Christian Nationalist Sean Feucht Tours PNW Capitols with Anti-LGBTQ Bigotry, Say Faith Leaders
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News Story by Cassy Benefield | FāVS News
Controversial musician and missionary Sean Feucht is touring state capitols in the Pacific Northwest to bring about what he calls a revival in America. In response to his 50-state “Kingdom to the Capitol” tour, several faith leaders in the region sent a letter to lawmakers in Washington, Oregon and Idaho asking them to speak out and denounce his anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry.
The letter, sent on July 28, was organized by the Portland-based civil rights nonprofit Western States Center (WSC). Forty faith leaders and counting signed the letter as of this report. The tally includes members of Jewish, Christian and interfaith communities.
“We reject these attempts to cloak bigotry in religious language, and we ask you to do the same,” the letter reads. “This rhetoric is especially dangerous when paired with Sean Feucht’s and Turning Point USA Faith’s willingness to court political violence across our region and the country.”
The letter also illustrated Feucht’s close connection with Turning Point USA (TPUSA) as his touring organizational partner, writing that TPUSA “recently hosted a pastors’ summit where speakers … repeatedly referenced Matthew 18 to suggest that LGBTQ+ people and their allies deserve death.”
Media Matters for America — a nonprofit progressive research and information center — wrote an in-depth piece about one recent conference and what the speakers said here.
The Letter’s Inspiration
In an Aug. 1 Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) article, Jane Vaughan reported that WSC Program Manager Kate Bitz said the letter was prompted by “Feucht’s disturbing language.”
“This kind of activism means that faith voices outside of this very narrow concept of Christianity are being left out of the conversation and boxed out of the conversation. So when we heard that he was headed to our region with this Kingdom to the Capitol tour, we said, ‘Why not reach out to some faith leaders and see what they have to say about someone who is advancing LGBTQ+ bigotry in the language of religion?’” Bitz said in the OPB article.
Vaughan continued to report that Bitz “emphasized that such hateful language does real harm.”
“We know that when this kind of harmful rhetoric is mainstreamed and when it’s wrapped up in these attempts to gain political power from such a bigoted point of view, we know that that has an impact on the ground. None of this is without consequences when people use this kind of language,” she said.
Why One Faith Leader Signed It
In the OPB article, the Rev. Kelly Wadsworth from Westminster Presbyterian Church in Salem, Oregon, said she signed the letter because Feucht’s rhetoric confuses the role of the state and religious communities.
“The role of the state in relation to the religious community is to provide a wide container for human expression and flourishing. It is not the role of the state to place undue limits on the people based on the dictates of one religious perspective,” she wrote in a statement to OPB. “I signed the letter of concern because my understanding at this point is that the Kingdom [to the Capitol tour] event does not sufficiently support the separation of church and state, the balance of power, or full and equal human rights for all.”
Feucht Touring More than State Capitols
Self-identifying as a Christian nationalist, Feucht’s touring in the PNW doesn’t end in the capitols, however. He will be bringing his “Let Us Worship” tour to Seattle on Aug. 19 and onto Spokane on Aug. 20.
Let Us Worship is a “movement across America gathering believers to worship and pray boldly for revival,” according to the website.
Feucht also adds in his bio on that he is known for founding “multiple global movements and was one of the earliest and most vocal critics of government attempts to shutter churches and silence worship in 2020.”
