Andrew Thorburn resigned as CEO of the Essendon football team in Australia less than 24 hours after taking on the new job due to widespread backlash over his other job: chairing a Christian church that promotes anti-LGBTQ, anti-abortion views. Those bigoted ideas stood in stark contrast to the more progressive values of the football club, and Thorburn couldn’t convince the public he had their best interests at heart.

Thorburn is the chairman of the all-male City on a Hill board. The church movement holds standard (and predictably hateful) conservative Christian views on cultural matters. It believes homosexuality is a sin, which is evident through a 2013 sermon titled, “Surviving Same Sex Attraction as a Christian.” It also says abortion is comparable to “concentration camps” during the Holocaust.

Even though Thorburn became the church’s board chairman after those sermons were delivered, and even though he’s not personally known for repeating those views, no one’s buying the idea that he’s oblivious to them. Of course he believes this shit. At no point has he ever said those views are wrong, and why would he? He can’t seriously act surprised when the conservative Christian church movement he leads is revealed to hold all the hateful views we’ve all come to associate with conservative Christian churches.

On the other hand, the Essendon Football Club (a.k.a. The Bombers), part of the Australian Football League, says it’s a “safe, inclusive, diverse and welcoming club for our staff, our players, our members, our fans, our partners and the wider community.” They can’t say that with a straight face when giving a promotion to someone whose church opposes those values.

While the club had no problem appointing a Christian to a leadership position, they couldn’t expect fans to continue supporting them when the guy in charge is on a mission to spread faith-based bigotry. ...