Liberty Counsel Files Major Lawsuit Against City of Seattle 

Mayor incited violence against Christian worshippers. 

Mayor Bruce Harrell, Police Chief Shon Barnes, and Seattle city officials purposefully set Christians up for violent attack by Washington state’s infamously violent antifa and radical LGBTQ activists.

Seattle city officials wanted to teach Christians a lesson five months ago — Public worship of Jesus Christ will be met with violence: Stay home, stay silent — or else.

Liberty Counsel filed suit against the City of Seattle, the mayor and the police chief this past Tuesday, September 30.

We will not allow Christians to be abused and attacked by anti-God, anti-religious-liberty terrorists, and terror-supporting city officials.

Don’t let woke city officials continue abusing Christians! Fund our latest court battle by supporting our legal fund today. Every donation will be DOUBLED in impact by a special Challenge Grant.

In September, President Donald Trump officially designated antifa as a domestic terror organization. Thank God, because this group has wreaked havoc and destruction on peaceful citizens of this country for over a decade, including direct violence against our clients just five months ago.

In May, antifa joined forces with radical LGBTQ groups to attack Christians who only sought to peacefully worship and pray in a public park — and the entire attack was effectively set up by city officials. 

Christian organizations and churches planned a series of nationwide public worship services for May, including one in Seattle on May 24. Called “Mayday,” the events were intended to praise the Lord and sound an alarm for Christians to pray for our country.

Seattle city officials refused to grant a permit for the park the Christians had chosen. Instead, city officials ordered the Christians to hold their event at a park in what the officials knew to be an LGBTQ and antifa enclave. The churches had no choice — either hold their event in this area or don’t receive a permit. City officials knowingly set the Christians up for disaster.

The worshippers arrived at their permitted event on May 24, but what was intended for prayer and praise quickly turned into chaos and violence.

The LGBTQ and antifa rioters arrived at the park dressed in black and wearing face masks to hide their identities. They soon began assaulting the Christians. The entire melee was caught on video, giving evidence of exactly who enacted the violence.

• A 17 year old was threatened with a knife as he prayed.
• LGBTQ adherents filled balloons with urine and pelted worshippers.
• Antifa pepper sprayed and tear-gassed the worshippers.
• Sexual deviants dressed in an array of obscene LGBTQ outfits sexually accosted children and elderly alike.

Defend these Christians and Churches by supporting our legal fund!

Chaos ensued. Yet Seattle’s Democrat mayor, Bruce Harrell, blamed Christians, and openly LIED, claiming the Christians had demanded to hold their event in Seattle’s largest LGBTQ neighborhood.  

Mayor Harrell labeled the Christians as “far right extremists,” even though video evidence proves the Christians remained peaceful while under attack. In fact, 23 antifa and LGBTQ members were arrested. But Mayor Harrell never mentioned that — or the fact that the City forced the Christians to hold their event in a neighborhood where they would almost certainly be attacked. 

Liberty Counsel represents several lead Mayday organizers, including Russell Johnson, lead pastor of The Pursuit, a Christian church in Washington; Jenny Donnelly, founder and president of Her Voice Movement Inc.; Robert Donnelly; and Ross Johnston. 

In our pleading to the court, we note that “Mayday’s voice was silenced by the city’s weaponization of the unbridled discretion granted to it under its permitting scheme … to target, censor, and unconstitutionally restrict Mayday’s religious beliefs, expression, and speech.”

Seattle created a situation that set up the Mayday Christians to be victims of violence, then blamed the Christians. Such actions, especially when they involve violence, tend to have a chilling effect designed to silence.

Thankfully, Liberty Counsel has fought and won scores of cases of this nature, and we will not stop until every attempt to rob Christians of their freedom is eradicated.

But this legal work protecting religious freedom is expensive, and we need your direct financial support to fight and win these cases. We never charge our clients because we know that few people, let alone humble churches, have the financial resources to battle major cities’ well-funded budgets. 

Instead, our clients rely on YOU, the faithful Liberty Counsel supporter, to ensure religious liberty remains FREE.

Please support our legal fund today with a generous single gift or even a recurring donation. Every donation made today will be DOUBLED in impact by a special Challenge Grant.