded by black-clad demonstators was from his live feed (see image above, or follow up twitter).
The protestors’ leaders have a Maronite Christian tinge. CLM chants the rosary during demonstrations, for example, while marching up King Street in Newtown, and raises money for the poor of Lebanon.
The group was founded in 2017 in the lead-up to the marriage postal survey. It has campaigned for George Pell, against drag queens and has been actively campaigning against Sydney World Pride.
CLM targeted the rainbow-coloured steps of Pitt Street Uniting church. They confronted church members who tried to intervene as CLM painted over the striped stairs.
CLM members made up most of a crowd of 450 in a anti-LGBTQIA rally that attempted to break through police lines on 18 March according to the progressive site Red Flag. Protesters from the LGBTQIA group Community Action for Rainbow Rights told the Sydney Morning Herald “They were attacking us with bottles, rocks, all sorts of things. They were punching girls.”
The intent at the March 18 rally was to attack an LGBTQIA counter-protest. (There appears to be no Police Media release on this protest.)
There appears to be an emerging pattern in CLM-led protesting, with numbers attempting to get to the LGBTQIA counter-protestors through police lines.
Church leaders, especially from the Catholic Church, need to distance themselves from the violence. CLM needs to retreat from violence and respect police lines.
Observations from The Other Cheek
- Two groups engaged in demonstrations and counter-demonstrations, recall the left Anti-Nazi League and the UK far-right British National Party counter-protesting each other in the late seventies. It served to swell the numbers of each group and was an early example of polarisation.
- The CLM group, as far as the Other Cheek is aware, is not associated with the Nazi group that took part in Victorian MP Moira Deeming’s anti-trans demonstration. They wear the same colour clothes; hopefully they are more distant in ideas.
- The two groups in the Sydney demonstrations might sadly reflect the “Red Rooster line’ that marks a division in Sydney between the global progressive city and a the parts of Sydney that voted “no” in the same-sex marriage postal survey. The groups involved tend to be concentrated on either side of the line.
- Groups like CLM and the attempt by One Nation to gain votes from conservative Christians represent a divorce between some Christians and the church. The primary voice for Christians should not be a political party or a protest group but the church. In the past, Christians have been slow to distance themselves from the fringe right who seek to colonise the church.
Image: “Chriscovries” videos himself surrounded
Updated: to include details on the stack on the LGBTQIA protestors.
One thing that is worth understanding is that Chriscoveries usually covers protests in Sydney, especially where there are protests and counter-protests. Up until this point, usually the counter-protest is smaller and is harassed by the larger protest itself. He has been harassed by largely Queer, Marxist and Socialist protesters as well as inappropriate handling of his reporting by NSW Police. But as he said in his follow up video “Live Post Protest Attack: I’m OK”, that unless certain CLM members stepped in (as we see in the video) he would have been seriously harmed. Those leftist protesters previously wanted to throw Chris on the ground, the CLM actually did. He mentioned that he had not experienced this type of violence since he started documenting protests.
A few years ago, I was worried that nationalist and violent groups would use Jesus’ name to promote violence. That died down over the past few years, or at least considered that to be a problem somewhere else in the world. But now again I’m worried about the future of the church if we do not understand the use of love and non-violence against Satan’s schemes that we’ll be again in a similar position of confusion that many Christians/Exevangelicals are in elsewhere in the world (like in the States).
Nathan Campbell’s experience (in general) is also telling: https://st-eutychus.com/2023/on-christian-terrorism/
I’m following up on this, Chriscoveries did also say that St. Michaels Church Parishners did take care of him and other victims after the protest ended and healed wounds from pepper spray as well as replaced his phone. That’s what we should be doing.
Which of the “Christian” candidates is not running on a platform of prejudice?