When asked about Michael Cassidy, the Christian who’s charged with a hate crime for destroying a satanic display on government property last December, John MacArthur said he “absolutely” backs the man’s actions.
During a recent Q&A session at MacArthur’s Grace Community Church in California, the pastor and Bible teacher said the Satanic Temple display itself was the true offense. Although Cassidy must face consequences for his actions, MacArthur added, what he did was “a noble stand [that] is almost biblical.”
As ChurchLeaders has reported, Cassidy toppled a representation of Baphomet in Iowa’s state capitol late last year. The mirror-covered ram’s head on a mannequin dressed in red was part of a holiday display in the building’s rotunda.
Cassidy, a military veteran and former candidate for state office in Mississippi, immediately turned himself in. His charges were upgraded to third-degree criminal mischief in violation of individual rights after county prosecutors said he “made statements…indicating he destroyed the property because of the victim’s religion.” Cassidy, who’s being charged under Iowa’s hate crime statutes, faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
John MacArthur on Resisting Satanism
At the Q&A, a woman brought up Cassidy’s case, asking MacArthur, “Would you deem his actions commendable? If so, should we as Christians openly resist the increasing promotion of Satanism?” She added, “I’m reminded of Gideon’s act of destroying the altar of Baal in the book of Judges.”
MacArthur responded, “You have to take the consequences if you do it, but that was a noble thing to do. That was something that [Cassidy] felt very deeply in his heart.” The pastor added, “What are they doing having an altar to Satan in a state public building? That is the offense. The offense isn’t that it was removed; the offense is that it was there. But it demonstrates where the culture is, that he gets punished, not the people who set it up.”
Describing how “the consequences have turned” against Cassidy, MacArthur said, “But we see this in a lot of things: that the people who are doing what is right are the ones being punished. That’s the nature of our society.”
Michael Cassidy Wanted To ‘Awaken Christians’
Cassidy destroyed the satanic display to “awaken Christians to the anti-Christian acts promoted by our government,” he said. “The world may tell Christians to submissively accept the legitimization of Satan, but none of the [country’s] founders would have considered government sanction of Satanic altars inside Capitol buildings as protected by the First Amendment.”
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He added, “Anti-Christian values have steadily been mainstreamed more and more in recent decades, and Christians have largely acted like the proverbial frog in the boiling pot of water.”
