On Memorial Day weekend, the holy spirit came down on Cal Anderson Park and performed a miracle. One of the least religious cities in America became a house of God. And their God was under attack.

In Cal Anderson, the worship rally claimed the whole center of the park. Mayday USA, a far-right Christian group, constructed a towering stage with stadium speakers and a massive TV screen. They spread across the lawn, setting up tents for children’s haircuts and bicycle giveaways and raffles and baptisms in metal troughs. No matter where a Godless, queer Seattleite stood in the park, they could see, hear, and feel their worship.

Hundreds of protesters brought signs that read “Republican Lies Kill Trans People” and “the LGBTQ Agenda is a peaceful existence.” Punk bands tried to drown out the stadium speakers. Protesters booed while ministers spoke in tongues and testified about their salvation. 

These speeches and pig-trough baptisms happened at the heart of Seattle’s gay neighborhood in a park named for the state’s first openly gay State Senator. Capitol Hill has one of the most visible transgender populations in the United States. It’s uncommonly friendly and safe. Organizing a rally with the hashtag #DontMessWithOurKids will get a rise out of people. That should have been completely obvious to city leaders. Inevitable.

The Seattle Police Department showed up in force. Dozens of officers with batons and pepper spray stood between the far-right Christian rally and the protest. Officers’ bodies—and their weapons—faced protesters while the people on stage repeated anti-gay myths and taunted the protesters for being tricked into  attending an all-day church service. Mayday USA’s private security stood watch from behind the police line.

The city did not force the event out of the park. Around 6:30 p.m., Mayday USA was asked to leave by the Seattle Police Department, who, by that time, had lost control of the crowd and defaulted to violence. By then, they’d arrested 23 protesters. All of them thrown to the ground and cuffed in a carousel of bicycle cops. And when Mayday USA finally finished its last, meandering worship song, the Christians filed out casually like they were leaving a concert at Climate Pledge Arena behind a wall of police bodies. Mike Solan, the president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, blamed mismanagement on SPD staffing issues. This was also just what happens when you put a “peaceful group” in “Antifa land, Cal Anderson Park,” he told KTTH’s Jason Rantz, echoing a SPOG statement on X.

On that Saturday evening, Mayor Bruce Harrell issued a statement about the “extreme right-wing national effort to attack our trans and LGBTQ+ communities.” Mayday USA took this as their cue, calling for a “Rattle in Seattle” on the steps of City Hall. They were being oppressed. Their freedom was being violated.

Exactly the way they wanted.

The Christian right has its own version of events: Innocent Christian worshippers were mobbed at a city park by anti-Christians and the city endorsed their persecution. But this was not the story they were telling on social media before the protest. In their words, the rally was intended to be a battle in a spiritual war. Against the child “butchers,” the demonic forces, the unholy.

Standing by them in that fight was the Seattle Police Department (and private security). Above them, the federal government.

There’s a strong feeling on the Christian right that the Trump administration is on their side and in God’s pocket. They’re somewhat right. Trump’s “favorite” book? The bible, which he sells for the low price of $59.99. There’s the ostentatious prayer breakfasts. An executive order establishing the White House Faith Office led by Minister Paula White-Cain. A National Faith Advisory Board and anti-Christian bias task force. His promotion of a myth that surviving an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania ordained his presidency. He may believe this, or has only realized the story’s power. His sincerity is irrelevant. 

The Christian right read this umbrella of federal support as a sign of God’s favor, says Matthew D. Taylor, a senior Christian scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies in Baltimore, Maryland, and author of The Violent Take It By Force, a book about how White-Cain engineered an interface between independent networks of charismatic faith leaders and Trump’s orbit.

In the days since the Mayday USA event, Federal Bureau of Investigation Deputy Director Dan Bongino posted on X that the FBI will “fully investigate allegations of targeted violence against religious groups at the Seattle concert. Freedom of religion isn’t a suggestion.” The Alliance Defending Freedom, the far-right legal powerhouse responsible for Dobbs v. Jackson, 303 Creative, and Masterpiece Cake Shop, says it is “evaluating legal action.”

