Courage can be contagious. When a few brave individuals take a principled stance for what is right and what is true and what is important, it can greatly help embolden others who may have preferred to sit on the fence or not rock the boat. Backbones are stiffened when real courage is on display.
On these pages I have written about many heroes who have been willing to stand strong despite all the hatred, all the bullying, and all the abuse they get as a result. And so very often the hate and ugly attacks come from those who talk the most about the need for tolerance, acceptance and diversity.
The militant homosexual lobby has led the way here, making it clear that anyone who dares to take a different point of view will be subject to their venom and rage. I have experienced this myself far too often, and I know how painful and dreadful it can be.
But I have made a point to devote my life to standing for truth and challenging those forces which would undermine what so many of us care so greatly about. Thus I expect all the abuse and opposition. It may not be pleasant but it goes with the territory. However, I do not expect three humble mothers to be on the receiving end of so much bitterness, hatred and contempt.
In the past few days three brave mothers have experienced more abuse, bigotry and vitriol than most of us ever will. I refer to Cella White, Pansy Lai and Heidi McIvor who dared to speak out in a short television ad on why retaining marriage as it has always been is so vital.
The 30-second ad warns about the very real negative consequences of redefining marriage out of existence. Everything said in the ad is perfectly true, and I have documented all this for many years now. The ad in question can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqXLfp2sFHQ
But it is as if the three came out saying we should torture kittens to death for the fun of it, or some such thing. The ferocious backlash was instantaneous and overwhelming. The homosexual lobby mobilised right away to have one and all go on a search and destroy mission against the three.
So it has been a hellish week for these three. But can I say that these three champions are far more courageous and committed to standing for truth than most people I know. They are some of the bravest women I have known, and I wish we had many more like them.
The story of the ad and the abuse the three have been getting has been making the rounds in the press. One article devoted to this story opens as follows:
A mother and church pastor who appeared in a controversial advertisement against gay marriage have been viciously trolled online. Heidi McIvor and her husband, Julian, who are both active members of the City Builders church in Sale, Victoria, have been accused of being behind an advertisement in their local paper.
The ad, published last week, also took a stance against same-sex marriage. Comments on social media directed at the couple ranged from taunts towards the family to threats against their church, despite the McIvor’s claims they had nothing to do with the ad, The Australian reported.
‘I hope he hasn’t got children that have his DNA,’ one local posted to Facebook. ‘Let’s burn their church,’ wrote another.
The article continues:
Despite the public and angry response her husband received after merely printing a newspaper advertisement, not writing it, Ms McIvor is not concerned about the backlash she may receive for her participation in the Coalition for Marriage’s television ad.
She told The Australian she was happy to debate the issue with ‘anybody’ if they approached her regarding her appearance in the advertisement. But the church worship leader slammed people who took a stance against her without participating in a rational conversation.
‘What does worry me… is that it seems no one can put forward an alternative opinion about marriage without it descending into personal attacks and threats,’ she said.
The McIvor family are not the only ones to face backlash for their contribution to the same sex marriage debate.
Cella White, who appeared on the Coalition for Marriage’s television ad alongside Ms McIvor, has also faced public shaming, with the principal of her son’s school slamming her claims as lies. Ms White said during the commercial that her son had been told he could wear a dress to school if he felt like it. The mother-of-four had shared the story on a national scale previously, while appearing on an episode of Q&A early last year.
We used to live in a democracy where various points of view were allowed a polite hearing. But today there simply are certain things you just cannot say. You cannot say anything critical of the homosexual lobby, of the push to redefine marriage, or the need to protect our children from radical social engineering agendas.
All that seems to now be verboten. Thus I am so thankful that groups like the Coalition for Marriage exist, and that they are willing to take all the time and effort to produce ads like this. Is the ad perfect? Of course not. But let’s face some reality here.
Such ads are extremely expensive to produce, and we have had little time to devote to all this. The vote on homosexual marriage is coming up real quick. Yet sadly there have been plenty of Christian critics who have attacked the ad and those who made it. Sure, more ads would be nice and it would be good if other aspects of the debate could be covered.
