By Donald Jeffries
An evangelical Christian group recently gathered at Seattle City Hall, in response to Mayor Bruce Harrell blaming Christians for the violence at MayDayUSA’s “Don’t Mess With Our Kids” rally, held a few days earlier at a park. Police arrested 23 people after individuals from the LGBTQ counterprotest clashed with Christian attendees and event organizers.
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Harrell issued a suitably “woke” statement, which read:
Seattle is proud of our reputation as a welcoming, inclusive city for LGBTQ+ communities, and we stand with our trans neighbors when they face bigotry and injustice. Today’s far-right rally was held here for this very reason—to provoke a reaction by promoting beliefs that are inherently opposed to our city’s values, in the heart of Seattle’s most prominent LGBTQ+ neighborhood.
Illustrating the deep divide between many modern-day Christians, Baptist Pastor Patricia L. Hunter declared:
Mayday’s desire is to wrap their personal hate, fear, and bigotry in Christian speak. It won’t work. The call of Jesus to his followers was to first love God and secondly to love our neighbors. In no way does the ideology or bad theology of this fringe group embody the love of God we are to exhibit.
Those of us who actually follow the Jesus of the New Testament work to make the welcome tent bigger so that all God’s children, regardless of sexuality or sexual identity, are welcome at the table of love, justice, grace, and mercy.
Those who organized the “Rattle in Seattle” protest objected to the mayor’s statement, which they said displayed religious bigotry and represented an attack on their First Amendment rights. They alleged the rally at City Hall was primarily in response to the mayor’s remarks.
The group spokesmen said:
Following the MayDayUSA worship event at Cal Anderson Park on Saturday, Mayor Harrell had the audacity to issue a press release blaming Christians for the premeditated violence of Antifa which resulted in the hospitalization of Seattle Police Department personnel and the arrest of 23 Antifa agitators. …
Under Mayor Harrell’s leadership, the city of Seattle has continued its spiral into lawlessness and dysfunction while the First Amendment rights of citizens to peacefully assemble has been disregarded.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino reacted to the situation in Seattle by stating, “Freedom of religion isn’t a suggestion.” Bongino then expressed his concern about the allegations of “targeted violence” against religious groups in the wake of the two recent rallies, tweeting “We have asked our team to fully investigate allegations of targeted violence against religious groups at the Seattle concert.”
The May 27 rally outside City Hall drew attention on social media, as well, especially on “X.” A group identifying itself as “Trantifa,” along with other far-left activists, engaged in what witnesses characterized as violent direct action. A video of the event was shared by journalist Andy Ngo, who has a history of being physically attacked himself by Antifa types. Front and center in the video is a woman named Erica Williams, who has been labeled as a “BLM race grifter” by Ngo and some others on the right.
But the truth is, the rally consisted of Christians who were merely attempting to peacefully worship. They aimed to express their beliefs and engage in communal worship. Williams can be seen physically hitting Christian protesters in the video. As Christians held signs reading “God Reigns Over Seattle” and “Jesus Loves Seattle,” the video caught Williams and other LGBTQ activists encircling and shouting at a mother with three young children.
“Seattle City Hall protesters just surrounded and accosted a woman, her baby, and her toddler before a melee with the police broke out,” conservative undercover journalist Cam Higby posted on “X,” and included video of the incident. “My phone ran out of storage just before the melee,” he said, adding “No update on the woman and baby.”
The Pursuit, the Christian group that organized the second rally, charged that the violence during the event was planned by Antifa members:
Mayor Harrell has lost both the ability and authority to lead the city of Seattle and must apologize and/or resign immediately Seattle deserves better than a radical leftist who tramples on the religious freedoms of citizens while providing cover for violent extremists to abuse police officers, attack Christians, and destroy a city.
The tactic of shouting “you’re hitting me,” while you are actually doing the hitting, has been honed to perfection by the Left. It was on full display at the Charlottesville rally and during the 2020 summer riots following the death of career criminal George Floyd. The mainstream media always dutifully establishes the false narrative.
It remains to be seen if Bongino, reeling from the backlash over his comments that he believed Jeffrey Epstein actually killed himself, thereby causing much of the MAGA crowd to question his general sincerity, will be true to his word.
