A mob of three dozen activists overran a Southern Baptist church in St. Paul, Minnesota, last Sunday, shouting and otherwise disrupting congregants at their worship service and leaving young children frightened and crying. Instead of properly condemning this boorish intrusion, Minnesota’s top law enforcement officer praised it as “First Amendment activity.” Since the Democratic Party officials in power in Minnesota refuse to protect Christian worship from the mob, President Donald Trump must step in and prosecute those involved.
The militants reportedly targeted Cities Church because they believed one of its pastors was an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official, although this has not been confirmed. One of the clodhoppers who invaded the worship service was former CNN anchor Don Lemon, who was fired from the network in 2023 for harassing female colleagues. Harassment seems to be his thing. He justified the harassment of worshippers, saying, “I think people who are in religious groups like that, it’s not the type of Christianity that I practice … but that entitlement comes from a supremacy, a white supremacy.” He continued, “You have to make people uncomfortable in these times. You have to be willing to go into places and disrupt and make people uncomfortable.”
What a contemptible, shallow, and arrogant charlatan the man is.
Multiple videos from the event show that he and his fellow activists succeeded in making people uncomfortable, particularly children in the church who can be seen crying while the Lemon gang commandeers the sanctuary.
Kevin Ezell, president of the North American Mission Board, rightly characterized the intrusion, saying, “What occurred was not protest, it was lawless harassment.”
The protesters have the legal right to stand outside any building, even a church, and shout their slogans. But they do not have the right to enter the church and disrupt religious services. That is trespassing, it is illegal, and it should be rigorously prosecuted. It is a stain on the state of Minnesota that its chief law enforcement officer, Keith Ellison, does not know this.
Ellison, a Muslim, will not do his job and indeed defended his fellow vulgarians and mocked the Christians who had their church invaded. “They’re getting tender about a church service now,” Ellison joked to Lemon. Should they not? Should not the dignity and solemnity of a religious service be a refuge for decent people?
Fortunately, there is a federal law that allows the federal government to step in when state governments refuse to protect their citizens’ fundamental right to worship freely. The 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act prohibits interference of “any person by force, threat of force, or physical obstruction exercising or seeking to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship.”
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The physical obstruction of someone’s right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship is what Lemon and his attitudinizing fellows did, and Trump’s Department of Justice has noticed. “I just spoke to the pastor in Minnesota whose church was targeted,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said Sunday. “If state leaders refuse to act responsibly to prevent lawlessness, this Department of Justice will remain mobilized to prosecute federal crimes and ensure that the rule of law prevails.”
Democrats preach tolerance until Christians happen to be in law enforcement, then they think they have a right not to tolerate peaceful worship. When activists storm a sanctuary, frighten children, and get cheered on by the state attorney general, the message is clear. In Minnesota, religious liberty depends on whether the ruling party approves of your faith. If state officials won’t enforce the law, the federal government can, and should.