But all this takes even more time and money – something our side is always quite short on. Thus I really have had enough of all those armchair critics and Christian leaders who sit back and take pot-shots at these three, the ad, and those who are fighting for God’s institutions of marriage and family the best they can.
These dime-a-dozen critics grieve me greatly to be honest. Just whose side are they on anyway? It is almost as if they prefer the other side. Maybe they should just produce their own ads if they so dislike what is now out there. Perhaps it is a case of put up or shut up.
There is an old Latin phrase that some of you may know: Athanasius Contra Mundum. It means “Athanasius Against the World”. It refers to the fourth century church father who bravely defended Christian truth as it was under ferocious attack.
Five times he was forced to go into exile from his church in Alexandria as he defended Christian orthodoxy. It really was a case of him against the world. These three women now know something about that. It really does seem like it is Heidi, Cella and Pansy against the world.
So please, please pray for these three courageous women and their families. They need all the prayer, help and support they can get. They are going through hell right now because of the rainbow hate squad. It seems that at least one of the three has already been forced to take down her Facebook page because of all the frenzied attacks.
Pray for the protection and safety of these three. Pray that they will continue to stand strong. And pray that the weak, cowardly and compromised church begins to wake up, get some Holy Ghost backbone, and join these three in one of the most important social, moral and spiritual battles of our time.
32 Replies to “Three Brave Mothers Against the World”
We must remember that the angels come into the kingdom of God and sort out the wheat from the chaff. The angels do not sort out the world. Disciples need to give up the way of compromise on this issue and stand upon the word of God, regardless.
Whenever pro-life, pro-family conservatives run a campaign, there’s always someone from within the ranks who feels compelled to play Devil’s Advocate & cause division. Perhaps one day they’ll look back at the contribution they made and see that the fruit of their ministry was only discouragement, disharmony and mistrust – and that’s not a legacy any Christian should leave behind. Bless you Bill.
Yes quite so Kathy. As I said, I expect non-believers to carry on this way, but when people who claim to be Christians sit around criticising those of us who are in trenches, it bothers me no end. And you would know all about these armchair critics Kathy. keep standing strong.
Hi Bill
I have been noticing something really, really disturbing on facebook over the last few months.
They are now Censoring and deleting peoples Comments / Posts if it doesn’t suit their ideologies or political agendas. The same sex marriage facebook pages are having comments deleted and peoples accounts are now being locked. They are abusing their power to censor freedom of speech. It will only get worse..
Andrew Bolt was right – This same sex marriage issue is really a Marxist agenda to control and brainwash the masses… This is very concerning
cheers
Andrew
Thanks Andrew. Yes it sure is a worry, and it has happened to me as well. It may be time for an alternative to FB!
Good on you Heidi, Cella and Pansy you did a tremendous job we are very proud of you and your uncompromising contributions – God doesn’t forget the works you do! Persecution is a badge of the highest honour, we only have to be careful when all men speak well of us because only then are we taking the easy road which is more often wide rather than narrow. For those ‘Christians’ who support same-sex marriage or have a go at these courageous women do us real Christians a favour and call yourself something else other than ‘Christian’ at least until you repent of your folly! Loving the posts Bill keep up the good work.
Andrew, its not just facebook – youtube is doing the same thing. I remember when pride month came around and youtube was highlighting an LGBT video and although the video did have lots of dislikes, youtube was deleting dislikes on it like crazy and people were pointing it out. The video in question is this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uem7QFp0uKY
‘Courage is contagious’ I’m sorry to say that a great many Australian Christians must have been immunized against it! We’ve got be prepared to stand and fight, we are at war! Now isn’t the time for navel-gazing contemplation of ‘if I don’t look, it isn’t really there’! ..”Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you.’ Be very careful, then how you live- not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” Ephesians 5:14-16.
Just viewed the TV ad in question it’s very respectful and reasonable and puts the concerns many have succinctly. Congratulations to those three brave mums
I applaud these women! I hope they know there are many like me, young and old within my sphere of influence. Thank you Bill for writing this article.
