Christian Lives founder Charlie Bakhos speaks after prayer vigil against pro-LGBTQI+ protest

The man who organised a prayer vigil outside a church that ended in chaos and violence has defended the actions of his group.

Exclusive: The man who organised a prayer vigil outside a church in Sydney’s south west against a protest by a pro-LGBTQI+ group before it erupted into chaos has spoken out following the incident.

More than 600 people converged on St Michael’s Belfield on Tuesday night ahead of a talk scheduled to be given at the church by One Nation Leader Mark Latham on religious freedom and parental rights.

Christian Lives founder Charlie Bakhos said his group – which boasts 26,000 members – had organised to pray the rosary on church grounds.

The riot squad was called after hundreds turned up to protest outside St Michael’s Church in Belfield. Picture: Facebook

The protest descended into chaos. Picture: Facebook

But Mr Bakhos said he himself was surprised when hundreds of people from other faiths turned up to the event when word spread members of the Community Action for Rainbow Rights (CARR) group staged a protest ahead of Mr Latham’s talk.

“We don’t condone violence and that’s not what we organised,” Mr Bakhos told News Corp.

“A big group of us did pray, but at the end of the day you can’t control everyone else’s reactions,” he said.

“Last night showed that this is much bigger than Christian Lives Matter. More than 80 per cent of people I’ve never seen in and some people came to pray and others came to protect the church.

“There were Muslims, nonbelievers and Christians who came together …,” Mr Bakhos said.

Sydney man Charlie Bakhos says he was surprised when hundreds of people from other faiths turned up to the event.

Tensions have been rising over the past few weeks since queer comedian Reuben Kaye made a sexual joke mocking the Christian faith on The Project.

Nearly 41,000 Australians have signed a change.org petition calling on the network to axe The Project.

Leaders from both the Christian and Muslim faith also voiced their outrage and wrote letters to Channel 10 bosses over its airing of the controversial joke.

Joseph Charbel, who attended Tuesday night’s protest, said while he does not condone violence questioned whether the CARR protesters would have done the same thing outside a Mosque or Synagogue.

“These activists wouldn’t dare go to a Mosque and Synagogue, yet they expected us to sit there and let them come into our own backyard and not do anything,” Mr Charbel said.

“When word got around on social media about the unauthorised protest by CARR everyone got together to defend the church,” he said.

“You can’t incite fear and threats towards us and expect people not to defend, especially when we didn’t know how many would be coming from their side.”

Trans rights group Community Action for Rainbow Rights organised an event to protest Mark Latham’s speech. Picture: Facebook

A mother of three, who didn’t wish to be named, said she feared attending the talk after hearing there would be members of the CARR group outside the church.

“When we saw the Facebook posts by the group that were encouraging each other to attend Belfield, a lot of women and children were worried,” the woman said.

“Men came out in big numbers because they wanted to protect and defend the church just like any other group would defend their safe space or religious place of worship.

“But all of this now concerns us that there will be future attacks on the church.”

Cameraman Chris De Bruyne, who was filmed being pushed to the ground, also spoke out in defence of the Christians.

“Thanks for everyone’s care. Without Christian and others who stepped in to physically defend me from the mob I would have been injured seriously,” he said.

Two people were charged after the protest including a 34-year-old man who was charged with encourage the commission of crimes, while a 41-year-old man was also charged with common assault and given a court attendance notice.

It comes as thousands of people rallied at Hyde Park last Saturday for a protest organised by a Muslim group to “protect our kids” against the “moral decay of society,” while LGBTQI+ activists staged a counter-protest.