When Jenny Donnelly and Ross Johnston launched Mayday USA, they said they had a “window” for a “four-year mission.” Events like Mayday are the first step in turning the US into the dominion of God.

There’s no question the groups aligned with Mayday USA are extremist, anti-trans, and anti-LGBTQ. But who are they, and what do they actually believe?

Imagine a terrible Charmander, Bulbasaur, and Squirtle: There are basically three ascendant Christian supremacy movements in the United States. Anti-traditionalist Catholics, a hyper-reformed or “reconstructionist” Calvinist protestantism, and a supernaturalist, apostolic, and prophetic style focused on catalytic experiences of worship that revolve around charismatic worship leaders. You don’t need to know all the ins and outs of Christianity, just that all these ideologies have influence in the White House and they are fixated on the idea that Christians must dominate society.

JD Vance is an avatar for the Catholics. Pete Hegseth stands in for the reconstructionist Calvinist preachers, young bearded “TheoBros,” some of whom don’t think women should vote. Minister White-Cain is a conduit for the apostolic movement that was out in force in Cal Anderson. And Trump is Ash Ketchum. He caught them all.

Both Mayday USA and#DontMessWithOurKids are associated with the organization Her Voice MVMT (or HVM), which experts say is leading the charge. HVM was founded by Jenny Donnelly, who runs Tetelestai Ministries with her husband Bob. Her stature has risen since the January 6 insurrection and Her Voice has been instrumental in religious school board takeovers on the West Coast, Taylor says.

Freddy Cruz, program manager for monitoring and training at the pro-democracy civil rights organization Western States Center, says that “don’t mess with our kids” is presented on social media as emphasizing traditional family values. But videos on the Her Voice MVMT website include extreme testimonies, including a man declaring victory over witchcraft in the name of Jesus.

“When people are considering what this group actually stands for and the kinds of things they are pushing—they’re talking about witchcraft, they’re talking about demonic attacks on children, when they’re pushing anti-trans views under the guise of religious liberty.”

The purpose of the Her Voice MVMT, says Taylor, is to publicly confront and attack this mystical cabal by staging spiritual battles to beat back these demons. Demon is not a euphemism here, but meant literally. In New Apostolic Reformation circles, a highly politicized evangelical Christian supremacist leadership network Donnelly belongs to, there is a notion that demons control “territory” and that Christians need to take back that territory by waging spiritual warfare. They’ll even call high-ranking demons in their advanced demonology “territorial spirits.”

Before the event, Mayday USA asked people to join them “to STAND for our kids, their rights, and their futures. We're declaring the SANCTITY of human life, the SACRALITY of biological gender.”

On May 24, Cal Anderson was that battlefield, the neighborhood’s residents the “demonic forces” they intended to provoke.

One of its warriors was Ross Johnston, the other co-host of the event, is the son of lesbian moms, “born of artificial insemination,” who says he’s “living proof” that anti-LGBTQ Christians can pray hard enough to force God in a heathen, queer household. Since 2024, he’s regularly gone into public high schools to “save” students in front of their peers, and carries out faith healings on social media and on stage.

Russell Johnson, pastor of Pursuit NW, also preached during the worship rally. He preaches that our society suffers from a “sexual sickness,” offers “Christ-centered” education through his PNW elementary schools, and calls to “Make Prayer Great Again.”

Folake Kellogg, one of the guests at Mayday USA, is a minister at The Collective Church, which preaches a calling to “preserve the sanctity of life,” “restore the integrity of family,” and “lay down our lives for the sake of all future generations.”

Donnelly, Kellogg, and Johnston have another thing in common, a connection to Ché Ahn, one of the most important apostles of the New Apostolic Reformation, that highly politicized Christian supremacist leadership network.

Within Ahn’s network, “apostles” are the primary governing layer of the church and are advised by “prophets” who say they hear directly from God. Donnelly was commissioned as an  apostle in Ahn’s church in 2023. Kellogg was at the global summit for Ahn’s Harvest International Ministry in late April. Johnston is an evangelist in Ahn’s network, which is enormous.