I would be very proud to have friends like these 3 ladies, as they are standing up for their rights which is everyone’s right to do without being critized by people who have no morel respect for the truth or Gods word, and I have noticed that F.B. deletes a lot of messages that speak against SSM, as they always say that they delete some messages that are not valid or something like that. And I often wonder what sort of messages they delete as we cannot see what their opinion is, and that’s not fair to the writer. I’m dead against SSM as it is completely against God’s word. God created Adam and saw that he needed a partner so he created Eve, NOT STEVE, to multiply the world, as you sure can’t multiply the world with women only or with men only. By having a relationship with the opposite sex you don’t easily get AIDS, HIV, and so many other diseases, that’s why SSM should never exist.
I had my account locked today after posting the Biblical prohibitions on homosexuality. Facebook are determined to shut down all opposing argument. The irony is that I posted it on the West End Uniting Church page as they are supporting homosexual marriage and Naturaly I pointed out their error.
Mark Wong I would sign the Defence petition except it doesn’t seem to like my email address!
“:A critic’s criticism remains the criticism of a critic”.,Heaven will be needed to help us all IF the vitriol of the SSM advocates ever becomes Law.
Australian Chinese in northwest Sydney would be thankful if Coalition For Marriage can spell Dr Pansy Lai’s name correctly in future screenings of the advertisement — it’s not “P. Li”.
Three way tie for Australian of the Year.
Oh!, the post Brexit like wailing from the left that will greet a successful No vote. I pray we get to see that.
Stella Morabito has some great posts on the importance of mothers and the private sphere in this war.
I agree with Sue McCracken that courage is contagious. When my pastor, Margaret Court, took a stand by quoting the Bible and came under such attack, I decided it was time I spoke out too and I joined the ACL and started sharing their posts on Fb. Thank you Bill for your courage in the face of persecution.
There is no way;
a. that a Christian can support a yes vote without denying God the father, Son and Holy Spirit
b. There is no way one can interpret the Bible honestly and say that it does not condemn homosexuality in both the Old and New Testament
c. We ought to co-relate what happened in Sodom, the punishment and Rev 21 8 which applies to the whole world
d. any preacher, cleric, teacher who teaches that homosexual marriage is ok is a false teacher.
Quite right Peter.
Hi Bill Meuhlenberg. Pastor Steve Cioccolanti of Discover Church Glen Waverley is currently at work to create a FB alternative. You may like to connect with him
Thanks Kelley.
I stand whole heartily with these Three Brave Mothers Against the World and with any others that desire to stand for the truth !
Evil can only be halted by those who are willing to take a stand for what is good and wholesome !
Mothers are only too right to voice their concerns about the present public tug-of-war over marriage: Better to speak up now, than be silent only to live the rest of one’s life feeling perpetually like a she-bear robbed of her cubs…
I read today that Facebook have 5000 employees specifically assigned to delete around 66 thousand comments a month! They rely mainly on people reporting the posts. They have 2 billion users worldwide.
So even if you simply post your personal views, or biblical views on gay marriage, or even an article which is not even hateful, but biblical, if someone reports it, they will most likely delete it. The same goes for Google, and you tube
There are so many people that post nasty and hateful comments against Christians, or Catholics, but many of these posts never seem to get deleted…
So much for freedom of speech..
Thanks Andrew. Yes I wrote about that alarming story here:
“Love is love” — what rubbish! The rage and hatred spewed out by the LGBTIQ dictators against these real women, with genuine marriages and natural children, aren’t fooling anyone.
The yes side are showing their true colours. They’re gutless.
Our Dr Pansy Lai is now being vilified in the Murdoch media:-
What is wrong with conversion therapy other than calling it “gay conversion therapy”? This is the proper Christian response to the scourge of homosexuality.
