Facebook refuses to bring in crucifix emoji after Christian campaigners complain about Pride flag

Christian evangelicals are not happy about the new Pride reaction emoji

Christian evangelicals are angry about Facebook's support for LGBT Pride month (AP)

Facebook has refused to cave in to demands by Christian evangelicals to create a cross “reaction” emoji.

Campaigners are particularly incensed at the lack of a Christ-related miniature symbol after a Pride flag was added to the social media giant's pictorial lexicon last month.

Facebook introduced the rainbow-coloured reaction emoji to mark LGBT Pride month on 9 June and “celebrate love and diversity”.

But on 24 June, Hikmat Hanna posted an image asking for a cross reaction emoji as well, which was then shared by evangelist Joshua Feuerstein to his two million followers.

The post has now been shared over 9,000 times and gathered over 28,000 “reactions” - including over 3,000 rainbow flags.

Some users wrote supportive comments on the post, saying: “You can’t cheat nature. God cannot create people of the same sex to ever fall in love with one another. He can’t.”

Another said: “People took a symbol like the rainbow which means beauty and a non-destructive action and turned it into a destructive sinful symbol.”

But others defended the icon, with one commentator saying they should “stop feeling persecuted” because “by that logic there should be one for Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and all other religions”.

Another said: “There's more than one religion. Your lack of belief in the others does not make yours "true" by default. May Thor be with you.”

A Facebook spokesman later told the Huffington Post: “This reaction is not actually available on Facebook, and is not something we’re working on.”

Mr Feinstein is an outspoken critic of gay rights, abortion and secularism.

His page is full of memes with pictures of aborted foetuses and has he has previously called for people to take up arms against LGBT rights.

He is most famous for sparking the criticism of a minimalist redesign of the traditional festive Starbucks cups in 2015.

In a video rant, he attacked the coffee giant for not including Christian imagery on their Christmas cups.