The weatherman on the radio had said that New Year’s Eve would end on a nice day. But for Christian singer, Sean Feucht’s “Let Us Worship” gathering at the Echo Park Lake on Thursday, things were anything but nice.
It began with the unrelated discovery of a man’s body that had been floating by the Lady of the Lake statue on the north end of the park.
Police were on site conducting an investigation into what looked like an accidental drowning. Although it had no connection to the New Year’s Eve gathering planned by Feucht who was not in attendance, it set an eerie undertone for how things would unfold.
The second of Feucht’s homeless outreach event in Los Angeles was met with resistance by homeless advocates and activists concerned that the typically unmasked gatherings would create a super spreader event that could pose a risk for the unhoused population living in the park.
Protesters lambasted and heckled the Evangelicals with disorienting siren sound effects that blared out of handheld megaphones. A bitonal Stravinsky-esque noise filled the air as the Evangelical rock band’s musical performance clashed with the rap and rhythm and blues tunes protesters blasted out of a giant speaker.
Chants like, “You’re not welcomed in our community without a mask.” and “Satan is here today without a mask” mixed with Christian singsongs and prayers throughout the day.
A small group of independent community activists dressed in traditional indigenous attire performed a ceremony around the crowd of Christian worshipers, that, Maria Villamil said was done to acknowledge the ancestral indigenous lands on which the event was taking place.
She associated the Feucht gathering with the tactics, she said, were used by “Conquistadors” and “Colonizers” to spread diseases amongst the indigenous communities in the Americas when blankets infected with smallpox were handed out as gifts.
“This is an inhumane and unconscionable act,” Villamil said. “They come here without masks from other cities experiencing high levels of the virus and putting an already vulnerable homeless population at greater risk. It’s an injustice.”
The night before, Feucht congregants had been hampered by a blockade of vehicles organized by the Los Angeles Community Action Network and Church Without Walls in Downtown’s Skid Row where the first homeless outreach event was scheduled to take place, according to the L.A. Times.
“It’s what we’ve seen all year long across America,” Feucht tweeted on Friday with a video that showed a man flipping over speakers and part of the band’s drum kit in Echo Park. “After enduring Portland and Chicago, our team didn’t miss a beat in LA. THE CHURCH HAS LEFT THE BUILDING.”
Feucht, a Redding, California resident and member of the Bethel Church, garnered notoriety over the maskless concerts and rallies he’s used to protest the states’ COVID-19 restrictions on religious worship during the pandemic.
He made a Republican run for Congress back in March but failed to gain enough votes to win. And in June, he angered the local community in Minneapolis, Chicago, when he showed up to perform near the site where people were mourning the death of George Floyd.
“These people are putting other people in danger by being so inconsiderate,” Sunflower, a protester who declined to give her full name said. “It’s so easy to put on a mask. It’s literally like putting your pants on. You’ve got two legs, you’ve got two ears, put them one over the other.”
In February, Sunflower, who suffers from asthma, had been hospitalized after she contracted COVID-19, she said. Despite having survived she can still feel the virus’ long-term effects as an asthmatic. But what she lamented the most was having lost an uncle to the virus.
Over 10,000 L.A. County residents were reported to have died a COVID-19 related death as of Wednesday, Dec. 30, according to a Los Angeles County Department of Public Health press release published the same day.
“[The] tragic milestone comes as New Year’s Eve approaches,” the press release reads. “to date, Public Health identified 756,116 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County and a total of 10,056 deaths.”
“I have my belief system, they have theirs,” a Cincinnati, Ohio resident, Rylan Hickman said. Hickman, who was in attendance in Echo Park as part of the “Let Us Worship” group wore a mask but said that protesters didn’t fully understand what they were trying to do:
“I honor what they believe,” he said. “But what they have to understand is that the things that they’re saying is contradicting their actions. There should be a freedom of speech and a freedom of worship, according to the Constitution. I have no hatred toward anybody. I honestly pray for these people.”
Later that evening, a larger third Feucht New Year’s Eve gathering was reported to have taken place by the L.A. Times. About 2,500 attendees gathered in a church parking lot in Valencia, California. Most without masks and little to no social distancing.
Back in Echo Park, 45-year-old, LeTrenna Larry is four months pregnant. She lives with her partner Nathan in one of the tents. She’s experienced chronic homelessness throughout the pandemic. She was let go from her job as a security guard after her employer found out she was homeless.
The lack of affordable housing in the city made worse under the pandemic priced both LeTrenna and her partner out of a home. When she heard the commotion taking place outside her tent, she didn’t quite understand what was going on at first.
“I’m confused,” LeTrenna said. “But I think the people that are trying to advocate and help us are the ones I’d want to go with. While the ones that are not trying to help, I think that’s evil and demonic. People are suffering.”
Notes From MacArthur Park/Pico-Union... 