Religious extremism not welcome

Late last year a new group formed in our Spokane community: The Church at Planned Parenthood (TCAPP).

The leader of TCAPP, a local pastor of another church, states that the purpose of TCAPP is to “simply worship.” Yet what we see every month is a large group of armed citizens gathering outside of Planned Parenthood, a health care facility, and violating the city’s noise ordinance without proof of a permit. The Spokane Police Department will not enforce our city’s noise ordinance and has been asked to on multiple occasions.

This same group is now going to Planned Parenthood during patient hours and blaring loud “worship” music outside their doors in the hopes of catching or “rescuing” women when they go in or out. This group is purposely impeding the ability for a health care facility to run.

My question: why is the city allowing this group to violate a noise ordinance? Why the preferential treatment? This group openly advocates against the LGBTQ+ and Muslim community. Their rhetoric is dangerous. Their ideology is Christian dominionism and it needs to be addressed for what it is: religious extremism. This type of extremism and hate is not welcome in Spokane and must be defeated.

Alyssa MacKay

Spokane