BOISE, Idaho — Worship leaders held a concert on the steps of the Idaho State Capitol building Sunday evening, as part of a nationwide tour bringing worship music to every state.
Sean Feucht is the Christian singer who's spearheading the Kingdom to the Capitol tour. He drew roughly 1,000 people to Idaho's capital - and a few dozen counter-protesters.
The Kingdom to the Capitol tour is organized by TPUSA Faith.
"Our mission is to get the church to engage civically, we believe the church should shape culture," Caleb Collier, Cascade regional manager of TPUSA Faith said. "We're out here empowering churches and pastors to address moral issues from the pulpit."
The tour is hitting every state capital over the next two years, Idaho was its 24th stop. It's part of 'Let Us Worship' - a movement that started in July of 2020.
"The church has been a place where people can go in their time in need, and they can seek comfort, and they can seek prayer, and the government shut it down," Collier said. "Sean was out there worshipping Jesus out in the public and the movement caught on, because there were a lot of people that were hungry for truth. And as Christians, we believe the greatest truth is Jesus Christ."
The concert drew a counter-protest organized by Satanic Idaho and Idaho Abortion Rights.
"Really, it's about creating space for marginalized folks and people who are impacted by Christian nationalism," Rowan Astra, co-organizer of Satanic Idaho said. "People who want to speak out against the harm that Christian nationalists do in our legislature against abortion rights, LGBT rights - especially in Idaho. I feel that it's important to counter these folks. We're not going to make it easy for them to be bigots, not in our town."
Both groups had permits to be there. The concert was in front of the statehouse steps, while the counter-protesters were at Cecil Andrus Park.
"Honestly, we live in the freest country in the world, and we all have that ability of freedom of speech," Collier said. "So they have every right to be out here. But when you look at the message of what they believe versus what we believe, there are a group of people that unfortunately are just in the chains of sin and addiction, and they're confused about so many different issues. What we offer over on this side is freedom - true freedom."
Astra said the majority of the counter-protesters are not against religion or Christianity.
"We're against Christian nationalism, something that Sean Feucht has defined himself as," Astra said. "Christian nationalists believe only Christians should be legislators, only Christian doctrine should apply to U.S. citizens, and we simply are for the Constitution - and believe that's unconstitutional. It's not about hating Christianity. It's about fighting for everyone's rights and preventing a theocracy."
The Kingdom to the Capitol tour is making its next stops in South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa.
"We're actually on the third stop of this leg," Collier said. "So Friday, we were down in Olympia, we had about 6000 Christians in Olympia worshiping God right there. Yesterday, we were in Salem, and we had about 3000 Christians show up to that one. And it's so empowering to be a part of this movement to see so many people."
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