July 2023
Western States Center and Partners: Faith Leaders Rejecting Anti-LGBTQ+ Rhetoric
To:
Oregon Elected Leaders
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Kate Lieber, Senate Minority Leader Sen. Tim Knopp, House Majority Leader Rep. Julie Fahey, House Minority Leader Rep. Vikki Breese-Iverson
Washington Elected Leaders
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Andy Billig, Senate Minority Leader Sen. John Braun, House Majority Leader Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon, House Minority Leader Rep. Drew Stokesberry
Idaho Elected Leaders
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Kelly Anthon, Senate Minority Leader Sen. Melissa Wintrow, House Majority Leader Megan C. Blanksma, Minority Leader Ilana Rubel
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 capitol cities this week and ask you to speak out against anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry. 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. His organizational partner on this 50-state tour, Turning Point USA Faith, recently hosted a pastors’ summit where speakers declared that LGBTQ+-inclusive Christian denominations are “going in an evil direction,” and repeatedly referenced Matthew 18 to suggest that LGBTQ+ people and their allies deserve death. We reject these attempts to cloak bigotry in religious language, and we ask you to do the same.
This rhetoric is especially dangerous when paired with Sean Feucht’s and Turning Point USA Faith’s willingness to court political violence across our region and the country. When Feucht visited Oregon in 2021, he worked with members of paramilitary groups to provide “security” for his event, including Proud Boy Tiny Toese, who was recently sentenced to 95 months in prison for his involvement in planning and carrying out violent actions at an August 2021 rally. At a 2021 Turning Point rally in Boise, where TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk spread false claims about election integrity, an audience member responded by asking, “When do we get to use the guns?”
As we serve our communities in state capitol cities, we have seen that this kind of bigoted, harmful rhetoric has serious consequences for our congregations and for our cities as a whole. For political figures like Feucht and his Turning Point USA partners, our towns are just a stage, a place where they can stoke conflict and promote their latest hateful claims using our capitol grounds as a backdrop. To them, this is a way of building power by exploiting bigotry. For us, Salem, Olympia and Boise are home. We must speak out when figures stoking bigotry come to town.
We ask you to speak out, denounce anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry, and add your voices to those of us who are calling for support for LGBTQ+ communities at this time.
Sincerely,
Western States Center
Faith Leaders
Rabbi Dan Fink, Congregation Ahavath Beth Israel
Rev. Dr. Pastor Marilyn Williams, Salem Mission Faith Ministries
Rev Dr. Duane Anders, Cathedral of the Rockies
Pastor Benjamin Cremer, Methodist, Cathedral of the Rockies
Pastor Andrew Kukla, First Presbyterian Church
Reverend Jenny Willison Hirst, Collister United Methodist Church
Reverend Sara LaWall, Boise Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
Reverend Kelly Wadsworth, Westminster Presbyterian Church
Reverend Carol Mckinley, Unitarian Universalist
Miss Melissa Hunt, Unitarian Universalist
Rabbi Seth Goldstein, Temple Beth Hatfiloh
Executive Director Elise DeGooyer, Faith Action Network
Faith Action Network representative Michaelyn Olson, Olympia Zen Center
Rev. Lara Crutsinger-Perry, United Churches of Olympia
Bishop Meggan Manlove, Northwest Intermountain Synod ELCA
Member Sarah Rohrs, Racial Justice Organizing Committee
Coordinator Debbie Mallis, Interfaith Equality Coalition
Reverend Christina Thompson, United Methodist Church
Executive Director Roy Ledesma, Congregation Ahavath Beth Israel
Pastor of Spiritual Formation Irene Laudeman, Cathedral of the Rockies
Physician Ann Agnew, Southminster Presbyterian Church
Mrs. Ruth Ann Alm, Southminster Presbyterian Church
Rev Hillary Roethlisberger, Presbyterian Church USA
Father Joseph Farnes, All Saints Episcopal Church, Boise ID
Former Moderator, Boise Presbytery Madeline Buckendorf
Pastor TJ Remaley, Boise Presbytery
Mr. Tom Wheeler, Southminster Presbyterian Church of Boise, ID
Mr. Michael Miller, HomeFound Real Estate Group
Director of Operations Paige McKinney, HomeFound Real Estate Group
Realtor Ashley Syms, Home Found Group
Realtor Wyatt Gassiot, Home Found Real Estate Group
Business Owner Michael Miller, Homefoundgroup Boise
Senior Minister Jackie Holland, Center for Spiritual Living
Christian Citizen Sheila Finseth, American
Retired Priest David Wettstein, Episcopal Church
Lay MInister Rochelle Killett, Nampa First United Methodist Church
Pastor Laura Creech, Nampa United Church of Christ
Rev. Daryl Blanksma, Whitney United Methodist Church
Reverend Barbara Condon, Evangelical Lutheran Churchc in America
Pastor Christie Dahlin, Hyde Park Mennonite Fellowship