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<\/source><\/picture>Several Christian residents in Spokane, Washington, protested plans by the city council Monday to censure or formally rebuke Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward for attending a worship event hosted by conservative activist missionary Sean Feucht and receiving prayer from former state legislator-turned-pastor, Matt Shea last month.<\/p>\n
Shea is the senior pastor of On Fire Ministries & Kingdom Christian Academy<\/a>. He was kicked out of the state Republican caucus after an independent investigation <\/a>found him guilty <\/a>of domestic terrorism because of his involvement with the armed takeover at Oregon\u2019s Malheur Wildlife Refuge in 2016, The Washington Post<\/a> reported. Feucht, who is well-known for his \u201cLet Us Worship<\/a>\u201d movement launched to combat ongoing worship restrictions during the COVID-19 lockdowns, is an avowed Christian nationalist who believes Christians should be ruling the nation and writing laws<\/a>.<\/p>\n On Aug. 20<\/a>, Woodward attended the \u2018Let Us Worship\u2019 event in Spokane and received prayer<\/a> from Shea about a minute after he declared that same-sex marriage and transgender issues \u201chave one answer, and His name is Jesus Christ,\u201d according to Range Media<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lyle Dach, a businessman and a non-voting deacon of Spokane Valley Assembly Church, who opposes the plan to censure Woodward, said before the city council on Monday that he saw no hate at the prayer event, as was claimed by critics and Woodward’s political rival in the mayoral campaign, Lisa Brown.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI’m going to ask you where the hate is because being at the concert, this is what I saw. And I want to kind of bring this to the public awareness here. I saw people ready to pray. I heard people crying out. I saw people who wanted answers for the many concerns they have today,\u201d Dach added in a recording of the meeting shared on YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI heard a pastor who the media hates call to action every believer to get past their political indifference and pray for our leaders like believers are called to do. I then heard the same pastor corporately pray for the fire victims and a mayor and other leaders on stage,\u201d he told the city council.<\/p>\n Some local religious leaders such as Mark Finney, pastor of Emmaus church in Spokane, were among Woodward\u2019s detractors, according to FaVs News<\/a>.<\/p>\n Finney stated on Facebook that \u201cwhen community leaders publicly fraternize with those who espouse hatred, racism, and violence, it validates toxic ideologies and makes them seem \u2018normal\u2019 to the watching world.\u201d<\/p>\n Dach noted, however, that he saw no hate or Christian nationalism at the Feucht event.<\/p>\n \u201cI’d like you to show me this Christian national behavior. I don’t even know the definition of what that entails. Show me the racism. Show me the detriment this brought to our communities. Tell me how this doesn’t heal a community in a positive way. Why are you condemning good? The ones who are politicizing the event are you guys,\u201d he told the council.<\/p>\n Part 1 of \u201cThe Mayoral Prayer.\u201d pic.twitter.com\/nVy9z83dJ7<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Joseph (he\/him) (@josephdpeterson) August 21, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Rebecca Murakami, who is a member of Shea\u2019s church, told Range Media just before the meeting that she believes the planned censure of Woodward could be an effort to silence Christians.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the city council wants to stop her from doing that, do they want to silence all Christians?\u201d she asked. \u201cWhat is the plan behind that? One thing leads to the next.\u201d<\/p>\n Woodward, who is running for re-election for mayor of Spokane in November, has repeatedly stated that she did not know Shea personally prior to the event. Though Shea insists that she knew he would be attending, Woodward maintains that she agreed to attend the event to pray for the victims of a wildfire that was still raging at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cI’ve never met Matt Shea before that time. I’ve covered the controversies regarding Matt Shea. I obviously knew who he was, but I had no idea why I was being introduced to him,\u201d Woodward, a former journalist, told KHQ<\/a> in an interview on Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cI was never told that he was part of the event. I was never told that he was going to pray over me, that he would be on stage with me. I just thought he was there, along with 4,000 other members of the local faith community, along with dozens of other pastors from all different churches, all different denominations. And that, for some reason, he found out that I was going to be there, wanted to introduce himself and then walked away.\u201d<\/p>\n She explained that she also did not know Sean Feucht and that her primary reason for going to the \u201cLet Us Worship\u201d event was to support the community in prayer.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn’t going to walk away from my purpose of being there, to pray for families who are hurting in our community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn’t know who that (Sean Feucht) was. I mean, I don’t follow [the] white nationalist scene. … I didn’t even know what a Christian nationalist was. I’ve never even heard that term before. So I didn’t know who Sean Feucht was. I didn’t know that Matt Shea was connected to him,\u201d Woodward added. \u201cI get invited to pray at a lot of different prayer services. I meet with a lot of people. As the mayor of Spokane, I represent everybody. I represent people who voted for me, I represent people who didn’t vote for me. I represent people who agree with me and people who don’t agree with me.\u201d<\/p>\n Shea refuted Woodward’s claims in an Aug. 21 post on X: “@IdahoTribune<\/a> This is an annual event planned months ago to worship Jesus. https:\/\/letusworship.us<\/a> 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.”<\/p>\n Contact: leonardo.blair@christianpost.com<\/a> Follow Leonardo Blair on Twitter: @leoblair<\/a> Follow Leonardo Blair on Facebook: LeoBlairChristianPost<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Join thousands of others to get the FREEDOM POST<\/strong> newsletter for free, sent twice a week from The Christian Post.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.christianpost.com\/images\/cache\/image\/15\/02\/150298_w_400_249.webp\")
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