Christians headed took to the streets of Seattle to hold a prayer rally after city officials closed off a park to prevent their meeting — all while continuing to allow anti-police protests to take place in the city.
Photos show the action the City of Seattle took ahead of a prayer rally, which was expected to take place at Gas Works Park. “Park temporarily closed,” a sign hanging on a chain-link fence read. The city made its intentions known, stating that it closed the park to “prevent ‘anticipated crowding’ from worship rally organized by local churches.” According to KTTH’s Jason Rantz, host of the Jason Rantz Show, the city also “stationed park rangers around the area, plus social distancing ambassadors.”
“This was specifically meant to stop the prayer rally by worship leader Sean Feucht,” he reported.
The city claimed that it “does not allow unpermitted public events to take place in Seattle parks and asks the public to continue to adhere to current public health guidelines so that we can keep our parks open,” but Rantz deemed that statement an “absolute lie,” noting the continued protests in the city. That includes the prolonged occupancy of Cal Anderson Park in the area formerly known as the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) — a protest the city allowed to fester for weeks.
The group met anyway, with Feucht cheekily referring to the event as a “worship protest”:
“The church of Seattle WILL NOT be silenced! Over 2000 took to the streets and GOD LIT THE PLACE UP with miracles, baptisms, salvations, racial reconciliation (with the police!) and HOPE!!” Feucht wrote on Tuesday:
The crowd has grown to what looks like a few hundred. Feucht joked that this is a worship service but for legal reasons, they’re calling it a protest. I don’t see any kind of @SeattlePD presence. pic.twitter.com/BfsMIQhUlI
