A Scriptural Rebuke to Michael Cassidy's Excuse for His Actions

Michael Cassidy, the failed Mississippi state congressional candidate who traveled nearly a thousand miles to behead a Baphomet statue in the Iowa state Capitol, recently made a religious defense of his actions on X.

I would like to offer an exegetical counter:

• We are specifically instructed, as Christians, to “patiently endure” those who calumniate us and God.

  • And the Lord’s slave must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may give them repentance leading to the full knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.
    (2 Timothy 2:24-26)

  • For to this you have been called, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps, who did no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; who being reviled, was not reviling in return; while suffering, He was uttering no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously. Who Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that having died to sin, we might live to righteousness; by His wounds you were healed. For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
    (1 Peter 2:21-25)

• The apostle Paul, when in the Areopagus, did not destroy the idols to demons (1 Corinthians 10:20), but instead used one of the idols as a starting point to preach the gospel to pagans.

  • So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to inhabit all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His offspring.’ Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to suppose that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the craft and thought of man. Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now commanding men that everyone everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He determined, having furnished proof to all by raising Him from the dead.”
    (Acts 17:22-31)

• The apostle Paul also instructs us to live among nonbelievers in peace, even openly idolatrous ones, and to reserve our judgement for those within the church who claim the title Christian while walking in darkness.

  • I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people; I did not at all mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the greedy and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is a sexually immoral person, or greedy, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Are you not to judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God will judge. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.
    (1 Corinthians 5:9-13)

• Lastly, Paul, James and Peter all make a point that Christians should be known among believers and nonbelievers alike for their blameless conduct and peacemaking.

  • Bless those who persecute you; bless, and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep, by being of the same mind toward one another, not being haughty in mind, but associating with the humble. Do not be wise in your own mind. Never paying back evil for evil to anyone, respecting what is good in the sight of all men, if possible, so far as it depends on you, being at peace with all men, never taking your own revenge, beloved—instead leave room for the wrath of God. For it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
    (Romans 12:14-21)

  • Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good conduct his works in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not coming down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruits, without doubting, without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
    (James 3:13-18)

  • Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul, by keeping your conduct excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good works, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.
    (1 Peter 2:11-12)

I ask Cassidy, when Christ returns will the satanists who placed that statue in the Capitol recount your “good works” towards them, or will they tell the story of the failed politician who traveled across the country to publicly destroy an idol made of pool noodles? Will they tell of how, on the same day, a GiveSendGo fundraiser for your legal defense was started with a vague beneficiary of excess funds that sounds a lot like your lawyer’s side project—a lawyer that, given how quickly he had a prepared statement from you, probably knew you before you defaced the statue?