A California church hosting worship leader and singer Sean Feucht for a New Year’s Eve event was vandalized with profane messaging, such as “Fuck Sean Feucht” and “Queers Bash Back,” among other sentiments.
“Last night, bigots spread hate and violence at a church where we are holding a New Year’s Eve event in San Diego,” Feucht wrote in an Instagram post, sharing several images from the vandalization.
“The police are investigating it as a hate crime,” the Christian musician added. “The enemy making the age old mistake. Persecuting the Church won’t stop the gospel, it’ll spark a wildfire.”
In addition to “Fuck Sean Feucht” and “Queers Bash Back,” other messages scrawled on walls, windows, and other property around the church included “Christofascists not Welcome,” “Trans Rights Are Human Rights,” “Anti-fascist resistance will not Falter,” “BLM,” “Separate Church & State,” and “ACAB,” which stands for “All Cops Are Bastards.”
Another image showed that a glass window had been spray painted and broken.
Feucht shared another Instagram post featuring a video panning over additional graffiti, which read, “Fuck Christian Nationalists,” “Bigots not Welcome,” “No Safe Space for Bigots,” “Transphobes out of SD,” “God Loves LGTBQ,” and “Sean Feucht Hates Queers,” among other messages.
Feucht told Church Leaders that the vandalism was “a fear tactic” and “intimidation.”
“We don’t get discouraged when fear comes,” he added. “We actually get emboldened and this is a chance for the church of California to take a stand to rise up in unity and to say, ‘We’re not going to let persecution, bigotry, hatred, vandalism, stop us from worshiping. The church isn’t a building. We’re the bride of Christ and in 2023 we’re rising up like never before.'”
The singer, who is known for leading outdoor revivals across the country, added that a police report has been filed.
Feucht founded the Let Us Worship movement in 2020, amid state and local governments banning or restricting in-person worship ostensibly to stop the spread of the Chinese coronavirus.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.