Ahn’s Harvest International Ministry claims more than 25,000 churches, non-government organizations, and nonprofits in 65 countries. Whether the figure is accurate, his influence is undeniable. What’s concerning to experts like Taylor is that since January 6, there’s been a cross-pollination between Ahn’s network and far-right militia circles. And as militias become more enmeshed in this broader theological landscape, militias are showing up at religious events, while the Christian far right adopts the tactics of the accelerationist right, which seeks to “accelerate” the collapse of an irredeemable society.

“Those worlds are becoming harder to distinguish,” Taylor says.

Matt Shea is an example. Shea, who spoke at Cal Anderson for his Spokane-based On Fire Ministries, spent six terms in the Washington state House of Representatives before he was expelled from the GOP Caucus. . Shea had distributed a four-page manifesto called “Biblical Basis for War,” his outline for how Christians should behave in an inevitable civil war between Christian and secular society. It advocated for replacing the government with a theocracy and "the killing of all males who do not agree.”

Independent investigators commissioned by the Legislature identified Shea, a public supporter of rancher Cliven Bundy, as a leader of the Patriot Movement extremist group, which does not believe the government should own public lands. The report alleged he “planned, engaged, and promoted a total of three armed conflicts of political violence” against the US government. Legislators were so disturbed that they forwarded the report to the FBI.

In 2022, Shea was participating in an anti-LGBTQ march through downtown Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, when police arrested 31 members of the far-right militia Patriot Front after a tipster had spotted the masked, armored men loading gear into a U-Haul. Shea claimed the truck was filled with antifa, but one of the men arrested, Mishael J. Buster (then 22), had attended Shea’s church. The Spokesman Review reported that Buster and his father had appeared on stage in a livestream of an On Fire church service.

This is not secret. These figures are  open about what they believe and who they associate with. They love posting. In an Instagram reel filmed at the Mayday USA event, Kellog told Shea that they “are holding the ground,” as she gestures back to the protesters. “This ground belongs to Jesus, so we are holding it.” But they present themselves as lambs, not lions, a story the right-wing media is eager to spread.

Their intended audience showed up: Former Fox 13 show host and correspondent Brandi Kruse, the Discovery Institute’s Jonathan Choe, and radio host Jason Rantz. And the national news followed—from the New York Post to Fox News.

In the guise of prayer, these events lay claim on progressive cities with a known activist base and protest culture, where a staged confrontation is more likely to get out of hand. When arrests are made or there’s violence, the story is elevated to a national prominence and amplified as an “example” of anti-Christian bias. This is then used rhetorically for a government crackdown on their enemies, which include activists and queer people. Punch you in the face, when you punch me back—I’m persecuted.

These tactics are familiar to Joan Braune, a lecturer of philosophy at Gonzaga University who studies and publishes on fascism and the far right. During the first Trump administration, there was a phenomenon on the far-right where white nationalists were trying to get teenagers to put up posters in their high schools that said it was “okay to be white.” White nationalists would use any negative reaction to prove to the teens they’d been punished for who they were, rather than because they’ve said something offensive or harmful.

“The reason why people are reacting to the sign is because they know it's a white supremacist message,” Braune said. “You get this predictable response of outrage, which they’ve primed you to interpret as persecution … Typically, what happens is people tend to tunnel in deeper right, where they start posting more and more edgy, offensive things.”

In 2020, evangelical musician Sean Feucht brought his “Let Us Worship” movement to Cal Anderson Park, Feucht’s response to COVID restrictions in California. Like many Christians who hold all-absorbing, communal worship as a key spiritual practice, the prominent figure in the “Charismatic Christian” movement interpreted health restrictions as infringing on religious liberty. After defying statewide COVID-19 restrictions to sing and pray with hundreds on the Golden Gate Bridge, he took this show on the road in 50 states and bragged he’d become the number one COVID violator in 28 of them.

That disease-riddled August, Feucht performed songs and baptisms down the street from the former Capitol Hill Organized Protest, or CHOP. “It was absolutely bonkers in so many ways!!!” Feucht (pronounced Foyt) wrote on Instagram afterwards. White antifa had screamed at Black pastors and cursed his wife and children all night long, he said. There was an entire Satanic cult march, he said.. But the church refused to be intimidated, he said, as he appeared to violate the state ban on gatherings and outdoor live music. Local Christian pastors who spoke to The Seattle Times said Feucht’s event was insensitive and showed a “lack of caring” for the community.

