The Trumpvangelical worship leader and provocateur had a golden opportunity to defend himself against charges of financial hanky-panky. He b
Darrell Lucus at Loud, Liberal, Christian:
A few months ago, one of my Facebook friends—a radical lefty Black Christian like yours truly—mused that right-wing evangelicals believed that Donald Trump would expose the corruption of the left. But in the decade since Trump came down the escalator, it’s elements of the church that are being exposed to the hot lights—and melting under them. It’s not just the large numbers of so-called moral guardians who not only bowed and prayed to the orange god they helped make, but tried to bully the nation into joining them despite knowing he was a boor, a bully, a gangster, a traitor. Nor is it just how many of those same people thumbed their noses at COVID. The latter may come as a shock, even though it’s a major reason why people who are immunocompromised or have chronic illnesses were shut in for four years or more, and why there are parts of the country where in-person church is no longer safe for the immunocompromised and high-risk. [...]
Well, add another to the list—Sean Feucht. For those who don’t know, Feucht got his start as a worship leader at Bethel Church in Redding, California—one of the fountainheads of the New Apostolic Reformation, an overtly fascist offshoot of the religious right that believes it can bring about the Second Coming by taking over the world. He has since struck out on his own, and is better known as the leader of “Let Us Worship,” a series of worship concerts that started out as a protest against COVID restrictions that caused many churches to forgo in-person services for the better part of the spring and summer of 2020. It has since branched out to protests against most of the items on the right’s shit list—wokeness, cancel culture, the lot.
Late Sunday, however, Feucht got a rude awakening when five former staffers from his various ministries—Let Us Worship, his original worship project, Burn 24/7, and outreach ministry Light a Candle—released a report alleging their former boss was guilty of “longstanding and serious” misconduct, including numerous “moral, ethical, financial, organizational and governance failures.” While Feucht stands accused of behavior that is minor league compared to the misdeeds of Bickle, Joyner, and Morris, it’s still pretty staggering. According to the report, Feucht has a longstanding pattern of “manipulation, exaggeration, control, lying, gaslighting, and spiritual and emotional abuse.” He also reportedly has a bad habit of dipping into “ministry resources” for his own personal use. In their own accounts of their dealings with Feucht, they accuse him of coercion, diversion of funds, not paying people for their work, dysfunction, etc. They also claim Feucht’s board members have grossly disregarded their fiduciary duty.
[...] But the most eye-popping anecdote is Feucht’s high living. In the report’s executive summary, the whistleblowers claim that Feucht holds at least ten properties worth “multiple millions of dollars” in California, Montana, and Pennsylvania, even though his only employment over the last decade-plus has been operating his various nonprofits. Additionally, his ministry owns “multi-million-dollar ‘parsonages’” in Washington and San Juan Capistrano. [...]
Hankins herself took to Twitter to express her shock at Feucht’s callousness. A look at her feed provides the cherry on top of this saga. It turns out that Hankins is MAGA—and hardcore MAGA to boot. Her feed is full of retweets from MAGA luminaries, and her cover page touts Alex Jones. In other words, on paper Hankins is the very kind of person who would be receptive to Feucht whining that Soros is out to get him.
Conventional wisdom would suggest that this is the part where Hankins gets warned about “touching God’s anointed,” with the explanation that speaking out against someone supposedly being used by God like Feucht can carry dire consequences in both this world and the next. But I’m not seeing that here. The responses to her on Twitter and on Facebook have been overwhelmingly supportive. I have to confess—I was tempted to harrumph “FAFO!” when I saw Hankins’ profile. But when right-wingers realize that they’ve been swindled—by Trump, Feucht, or any of their other heroes—the last thing they need is smugness. You have to remember, folks, that hardcore Trumpers have spent the better part of a decade, or perhaps longer, in a bubble. They’ve been told for years that when Trump gets called out on his depravities, it’s all just lies ginned up by the deep state and their Democratic, never-Trumper, and FAKE NEWS media handmaidens. Supposedly, they’re so blinded with Trump Derangement Syndrome that they can’t see the good Trump is doing. If we scoff at people like Hankins, it takes the focus off people who really do need to find out—like Feucht. That being said, I’m calling it here and now—Feucht is going to find out, and find out in a very unpleasant way.
MAGA worship singer Sean Feucht is under the hot lamps for financial impropriety.
