Keep your religion out of our government. Dangerous activists coming to Idaho Capitol | Opinion
A group of religious activists who want to inject their brand of Christianity into government are planning a rally at the Idaho State Capitol on Sunday.
Sean Feucht and his group Hold the Line, along with Turning Point USA Faith, are holding rallies at the state Capitol buildings in all 50 states. This week, they’re descending on the buildings in Boise, Olympia, Washington, and Salem, Oregon, as part of their so-called Kingdom to the Capitol Tour.
“One of the reasons why satanists are infuriated is that we’re bringing worship to the state capitols,” Feucht is quoted as saying in The Washington Times. “We’ve experienced some resistance before, but it’s on a whole different scale now. We’re bringing worship to places where abortion decrees are made and where perversion laws (proposed and passed) enable them to get to our kids.”
Feucht and his group are playing on the same, tired, worn-out, BS, far-right “fears” that evildoers on the Left are coming for your children, through the schools, through the libraries, at Pride festivals and drag shows.
They frame the issue as a fight between good and evil, light vs. dark. Predictably, they clutch their pearls at transgender apparel at Target or popular music videos.
Anyone who opposes their dangerous Christian nationalism are satanists and evildoers.
Are pastors and rabbis satanists, too?
A group of faith leaders in Boise and throughout the Northwest has called on legislative leaders to denounce the appearance of these faith peddlers, whose views are full of hate.
“As faith leaders in the cities of Salem, Olympia and Boise, we are writing to inform you of an anti-LGBTQ+ speaker coming to each of our state capital cities this week and ask you to speak out against anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry,” the faith leaders wrote in a letter to state legislative leaders. “Sean Feucht has spent the past year capitalizing on anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments by railing against Pride Month, even embracing the exclusionary label of ‘Christian nationalist,’ and declaring that people with his narrow view of Christian theology should make all laws in the United States.”
It’s no accident the rallies are being held at state Capitol buildings, as these charlatans increasingly want to inject their brand of religion into politics.
“It’s all part of the King coming back,” Feucht said at an event in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “That’s what we’re practicing for. That’s why hell hates that we’re worshiping at every capital across America. That’s why we get called, ‘Well, you’re Christian nationalists.’”
Feucht said he wants “the kingdom to be the government,” he wants “God to come and overtake the government” and “we want God to be in control of everything.”
“We reject these attempts to cloak bigotry in religious language, and we ask you to do the same,” the letter from the faith leaders stated.
The letter was organized by Western States Center, a civil rights group working to monitor and counter bigotry in the Pacific Northwest and around the country.
The open letter was being sent to state leaders in all three Pacific Northwest states.
Locally, signing the letter were: Rabbi Dan Fink, of Congregation Ahavath Beth Israel; the Rev. Duane Anders and Pastor Benjamin Cremer, of Cathedral of the Rockies; Pastor Andrew Kukla, of First Presbyterian Church; the Rev. Jenny Willison Hirst, of Collister United Methodist Church; the Rev. Sara LaWall, of Boise Unitarian Universalist Fellowship; Roy Ledesma, executive director of Congregation Ahavath Beth Israel; Irene Laudeman, pastor at Cathedral of the Rockies; Ann Agnew and Ruth Ann Alm, of Southminster Presbyterian Church; and Father Joseph Farnes, All Saints Episcopal Church.
They sent the letter in Idaho to Senate Majority Leader Sen. Kelly Anthon, Senate Minority Leader Sen. Melissa Wintrow, House Majority Leader Megan C. Blanksma and House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel.
Of course, hate speech is mostly protected speech, however wrongheaded and misguided such hate may be, and freedom of religion is enshrined in our First Amendment.
The danger comes when these groups impose their religious views on others and inject church into the state through the power of government, as we’ve already seen in Idaho through the most restrictive abortion ban in the country, attempts to put a bounty on libraries and bans on gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
No one is telling these groups to abandon their religious beliefs.
We’re just telling them to keep their religion in their church and out of our government.
Statesman editorials are the unsigned opinion of the Idaho Statesman’s editorial board. Board members are opinion editor Scott McIntosh, opinion writer Bryan Clark, editor Chadd Cripe, newsroom editors Dana Oland and Jim Keyser and community member Mary Rohlfing.