When the homosexuals were campaigning to decriminalise homosexual acts in Tasmania some years ago, Rodney Croome in response to comments that they had a hidden agenda, assured us that the only thing they wanted was decriminalisation, absolutely nothing more. We didn’t believe him then and we don’t believe what they say now, no matter how long and strong they protest.
The same sex marriage issue is only a shop-front to destroy the relevance of Christianity. Marriage is God’s idea – not mans. Changing the definition will not alter God’s mind.
We must remember that the angels come into the kingdom of God and sort out the wheat from the chaff. The angels do not sort out the world. Disciples need to give up the way of compromise on this issue and stand upon the word of God, regardless.
Whenever pro-life, pro-family conservatives run a campaign, there’s always someone from within the ranks who feels compelled to play Devil’s Advocate & cause division. Perhaps one day they’ll look back at the contribution they made and see that the fruit of their ministry was only discouragement, disharmony and mistrust – and that’s not a legacy any Christian should leave behind. Bless you Bill.
Yes quite so Kathy. As I said, I expect non-believers to carry on this way, but when people who claim to be Christians sit around criticising those of us who are in trenches, it bothers me no end. And you would know all about these armchair critics Kathy. keep standing strong.
Hi Bill
I have been noticing something really, really disturbing on facebook over the last few months.
They are now Censoring and deleting peoples Comments / Posts if it doesn’t suit their ideologies or political agendas. The same sex marriage facebook pages are having comments deleted and peoples accounts are now being locked. They are abusing their power to censor freedom of speech. It will only get worse..
Andrew Bolt was right – This same sex marriage issue is really a Marxist agenda to control and brainwash the masses… This is very concerning
cheers
Andrew
Thanks Andrew. Yes it sure is a worry, and it has happened to me as well. It may be time for an alternative to FB!
Good on you Heidi, Cella and Pansy you did a tremendous job we are very proud of you and your uncompromising contributions – God doesn’t forget the works you do! Persecution is a badge of the highest honour, we only have to be careful when all men speak well of us because only then are we taking the easy road which is more often wide rather than narrow. For those ‘Christians’ who support same-sex marriage or have a go at these courageous women do us real Christians a favour and call yourself something else other than ‘Christian’ at least until you repent of your folly! Loving the posts Bill keep up the good work.
Andrew, its not just facebook – youtube is doing the same thing. I remember when pride month came around and youtube was highlighting an LGBT video and although the video did have lots of dislikes, youtube was deleting dislikes on it like crazy and people were pointing it out. The video in question is this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uem7QFp0uKY
‘Courage is contagious’ I’m sorry to say that a great many Australian Christians must have been immunized against it! We’ve got be prepared to stand and fight, we are at war! Now isn’t the time for navel-gazing contemplation of ‘if I don’t look, it isn’t really there’! ..”Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you.’ Be very careful, then how you live- not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” Ephesians 5:14-16.
Just viewed the TV ad in question it’s very respectful and reasonable and puts the concerns many have succinctly. Congratulations to those three brave mums
I applaud these women! I hope they know there are many like me, young and old within my sphere of influence. Thank you Bill for writing this article.
Speaking about taking a stand:
http://bernardgaynor.com.au/petition-cease-defence-support-sex-marriage-campaign/
Also:
https://www.conservatives.org.au/voteno
I would be very proud to have friends like these 3 ladies, as they are standing up for their rights which is everyone’s right to do without being critized by people who have no morel respect for the truth or Gods word, and I have noticed that F.B. deletes a lot of messages that speak against SSM, as they always say that they delete some messages that are not valid or something like that. And I often wonder what sort of messages they delete as we cannot see what their opinion is, and that’s not fair to the writer. I’m dead against SSM as it is completely against God’s word. God created Adam and saw that he needed a partner so he created Eve, NOT STEVE, to multiply the world, as you sure can’t multiply the world with women only or with men only. By having a relationship with the opposite sex you don’t easily get AIDS, HIV, and so many other diseases, that’s why SSM should never exist.
I had my account locked today after posting the Biblical prohibitions on homosexuality. Facebook are determined to shut down all opposing argument. The irony is that I posted it on the West End Uniting Church page as they are supporting homosexual marriage and Naturaly I pointed out their error.
