Sean Feucht is the Christian Singer and political activist who embraces Christian Nationalism and other far-right ideals. He famously made a name for himself by holding COVID super-spreader events in the middle of the pandemic back in 2020. That involved holding huge outdoor concerts where he told people to forget about masks, just turn up, and so embrace the opportunity to die and be with Jesus. It later evolved into protests against BLM, and so that could best be described as racists-R-us-for-Jesus.
Here is an example of that: “Hundreds gather at Portland waterfront Saturday evening, without masks, to see controversial worship leader“ (Oregon Live, Aug 2020)
Far Right?
Well yes, this same guy felt that the best use of his time at one point in 2022 was to turn up outside Disney and participate in anti-LGTBQ+ protests, but only after he made sure that the cameras were there ready to record.
He is also apparently “a close friend” (cough cough) of Lauren Boebert …
- Lauren Boebert denies having an affair with a country singer: ‘How can I be with a man with better hair than me?’ (May 23rd) … and yes, she is quoted as really saying that.
If what is alleged is true, then I’m not really sure I actually care what they do, and would only flag it up as just one more example of religious hypocrisy.
Both Sean and Lauren deny it, and of course both are very trustworthy upright decent citizens who have never ever been caught lying (cough cough). {That’s not me coughing, that’s my lawyer doing that}.
So anyway, putting that aside, I have a rather sordid and deeply sad little piece regarding one of his conversion success stories, so let’s now swiftly move on to that.
The basic Story
Earlier this year in June, Feucht had his car broken into. The back window was smashed and a guitar that he highly cherished had been stolen. He tweeted about this at the time …
To be clear, I’m not in any way suggesting that this was faked. As best as I can tell it really happened, and so it must have been quite shocking for it to have happened.
Three days later, resurrection, it’s a miracle, the lost guitar was back to life. Well yes, forgive my religious imagery, but happy times because his deeply cherished guitar was back …
Apparently the return of the car was a “Miracle” and so we are supposed to think that the maker of the entire universe, all 2 trillion galaxies with hundreds of billions of stars in each galaxy, decided to supernaturally intervene to ensure that a guy who believe his imaginary friend is real got his wooden box that has a few strings on it returned. One can only wonder why the supposedly all-knowing-one did not supernaturally intervene a tad earlier and send a gang of angels to protect the car of the chosen one.
Well OK, a tad tongue in cheek there. Let’s assume that use the of word “Miracle” is just Christian speak for “something nice happened”. I still suspect, if asked, he would indeed claim that getting his guitar back was “supernatural”, but I’ll let that slide.
He goes on to explain what actually happened …
Next up is the conversion story that supposedly happened a week or two later …
… because of course drug addicts tend to wander the streets feeling guilty about stealing guitars and will immediately fall at the feet of any passing street evangelist full of remorse and happy to convert, that’s what happens in the real world … right?
Of the thousands out there, the one who stole the Sean’s guitar is the only one who actually responded like this … right?
That’s a cue for, “Oh yea of little faith“, or in my case, none at all where it comes to grifters like Feucht, “its a miracle, something supernatural took place” … well no, but we will get to that.
A Few Months Later
It all gets hyped up to the next level …
“Surprised me” … actually no, that’s a lie, it was all rigged, but we will come to that later.
By the end of August the guitar thief was now supposedly a new man, he had been “saved”, and was getting baptised up in stage in front of a crowd of supposedly 7,000 at one of Sean’s shows. (I don’t believe anything these guys state, with good reason, and that includes the claimed numbers).
Just to make sure that this “miracle” was broadcast far and wide the baptism was all captured on camera so that it could then be replayed again and again and again …
Interestingly enough, Zack, the guy who had supposedly converted way back in early July, still looks like he had been pulled off the street a few hours earlier, but that’s a clue that most of Sean’s adoring fans would happily miss because it would conflict with what they thought was going on
If we stopped at this point then you have your typical conversion narrative, a story with a happy ending.
However …
Of course there is a “however”, because the acceptance of what dishonest grifters like Sean dish up would be a Skepticism 101 failure.
The Reveal – Via Aaron Hedge of RANGE Media
Aaron Hedge of RANGE Media did a truly excellent deep dive into all this, so the credit for the reveal comes via him doing a lot of journalistic heavy lifting and footwork.
Published on Nov 6, and titled “Zach Williams Meets the Christian Nationalist Redemption Machine“, is is a truly jaw dropping piece that reveals just how grossly dishonest and deliberately deceptive Sean Feucht has been.
Read it all and weep for both the victims and also the believers who has been totally conned.
I’ll cherry pick the key points, but don’t let that deter you from clicking the link above. Aaron was also very careful to independently validate it all.
A key summary of the article is this: “Far-right celebrity pastor Sean Feucht, Matt Shea and allies built a massive media campaign claiming to have saved the soul of an unhoused Spokane man. The man tells a different story.“
So yes, he found the supposed convert Zack and got his side of it all.
Did Zack actually steal the Guitar?
He confirms that he did.
Zack has been forced by local laws into doing this. He is a homeless guy was is struggling to get documentation that enables his to get housing, but the system is against him at every turn. For example …
he lives under the shadow of a no-show warrant for his arrest, and so he breaks into cars and steals things he can sell or trade, which is what brought him into contact with Feucht. He said his partner disapproves of his crimes, but what else is he to do? If he panhandles, he breaks the city’s anti-panhandling law and risks being detained. He’s desperate to avoid jail.