The following summer, Feucht gave an unpermitted worship concert at the Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland for the second year in a row. Violence ensued with pepper balls and mace, but they wouldn’t back down. They wouldn’t stop worshipping. They wouldn’t stop fighting for “religious freedom.” In 2022, Feucht marched for Jesus in West Hollywood, the gayest part of LA.

Ostensibly, this is all about “religious freedom.” But it’s really an attempt to take back the public square for God to Christian Nationalist and Christian supremacist ends.

After the Obergefell decision legalized same-sex marriage, many Christian rights organizations pivoted to a rhetoric of religious freedom. They wanted the right not to hire queer people, not to marry them in their churches. Pluralism needed to include religious conservatives. Those messages have evolved into religious freedom from the “LGBTQ agenda,” and “cultural Marxism,” and “Critical Race Theory.” In this frame, public affirmation of LGBTQ people is encroaching on Christian expression and dominance. If the city of Seattle is celebrating LGBTQ people, the city is opposed to the fundamental Christian identity that they believe is essential to Americanness.

“These folks, they don’t want pluralism,” says Taylor. “They want a single vision of society united around their radical, reactionary vision of Christianity … They see this as a true, out-and-out battle where there’s no room for compromise because their enemies are demonically inspired.”

It’s one thing for a Christian group with a provocative message to come to a liberal city. It’s another for this crew to come to this park in this neighborhood. These are extreme beliefs, gilded in Christianity. Mayday USA says it came to Seattle to pray. But in their words, prayer is “a weapon.” Worship is “a weapon.” The meaning was in plain sight for weeks. The city did not prepare.

The city has offered “free speech” as an explanation for why it allowed this to happen, like the First Amendment bounded their hands and mouths.

Certainly, it was not the city’s job to regulate speech. But it was the city’s job to manage crowds and to ensure people could safely arrive, safely gather, express their beliefs, and safely leave.

That’s not what happened. At both protests, the City sent dozens of cops to manage the event. And at every turn, those cops showed Mayday USA that they trusted them, but not the protesters who came out against them.

They maintained a consistent, physical barrier between the two groups, with their backs to Mayday and their weapons trained on the protesters. But when the event ended and Mayday filed out, cops stood in a 20-minute standoff with protesters, to avoid showing them their backs.

When Mayday organized a protest against the Mayor after he condemned the rally, they set up a full Christian revival concert on the steps of City Hall, with 10-foot-tall stacks of speakers, a soundboard, and a diesel generator. Any amplification outside of City Hall requires a permit that they didn’t have. “Our building staff are on site and have given the organizers a copy of the rules and informed them that public speech activities must not be disruptive,” a spokesperson from the City told The Stranger at the time. The rules were never enforced, and they were allowed to carry on for three more hours. But at the end of the event, when three protesters wanted to hold a sign over the railing of City Hall, that the same set of rules declared to be too large, a city employee physically stood on the sign to stop them.

By Tuesday night, police had arrested 31 protesters between the two protests.

This was a unique opportunity for the City to show queer Seattleites that they had their back, even if they have to respect hate speech. Instead of doing that, they threw one more log on the fire.

City Councilmember Bob Kettle thought that was avoidable. The following Tuesday, he told KOMO News: “I believe in the group's ability to protest and to come and protest, to be blunt, it was a mistake to grant it at Cal Anderson Park. It was a mistake. There's many parks, there's many locations that could have accommodated the group. Cal Anderson should not have been on that list.”

On Labor Day weekend, Feucht plans to come to Cal Anderson for “Revive in ’25,” a traveling worship event targeting “America's darkest, most broken cities.”

There’s already a petition to move the event out of Capitol Hill. The Change.org petition points to the chaos of Memorial Day as a warning. “We are asking … Seattle Parks and the Office of Economic Development [to] relocate this event to Magnuson Park,” the petition states. “We have serious concerns about a copycat event at Cal Anderson again.”

The city has a chance to handle this differently this time.