Mark Wong I would sign the Defence petition except it doesn’t seem to like my email address!
“:A critic’s criticism remains the criticism of a critic”.,Heaven will be needed to help us all IF the vitriol of the SSM advocates ever becomes Law.
Australian Chinese in northwest Sydney would be thankful if Coalition For Marriage can spell Dr Pansy Lai’s name correctly in future screenings of the advertisement — it’s not “P. Li”.
Three way tie for Australian of the Year.
Oh!, the post Brexit like wailing from the left that will greet a successful No vote. I pray we get to see that.
Stella Morabito has some great posts on the importance of mothers and the private sphere in this war.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/stella-morabito-traditional-mothers-are-the-true-subversives-thats-why-the-state-wants-to-gag-them/ and
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/stella-morabito-traditional-mothers-are-the-true-subversives-thats-why-the-state-wants-to-gag-them/
I agree with Sue McCracken that courage is contagious. When my pastor, Margaret Court, took a stand by quoting the Bible and came under such attack, I decided it was time I spoke out too and I joined the ACL and started sharing their posts on Fb. Thank you Bill for your courage in the face of persecution.
There is no way;
a. that a Christian can support a yes vote without denying God the father, Son and Holy Spirit
b. There is no way one can interpret the Bible honestly and say that it does not condemn homosexuality in both the Old and New Testament
c. We ought to co-relate what happened in Sodom, the punishment and Rev 21 8 which applies to the whole world
d. any preacher, cleric, teacher who teaches that homosexual marriage is ok is a false teacher.
Quite right Peter.
Hi Bill Meuhlenberg. Pastor Steve Cioccolanti of Discover Church Glen Waverley is currently at work to create a FB alternative. You may like to connect with him
Thanks Kelley.
I stand whole heartily with these Three Brave Mothers Against the World and with any others that desire to stand for the truth !
Evil can only be halted by those who are willing to take a stand for what is good and wholesome !
Mothers are only too right to voice their concerns about the present public tug-of-war over marriage: Better to speak up now, than be silent only to live the rest of one’s life feeling perpetually like a she-bear robbed of her cubs…
I read today that Facebook have 5000 employees specifically assigned to delete around 66 thousand comments a month! They rely mainly on people reporting the posts. They have 2 billion users worldwide.
So even if you simply post your personal views, or biblical views on gay marriage, or even an article which is not even hateful, but biblical, if someone reports it, they will most likely delete it. The same goes for Google, and you tube
There are so many people that post nasty and hateful comments against Christians, or Catholics, but many of these posts never seem to get deleted…
So much for freedom of speech..
Thanks Andrew. Yes I wrote about that alarming story here:
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2017/07/02/censorship-west-attack-freedom-speech/
“Love is love” — what rubbish! The rage and hatred spewed out by the LGBTIQ dictators against these real women, with genuine marriages and natural children, aren’t fooling anyone.
The yes side are showing their true colours. They’re gutless.
Our Dr Pansy Lai is now being vilified in the Murdoch media:-
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/gay-marriage/anti-samesex-marriage-campaigner-pansy-lai-promotes-conversion-therapy/news-story/19a06432ae2887daa903e4be3566c2fa
What is wrong with conversion therapy other than calling it “gay conversion therapy”? This is the proper Christian response to the scourge of homosexuality.
Even Labor Party is not 100% against the therapy:- http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/gay-cures-nixed-for-kids-but-not-shut-down-under-compromise-proposal-20170724-gxhjq5.html
When the homosexuals were campaigning to decriminalise homosexual acts in Tasmania some years ago, Rodney Croome in response to comments that they had a hidden agenda, assured us that the only thing they wanted was decriminalisation, absolutely nothing more. We didn’t believe him then and we don’t believe what they say now, no matter how long and strong they protest.
The same sex marriage issue is only a shop-front to destroy the relevance of Christianity. Marriage is God’s idea – not mans. Changing the definition will not alter God’s mind.