“I don’t do it because I want to,” Williams said of his burglary. “I do it because I have to in order to survive.”
If you were in his position then what would you do?
Please don’t say “get a job”, because with no documentation and no address, he can’t get one. We have created a social trap, a society of “haves” and “have-nots”. There really is no easy way out for people like Zack, and many don’t make it.
So this is what happened, in Zack’s own words …
“I was riding my longboard, going through a regular area that I hit to get my money for food and clothing and my drugs that I do,” Williams said. “And I seen a guitar case in the back of a car, and I looked around and put this little pen thing to the window of the car and pushed it. It broke the window. I grabbed the guitar, put it on my back, and rode off.”
Lie 1 – Zack did not sell it to buy drugs to a Pawn shop
What happened next is that Dean McCarty, a member of On Fire Ministries who works with local homeless people, saw a text about the theft and knew that it was most probably stolen by Zack, so he tracked him down and offered him a reward of $110 to just return it. Zack happily agreed, even though he knew he could have most probably obtained a lot more from a pawn shop.
Why?
Well because … “I thought it would be the right thing.” Zack explains.
Did Feucht misunderstand how the guitar had been found?
There were specific texts sent with the precise details of what had actually happened, but Feucht decided to spin it for his own ends.
There was even a later text sent to Feucht to correct the details he was claiming, but he stuck with the public story anyway. He also later failed to correct any media outlets that he appeared on and continued to replay his manufactured myth.
OK, let’s be really generous. All we have at this point is a bit of an exaggeration by Feucht. If this was all there was, then honestly, not a big deal.
But wait, what about the claimed conversion, we saw Zack get baptised, so that must be all true … right?
Let’s get into that now.
The Baptism
Feucht reached out to Dean McCarty and his church explaining that he would be back in town on Aug 20 doing a show and could he go find Zack and get him to come along.
McCarty found him, and invited Zack to come, Zack agreed.
Speacking directly to Zack, the journalist discovered that Zack did not convert.
He lays out what happened when he turned up …
Williams said the group then asked if he would get baptized, the Christian ritual in which sinners’ unclean past is washed away as they are dunked in water and they are born anew. “I’m like, ‘No, I don’t want to get baptized right now.’”
Williams said they replied, “Oh, c’mon, man, you gotta get baptized.”
Williams said he again refused, but that they continued to pressure him.
“And they kept on doing it for like 15, 20 minutes, begging me to get baptized, and I’m like, ‘Fuck, okay, let’s go do it.’”
… Williams said he did not know the baptism scene was being filmed or that it would be broadcast
In other words they hounded and pressured him for 15-20 minutes continuously until he agreed.
That’s very very cult like.
Later, once they had what they needed, they dumped Zack back out on the streets and did nothing more for him … just like Jesus would.
Meanwhile Feucht proceeds to vigorously promote the supposed “conversion”, not just at that concert, but on social media and also via every other media outlet that would have him. He even got on Fox News with it.
The claim below is a deliberate lie, Feucht knows this is not true at all …
No he is not staying with a church family, no he did not convert.
Instead Zack is still homeless back on the streets and using fentanyl.
Meanwhile we have this from Dean …
McCarty correctly suspected that Williams did not accept Jesus on that stage and criticized Feucht for exaggerating the tale. “You’re stretching it to make a story, and you’re full of crap,” McCarty said, pretending he was speaking to Feucht. “We don’t need to make a show of this deal.”
Indeed yes, Dean nailed it, Feucht is indeed …”full of crap“.
Meanwhile Zack says that …
He still uses fentanyl, and said he smokes at a frequency of between every other hour and every half hour. He appears able to score despite what he called a “drought” in the local supply. He’s still generous with his resources. A man who appeared to also be unhoused stopped by Williams’s sidewalk perch and asked if he could “spare some foil,” a widely-used tool of fentanyl use. Williams dug into his pack, pulled out a sheet of aluminum and tore a piece off for the man. Then he promised to give some of his pizza to some other unhoused folks who were sitting on the sidewalk just down the street.
He hopes he will soon have enough income to stop breaking into cars and get a place. Then, maybe his partner will return to him.
“I really don’t want to do this shit no more,” he said. “I really don’t.” He mentions his partner’s disapproval of his breaking into cars, saying, “I don’t blame her. It’s dangerous. I could get into a car, try to grab something. Somebody could come out and shoot me.”
…
…he called the experience at Let Us Worship “creepy,” vowing to never put himself through an ordeal like that again.
Last Word
I’m very strongly tempted to now vent a bit more here about Feucht, but honestly, I don’t need to. His own actions say it all.
Instead let’s permit Zack to have the final word …
And, while accepting Jesus is something most Christians believe is open to anyone, it seems clear that, in Williams’s two decades of experience on the streets, acceptance back into society is a door that only opens from the inside.
“We usually shy away from you guys because we’re scared of the reaction that you’re going to give us or whether you’re going to judge us or how you’re going to mistreat us,” he said. “We’re humans, too. We bleed the same blood you guys bleed.”