Woodward Releases Vague Statement About Attending Christian Nationalist Worship Event
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News Brief by Cassy Benefield | FāVS News
UPDATE: This story was updated to include other local candidates on stage with Woodward during Sunday night’s “Let Us Worship” event. We also corrected the Spokane City Council district Earl Moore is running in. We also included one local candidate’s affiliation with the Spokane chapter of Moms for Liberty.
Spokane City Mayor Nadine Woodward made a statement Monday morning explaining her controversial presence at Sunday night’s “Let Us Worship” event.
News arose regarding her attendance when she was invited onstage to be prayed for by former Washington State legislator turned pastor, Matt Shea, and self-identified Christian nationalist, Sean Feucht.
The statement, released on her re-election campaign site, was fit within a larger statement about her wildfire observations earlier on Sunday and could have easily been overlooked.
“I am deeply disturbed that Matt Shea chose to politicize a gathering of thousands of citizens who joined together yesterday to pray for fire victims and first responders. I attended the event with one purpose only and that was to join with fellow citizens to begin the healing process,” she said.
Despite being nearly hidden, Matt Shea responded to it on X, formerly known as Twitter, and said Woodward misrepresented the facts of her presence at the event:
“This is an annual event planned months ago to worship Jesus. letusworship.us It wasn’t for ‘fire victims.’ She was invited and she accepted BEFORE the fires started on Friday. However, we of course wanted to pray last night for all those who have lost everything and be there for them and also pray for our leaders. Praying for leaders, especially during a crisis, isn’t political it is Biblical. She is the one that politicized what everyone knows was a worship event. We are praying for Nadine.”
Spokane City Council District 3 candidate Earl Moore and Spokane Valley city council candidate Jessica Yaeger joined Shea on stage at the Podium, along with Natalie Poulsen, a former candidate in the 2022 race for Washington State legislature.
Yaeger is also the Spokane chair to Moms for Liberty, a group labeled “extremist” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Shea is well-known in the region because of his connections to and participation in domestic terrorism, trying to create a new state called Liberty and his “Biblical Basis for War” manifesto.
While Woodward did mention Shea in her statement, she did not mention attending an event led by Feucht, however.
Feucht is also a controversial figure known for his early criticism of government attempts to “shutter churches and silence worship” during the COVID pandemic, according to his website bio.
He was recently condemned by many Pacific Northwest faith leaders for his anti-LGBTQ bigotry in response to his 50-state “Kingdom to the Capitol” tour in the region.
The Spokane event was part of the “Let Us Worship” tour, which is a series of tours Feucht does in tandem to the Kingdom tours. He promotes the “Let Us Worship” events as a “movement across America gathering believers to worship and pray boldly for revival,” according to the website.
Feucht’s controversy goes beyond his COVID song protests and capitol and other city tours. As FāVS News reported on Aug. 6 Feucht’s organizational partner for these events is Turning Point USA, a group co-founded by conservative activist and radio talk show host Charlie Kirk.
Kirk is known to promote “Christian nationalist ideology and right-wing hatred aimed at LGBTQ people, reproductive rights and a multicultural society,” according to Media Matters for America — a nonprofit progressive research and information center.
Feucht said about Sunday night’s event on X, “Thousands worship during a raging wildfire in Spokane.” However, RANGE reported about 1,000 showed up.
For once I agree with Matt Shea. Woodward knew what this event was all about and chose to accept the invitation to appear onstage. Now she is trying to walk that back by not accepting responsibility. She’s trying to play both sides in the hopes her appearance will be overlooked, thus disguising her true intentions and beliefs. By the way, Jessica Yaeger should be more closely looked at. She is the chairman of the local Moms for Liberty chapter, an organization recently added to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s hate watch.