Christians in the Pacific Northwest are persecuted at every level for even talking about the biblical foundations of biological gender and standing up against extreme legislation threatening parental authority.
Remember how they had to fight fines and prison time for keeping their churches open during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020?
It is a different world for them.
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Last Saturday, May 24, we stepped into Seattle knowing that it was going to be different from previous cities we had visited in our May Day USA Tour. But when our event began at Cal Anderson Park in the heart of the Emerald City, it was unlike anything I had ever seen.
Many hundreds of protesters arrived, I estimated from my vantage point to be 500 to 1,000, that lined our permitted area with signs, bullhorns, extended fingers and vulgar shouts. It included Antifa that showed up among the crowd heckling all day in a “Pro Trans Support Protest” hurriedly planned on social media in response to May Day organized by Jenny and Bob Donnelly, Her Voice MVMT. Ross Johnston, a young, dynamic evangelist from Hollywood, California, had also joined in partnership with Jenny and Bob for this worship, evangelism and truth rally in five cities.
I was there adding my small part to pray complacency off of the church, connecting the body of Christ to how they could get involved with government and inspiring them to pray, vote and engage.
Our teams have traveled to New York City, Miami, Houston and Seattle together, and we will conclude in Los Angeles on May 31, holding events every weekend during May to stir up the church and win the lost.
In New York City, some protestors held up signs as Rep. Alyssa Brown from Arkansas delivered our message of prayer, voting and engagement in the pouring rain. Kids received bikes, families were blessed with gift cards and children received haircuts from caring Christians before the worship, evangelism and call for reformation in our culture began. People came to Jesus, and many experienced deliverance on the streets while the Gospel was proclaimed. The progress continued in Miami and Houston with passionate worship and thousands in attendance.
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These events were a breeze compared to what we walked into on Saturday. Seattle was something altogether different.
Jenny Donnelly had worked on the permit for one park and was later pushed by city officials to go to another one, Cal Anderson Park. The ministry followed the proper procedure, going through the process that any church or ministry can follow nationwide to hold a Christian service outside.
The Seattle Mayor, Bruce Harrell, condemned us as Christians for being in the city, calling us a “right-wing national effort to attack our trans and LGBTQ+ communities.” He then directed the Parks Department to review all the circumstances around our application.
It is hard to describe what I saw in this city in the Pacific Northwest. I watched hundreds of protestors over eight hours—broken people, deeply angry, with some who looked afraid of our Christian beliefs. These hurting souls found community among themselves, their mutual pain, confused sexual identities and deception. My heart broke as I watched them in disbelief.
Coming to Seattle on a tour that not only deals with repentance, revival and reformation, a tour that is calling the church to get out in culture, stand up for biblical truth and push back against the darkness, I should have expected this reaction, but I didn’t believe that it was going to be this bad.
In the end, we saw 23 arrests, a riot that broke out as we worshipped and Christians praying and worshipping for hours to push back the darkness in the atmosphere. Families with children boldly stood rather than leaving or pulling out of danger. These Washington state Christians amazed me as we were later accused of “fascist family values” by the Seattle Times.
We came to worship and pray But also to stand up for children and families to say as a church family—don’t mess with our kids. Jenny Donnelly has adopted these words that became popular in Peru’s family values movement. In her words, she felt led to bring them to America “to copy/paste” for our nation.
Multiple churches in Washington state united for this event. Many came under the banner of #Dontmesswithourkids, tired of the indoctrination of their children with gender ideology in public schools. Many were frustrated that abortions can be offered to their teenagers without their parental consent. Many were concerned about the church around the nation staying silent. In the end, none of these statements were made from the stage in Seattle. We worshipped, prayed and preached the Gospel as the #Dontmesswithourkids flags flew in the crowd.
Pastors like Russell B. Johnson from Pursuit Church prayed from the stage and declared, “Seattle belongs to God.” He and his young son boldly prayed and stood on the stage. Sweet men and women of God from Spokane and all over the state came. Even a group from Portland, Oregon, traveled nearly two and a half hours to support the cause.
Pastors Russell Johnson, Jenny Donnelly and Ross Johnston will not be silenced as they host a rally on the steps of the Seattle Mayor’s office on Tuesday, May 27, at 5 p.m. (Pacific Daylight Time) and push back for our constitutional rights as Christians to assemble and pray.
Second Corinthians 5 talks about us being ambassadors for Christ and pleading with the lost to be reconciled to Christ. We did that in Seattle. We stood outside the walls of the church, and it was life-giving to those involved. We had more people attend than would ever come through the doors of a church on a Sunday morning. They heard the Gospel, they heard about the love of Christ and they were prayed for.
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I can tell you that Seattle has personally wrecked me. I have been awakened from any last sleep or complacency that I had left in me. I am fully awake.
Even in America, there is a world hostile to our beliefs. But it is time for us to be the light and venture into the darkness, making a difference. As Jesus said in John 12:46-47: “I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.”
Don’t be afraid. The Light overcomes. Our heart needs to be broken for a world that needs salvation.
Bunni Pounds is president and founder of Christians Engaged, a ministry activating the body of Christ to pray, vote and engage regularly. Formerly a congressional candidate and 16-year political consultant, she is a motivational speaker and Bible teacher. She is the author of the book Jesus and Politics: One Woman’s Walk with God in a Mudslinging Profession.
