By Aaron Hedge |FāVS News
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story omitted crucial cultural context about shofars. It has been updated.
“Seattle belongs to Jesus,” was the spiritual “war cry” that emanated from a stage constructed at Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park on Saturday as Seattle police arrested 23 people for allegedly throwing objects at Christian worshippers who’d shown up to claim the city for their God.
The arrested protesters were booked into the King County Jail, and at least eight of them appeared in court Monday, according to The Seattle Times.
Protesters on Video
A video of the event produced by its organizers, which was one stop on a national tour called “May Day USA,” framed the protesters as forces of darkness who’d come to oppose a holy Christian movement. The protesters wore black clothing and masks, and the Christians shown in the video seemed wholesome and were often reaching for the heavens.
The video depicts the protesters being violently arrested amid dramatic flash cuts of Christians worshipping and, in some cases, crying.
A spokesperson for SPD referred FāVS to the police blotter, where a press release says most of the people arrested were charged with assault.
Demonstrators, participating in the “Fascist Family Values” protest, which opposed the anti-queer agenda of the worshippers, who sought to deny that transgender people exist and stop gender-affirming health care in the U.S.
Baptist News Global reported that Ross Johnston, one of the event’s organizers enthused on Instagram over the arrests: “NO MORE CUTE WEAK CHRISTIANS, WE SERVE THE KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS!”
The event was organized by the far-right Spokane church On Fire Ministries (OFM), whose pastor Matt Shea has told his congregation they must go out into the world and turn it Christian. It’s part of a universe of “dominionist” ministries that say Christians should have control over other people.
That movement, referred to as the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), was instrumental in the success of both successful presidential campaigns of Donald Trump — as well as in the Capitol riots that briefly stopped Congressional ballot counting on Jan. 6, 2021. The NAR is characterized by flamboyant displays of “spiritual warfare,” like speaking in tongues and blowing shofars, which some Christian nationalist groups see as instruments of spiritual warfare. That usage is widely considered to be cultural appropriation, and Jewish groups generally not do not regard the horns as instruments of war.
Its members see themselves as warriors in a battle taking place in the supernatural realm for the soul of the U.S. and, ultimately, the world.
It is deeply anti-queer and believes that transgender people do not exist. One of the central tenants of the group that organized the May Day tour is to advocate for “parent’s rights” to know whether their children are expressing queer identities in public schools and to deny those children the right to gender-affirming health care.
