The event was organized by California-based pastor Sean Feucht, founder of Hold the Line, an organization whose goal is to get Christians and millennials alike to become more politically active by getting them registered to vote and educating them on certain relevant political issues.
Feucht has organized over a dozen prayer rallies across the country to protest against what he sees as unfair restrictions on the freedom of worship, including one other rally in Seattle in August.
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Which is why he was very surprised when, on Friday, Sept. 4, the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department issued a notice that Gas Works Park in the Northlake neighborhood in Seattle was to be closed down on Labor Day, Sept. 7, “due to anticipated crowding that could impact the public health of residents.” This is where Feucht and Hold the Line had planned to hold their worship session.
On Sept. 5, Feucht responded in a Facebook post by saying that, over the last eight weeks, his ministry has allowed local pastors in 19 different cities to hold 19 open-air rallies that provided Christians with a place where they can worship.
“The City of Seattle acknowledged that parks ‘provide critical physical and mental health supports to our community,’ and reiterated their policy guidelines for facilitating ‘First Amendment gatherings,’ but still chose to temporarily shut down the entire park rather than risk Christians gathering for an open-air worship service. This is the height of hypocrisy for the City of Seattle to turn a blind eye to riots, looting and Antifa, while refusing to let Christians gather in a public park to sing and worship. First the government shuts down churches. Now it's shutting down parks to stop us from worshipping. Time to stand up church!”
The closure of the park began at 8 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 6, and will end on Tuesday at 6 a.m. Seattle Parks and Recreation did not say that Feucht's event is what specifically made them close the park. They also said that Gas Works' closure was done as a way of preventing the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19).
A Facebook event page made by Hold the Line for the prayer rally at Gas Works Park said that the demonstration was scheduled for 6 p.m. on September 7, and more than 500 people said that they were going, with another 2,000 saying that they were interested in attending. (Related: CNN hypocritically smears Christians for worship concert, says nothing about Democrats in Black Lives Matter protests.)
Feucht says refusal to allow rally a sign of anti-Christian discrimination
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Feucht appeared on Fox & Friends on Tuesday to talk about how hypocritical it was for the City of Seattle, which is governed entirely by Democrats and socialists, to focus all of their resources and attention on Hold the Line and their peaceful gathering while ignoring the fact that Antifa and Black Lives Matter rioters in the city continue destroying property and attacking policemen. Feucht says that this is because city officials have a bias against Christians.
“It was obviously a targeting and discrimination towards believers in the city,” said Feucht to Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt. “There's just a bias. You know, it's the height of hypocrisy right now that they're letting these cities, you know, succumb to rioting and burning and pillaging and yet they're targeting Christians.”
Feucht further stated that the event in Seattle was his 21st “Let Us Worship” rally, a series of worship events held from New York to Los Angeles in order to sway politicians into loosening the coronavirus restrictions they've put in place against churches.
“There's a backlash that's growing,” said Feucht. “We had 12,000 people that gathered with us at the capitol in Sacramento two nights ago, and it's just continuing to build momentum.”
Local and state authorities using the coronavirus pandemic to prevent peaceful gatherings and protests points to the arrival of the medical police state to the country. Listen to this episode of the Health Ranger Report, a podcast by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, as he talks about how state authorities in places like Virginia are beginning to roll out directives that are mandating that everybody in their state has to get vaccinated for the coronavirus once the vaccine has been developed.
Feucht's “worship protest” proceeds anyway
Fortunately, Feucht and Hold the Line were still able to go ahead with their event. All they had to do to circumvent city regulations was to call the event a “worship protest.” While he was still unable to get back into Gas Works Park, his group's First Amendment right to protest allowed them to conduct their event in the street right behind the park.
As the backdrop for their event, Feucht and the other organizers chose a bulldozer that the city placed in order to block off an intersection heading into the park. They put up a drum set and amplifiers some 10 feet away from it, and Feucht promoted the continuation of the event on his social media pages.
As soon as the event started, in between worship songs, Feucht spoke to the attendees about how Christians are being demonized for wanting to practice their faith without unnecessary COVID-19 restrictions.
“Politicians can write press releases. They can make threats. They can shut down parks. They can put up fences. We're here as citizens of America and citizens of the Kingdom of God, and we won't be silenced,” Feucht said to the crowd, telling them that they should not stop worshiping God.
In remarks made to media personnel who attended the event, Feucht said that the critics of his demonstrations are hypocritical for not raising the same concerns about the rioting in Seattle and in other cities across the country.
“They don't say the same thing about the Black Lives Matter movement, ” said Feucht. “They don't say the same thing about Antifa. A lot of those gus have been destroying things.”
Feucht's supporters inspired by “worship protest”
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While no actual numbers have come out, photos and videos of the event show that Feucht's “Let Us Worship” worship protest was able to gather enough people to fully block out the street right behind the Gas Works Park. Many of the protest's attendees expressed how much they believe Christianity plays an important role in the culture of Seattle and of the rest of the country.
“Community and faith is an important part of this city,” said Todd Manning, who came all the way from the city of Bothell, just north of Seattle. “Part of what love requires is standing up boldly and saying the community of faith is strong.”
Jenny Pund of Puyallup, a city over 30 miles to the south of Seattle, said that the people who attended the worship protest needed hope. “The government is not going to give you hope, seemingly,” she said. “Jesus is the answer.”
Learn more about how authorities are trying to use the global coronavirus pandemic to try and suppress dissent, especially among Christians, by subscribing to and reading the articles at Pandemic.news.
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