Sean Feucht threatens Spokane officials for condemning mayor's appearance at prayer event

Former mayor Nadine Woodward was pilloried for sharing a stage with the Christian Nationalist. Sean Feucht is now retaliating.

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Months after the mayor of Spokane, Washington attended an event with a Christian Nationalist and a domestic terrorist—to be clear, those were two separate people—and months after the city council passed a resolution (page 429) condemning the mayor for her associations with those two men, the Christian Nationalist is threatening to sue the city.

All of this goes back to an event held last August, when COVID super-spreader Sean Feucht staged a worship event that was attended by Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward, city council candidate Jessica Yaeger, and failed candidate Natalie Poulson. All three women received prayers on stage from Feucht and former state lawmaker Matt Shea.

Sean Feucht (left), Matt Shea, and Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward (screenshot via Twitter)

“We’ve got an enemy we need to fight. His name is Satan,” Shea proclaimed. “Father God, we pray a blessing over the leaders you have chosen for this time. … Give them courage, your courage, to stand on the foundation—the rock of Jesus Christ. Give them, right now Lord, unwavering ability to speak the truth into the darkness, and no matter what anybody says around them, they will glorify, honor, and praise you in every single thing they do.”

“I’ve had the privilege to pray over many mayors and many governors and even the president,” Feucht then declared. “But not every city in the world has a prophetic history like Spokane. … I pray God that you would give this mayor and her family and her team and the pastors in this region, God, that you give them revelatory wisdom and insight on how to steward what you want to do in this region.”

Matt Shea’s participation was arguably even more disturbing than Feucht’s.

In 2018, after nearly a decade in office, the Spokesman-Review published a four-page document in which Shea discussed the “Biblical Basis for War.” One section listed a penalty for men guilty of breaking “biblical law”: “If they do not yield — kill all males.”

Shea quickly insisted the line was being taken out of context… somehow. Still, the document led to him losing his role as chair of the state’s Republican caucus. In 2019, he was exposed for being part of a chat room in which he and his buddies discussed violently attacking their political enemies. He was also found to be part of a group that planned and participated in acts of domestic terrorism. He also proposed the creation of a 51st state just for Christians. And he was fined nearly $4,700 for dumping oil at the State Capitol, effectively vandalizing historic masonry, because he didn’t like how The Satanic Temple was protesting outside. Oh, and he’s a fan of white nationalists.

Republicans pushed for Shea to resign, but he never did. Instead, in mid-2020, he simply chose not to run for re-election. Perhaps he saw the writing on the wall that he would’ve been voted out and decided to quit instead.

After he left office, he began running a Christian ministry, further wrapping himself in Jesus in order to keep pretending he’s a martyr for the cause.

That’s why the mayor’s appearance with Feucht and Shea was so troubling.

Hours after the event, facing immediate criticism, Mayor Woodward claimed the event had been “politicized” in a statement that deflected from her own actions. (This portion of her statement was buried underneath a larger statement about wildfires.)

… 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.

Shea didn’t politicize the event. The event, like everything Feucht did, was political. It was a celebration of Christian Nationalism, and the mayor was all too happy to join in. How could you possibly go to any event with either of those two guys, then act surprised when they both do they very thing they’re famous for? The Leopards Eating People's Faces Party only has one item on the agenda.

A second statement came out hours later:

“I did not seek, nor do I accept any support from Matt Shea. I am opposed to his political views as they are a threat to our democracy, and I regret my public appearance with him. I was invited to share in prayer with several thousand citizens out of heartfelt concern for fire victims, first responders and our whole community. I was not aware that he would be at the event last night and it only became apparent as I was walking on stage that he would be leading the prayer. I should have made better efforts to learn who would be speaking at the event.

There will be plenty of time to discuss political positions during the rest of this campaign.  Now, as our region is hurting and our focus is on friends, neighbors, loved ones and the response effort, is not the time. All day yesterday not one fire victim or first responder asked me about my political views. But they did ask us to pray for them.”

If she saw him on stage, why didn’t she have the courage to condemn him there? Why didn’t she just leave? Why would she show up to an event hosted by Shea’s ministry and not realize he might be there? Why was she okay with Sean Feucht being there?!

It was just a series of idiotic decisions that any big-city politician could have avoided with an ounce of common sense and a few seconds of Googling. (Furthermore, for someone deeply concerned about wildfires, the last thing that was going to help the people in her community was a prayer rally. If she wanted to thank first responders, she could have visited a fire department. She chose not to.)

It didn’t help her case that Matt Shea said Woodward knew exactly what she was doing when she accepted the invitation.

This is an annual event planned months ago to worship Jesus. https://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.

This past November, Woodward lost her bid for re-election in a tight race. This controversy may have tipped the scales against her.

And now, with Woodward no longer in office, the resolution condemning her several months old, and Sean Feucht in desperate need for more attention, he’s threatening to sue the city.

The Inlander has the details:

… Feucht is claiming the city owes him money.

On Jan. 18, he filed a claim for damages alleging the four council members who voted for the resolution "acted under the color of law to reprieve Feucht of his federally guaranteed First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights, privileges and immunities."

The city has responded by hiring legal help and telling officials to retain documents in case of a lawsuit.

…

Feucht's claim alleges that the resolution “communicated to the government and elected leaders of Spokane, Washington that if they gathered with Feucht and anyone who believed, prayed or worshiped like Feucht, they would receive an official condemnation from Spokane.”

The allegations are absurd on the surface because Feucht is essentially claiming it’s a condemnation of Christianity. It’s not. Elected officials will not be punished for practicing the faith, praying, or worshiping the Christian God. The resolution had nothing to do with Christianity and everything to do with the two Christians using their faith-based platforms to spread extremist views.

We know that because the resolution went out of its way to say that.

As far as Feucht goes, his faith never comes up. He’s described in the resolution as an “anti-LGBTQ extremist.” That’s a fair claim; after all, when he was protesting Disney for supporting LGBTQ people, Feucht said children were being “sexualized” and that society could not “allow perverts to indoctrinate them starting at 4 years old in kindergarten with transgenderism.” Those comments falsely equate homosexuality and transgender identities with pedophilia. He also backs “conversion therapy,” which doesn’t work.

Feucht is also quoted as calling for a “fire that would consume Spokane” in the midst of the wildfires. He and Shea were called out for their “hateful and dangerous behavior and beliefs”—not their faith but rather how they’re using their faith to promote harm. They’re not the same. The fact that Feucht can’t tell the difference says far more about him than the city council.

Despite the lack of substance, the city is taking the claim seriously enough to set aside $50,000 for lawyers to handle the case. They’ve also been instructed to retain any public communications involving the resolutions… as if they secretly passed messages to each other bashing Jesus.

No formal lawsuit has been filed yet. Knowing Feucht, someone who’s far more talk than action, I suspect he enjoys the threat of a lawsuit hovering over the city far more than he would want to pursue an actual lawsuit that he would likely lose—and one that would cost him any money.

Last week, I sent questions about whether the lawsuit threat is real to Feucht’s lawyers with the Silent Majority Foundation, but they didn’t respond.

(Portions of this article were published earlier)

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