We stepped into Seattle knowing that it was going to be different from previous cities we had visited, but when the May Day USA Tour hit Cal Anderson Park in the heart of the Emerald City, it was unlike anything I had ever seen.
Hundreds of protesters showed up. I estimated from my vantage point in the middle of the Christians to be 500 to 1,000, lined our permitted area with signs, bullhorns, extended fingers, and vulgar shouts. A “Pro Trans Support Protest” had been organized on social media in response to the May Day organized by Jenny and Bob Donnelly, Her Voice MVMT.
Jenny 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. Antifa showed up among the crowd, and heckling continued all day.
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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.
As a Texas girl from the buckle of the Bible Belt in Dallas-Fort Worth, it is hard to describe what I saw in this city in the Pacific Northwest. I watched hundreds of people standing in protest for six to 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, and they stood. 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 that bad.
In the end, we saw 23 arrests, a riot that broke out as we worshipped, and Christians having to stand, pray, and worship for hours just to push back on 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 collectively 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.
Pastors like Russell B. Johnson from Pursuit Church prayed from the stage. In the directions to the church bathrooms in his churches, he puts in writing — “Biological Women” and “Biological Men”, but at that moment, he just prayed and declared, “Seattle belongs to God.”
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.
Alliance Defending Freedom is also contemplating a lawsuit against the Mayor of Seattle and the City of Seattle, according to their CEO and President, Kristen Waggoner.
2 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.
Campus Pastor of Harvest Rock Church in Orange County, California, Jay Koopman, said boldly at the end of the meeting as we shut down three hours early, “We welcome you for coming to church today. If you are on the other side of the wall today, we thank you for coming to church. We finally got you to come to church. Can you see how happy we are? We’ve got joy! You made our day.”
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 the Founder and President of Christians Engaged as well as the Senior Vice President for Family Policy Alliance and Family Policy Alliance Foundation, founded by Dr. James Dobson. BunniPounds.com
