Earlier, this month an Australian businessman, Andrew Thorburn, was appointed president of the Essendon Football Club, a successful professional rugby-rules football club, based in Melbourne.

The very next day, he was forced to resign not by anything he said or did, but after it came to light that he was also chair of the City on a Hill, an evangelical Anglican church in that city.

After stories surfaced on how the church’s pastor had preached a sermon nine years earlier revealing his disapproval of sex outside of marriage, abortion or homosexuality, a left-wing hateful mob rose up demanding Thorburn’s dismissal.

It was technically guilt by association because though Thorburn had never personally expressed those views, he was guilty because the pastor of the church he attended did.

There is no room for dissenting opinions in the new progressive cult trying to dominate society.

In an article for Evangelical Focus, David Robertson pointed to a headline by the Herald Sun, that read, “Essendon’s chief executive Andrew Thorburn has stepped down after shock link to church was revealed.”

As Robertson noted The Hearld Sun was not shocked about Thorburn’s connection to a drug lord or a strip club, but rather a church.

Within a matter of hours, Thorburn was forced to choose between his faith and an AU$850,000-a-year job. Thorburn picked God.

In a statement, Thorburn said it is “clear to me that my personal Christian faith is not tolerated or permitted in the public square, at least by some and perhaps by many.”

He added that he has received hundreds of messages from others across Australia who are now equally concerned that they may lose their jobs because of their personal religious beliefs, even though the country supposedly holds to ‘freedom of religion.

Thorburn is concerned that a dangerous precedent has been set not only for Christians in Australia but even others like Muslims, who can be treated as second-class citizens because of their beliefs.

And many began to point to the obvious hypocrisy of the football club. In an article, for Evangelical Focus, David Robertson pointed to an article by The Age, that wrote:

“Thorburn’s personal beliefs could upset the Bombers’ AFLW side, which preaches diversity and inclusiveness.”

As Robertson wryly noted, “They [the football club] ‘preach’ diversity and inclusion. They preach it, but they don’t practise it.”

In an interview with News.com.au, Federal opposition leader Peter Dutton stated that Thorburn’s resignation reminded him of what was happening in Australia during the 1950s, when people were openly discriminated against because of their faith.

“You had ads for jobs,” Dutton said, “which expressly said, you know, ‘Catholics and Jews need not apply’”.

Joel Agius, who writes for The Spectator, believes this incident may mark a change in Australian culture opening the door for more blatant persecution of Christians.

In his article, ‘A New Age of Christian Persecution,’ Agius writes that the persecution taking place in Australia and the West will not be violent like we see in other countries.

“Obviously, no one in Australia is being murdered for their faith in God,” Agius said. “But there is another type of persecution that is occurring, and this one seems to be ramping up into something that could easily lead to dire repercussions for the Christian community in this nation.”

Agius also said the incident reveals the spiteful anti-Christian ruminating in society because when Muslims hold similar beliefs they receive a pass from the mainstream media and woke mob.

“There is actually an AFLW player by the name of Haneen Zrieka who is sitting out ‘Pride Round’ due to her religious beliefs as a Muslim,” Agius wrote. “But those same people screeching about Andrew Thorburn’s beliefs are deathly quiet on her behaviour.”

So it would seem that the issue is not really Thorburn’s position on issues of morality, but rather the fact he is a born-again Christian.

Jesus warned His disciples, that they will be hated not because of what they believed, but ultimately due to their association with Christ (Matthew 10:22).

READ: Andrew Thorburn says ousting as Essendon CEO over Christian faith ‘dangerous’ AND In Australia, Christians are having to choose between their church or their job AND A new age of Christian persecution