Anti-ICE protesters attack Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota during Sunday worhip service

In what is one of the more egregious examples of anti-ICE protests taking place in Minnesota, an anti-ICE organization attacked a local congregation’s Sunday worship service on Sunday, January 18. Members of Cities Church in St. Paul, MN were participating in their regular Sunday worship service when 30-40 anti-ICE protesters stormed the church, yelling anti-ICE slogans, derogatory remarks, and accusations that the Church members were “pretend Christians” because they were not participating in the anti-ICE protests.

Cities Church was chosen because protesters believe that one of the associate pastors, David Easterwood, is the ICE agent involved in a lawsuit accusing him, as well as Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Director Todd Lyons, of racial profiling, unlawful seizure and unlawful arrest of citizens of Minnesota. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed the lawsuit, along with several other law firms. Cities Church has neither confirmed nor denied Easterwood’s asociation with ICE.

Somehow, in the minds of these protesters, Easterwood’s alleged association with ICE gives them permission to attack a church congregation during their Sunday service, and do so with impunity. All of the protesters, I suspect, believe their actions justified by the cause they champion, and also that they will or should suffer no consequences for their actions. These are the types of people who believe the ends justify the means (so long as it’s their ends that are being promoted), and that people who disagree with them have no rights whatsoever. They will likely be in shock if they are arrested and convicted of the crime they committed. At least two of the organizers of the attack have been arrested.

For they did commit a crime. The 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances and Places of Religious Worship Act (FACE Act), which was intended in part to protect abortion mills from pro-life protesters, and which was used by the Biden administration to charge with a federal crime anyone who came within a stone’s throw of an abortion clinic with sign, pamphlet, or rosary in hand, also forbids intimidation, use of force or threat of force, physical obstruction and property damage targeted at church worshippers. There’s no question that the protesters in Cities Church were practicing threatening behavior intended to intimidate the members of the congregation, including children present.

At least one Christian justified the attack, insisting that Cities Church was suffering the judgment of God against their lack of charity toward their neighbors, while serving the American “empire.” Pastor Rodney Kennedy of Louisiana wrote in an article in Baptist News Global that, “Cities Church in Minneapolis [sic] is not being persecuted for faithfulness to the gospel, but for allegiance to the American empire.” Rev. Kennedy went on to say, “I think God is using unexpected prophets to judge Cities Church. … MAGA churches are not being persecuted for righteousnes but for not loving their neighbors. They are being persecuted by unexpected judgment, like Jesus cleansing the temple.” Now, I don’t know anything about Cities Church. Perhaps Rev. Kennedy knows more of what he speaks. For he unabashedly accuses them of some pretty grevious acts: “MAGA evangelicals have been raising hell in American politics. Their movement is filled with economic angst, racism, religious bigotry, antifeminism and hostility toward immigrants, science, the media and democracy. They have given birth to a Christian nationalism that is neither Christian nor patriotic.”

Don Lemon, the former CNN host and now unemployed journalist, was present, filming much of the attack. Lemon accused the members of Cities Church of being “entitled” by “white supremacy.” If anyone seems entitled, honestly, it’s the protesters attacking the church. I doubt many or any of those protesting know anything about Cities Church or the people who worship there. But they feel utterly justified in their attack on the worshippers, regarding them as “pretend Christians,” “comfortable white people who are living lavish comfortable lives” and “doing nothing” for immigrants.

One of those arrested by the FBI for allegedly organizing the attack on Cities Church is Nekima Levy Armstrong. Pam Bondi, U. S. Attorney General, made clear her intentions to arrest and charge those who organized and participated in the protest at Cities Church. Writing on the social media platform X, Bondi said: “Listen loud and clear: WE DO NOT TOLERATE ATTACKS ON PLACES OF WORSHIP.” Armstrong, who is currently CEO of Dope Roots, a marijuana company, was formerly Executive Director of the Wayfinder Foundation, a foundation that extends grants to anti-poverty efforts in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. As Executive Director, Armstrong took in over $1 million in salary and benefits during her six years with Wayfinder. According to tax filings for 2024, Wayfinder paid Armstrong $215,726 in salary, plus another $40,000+ in benefits while awarding only $158,811 in grants to anti-poverty initiatives. The two previous years showed the same pattern, where Armstrong’s salary and benefits combined represented a far larger sum than the grants awarded. All told, during Armstrong’s 2019 to 2024 tenure with the Wayfinder Foundation, she took home a salary of over $930,000 plus over $200,000 more in benefits, while the foundation awarded only $700,000 in grants. It seems the Wayfinder Foundation’s main purpose was to support its Executive Director, while awarding grants to anti-poverty initiatives was only a secondary thought. My personal experience with “social justice” organizations is that, within a few years, the chief goal of the organization is its continued existence and financial support of its employees, while the original mission takes a back seat.

The purpose of Sunday worship is to be nourished by word and sacrament and to give God due praise, thanksgiving, and honor for the many gifts He has given, especially for the grace of forgiveness of our sins and salvation in Christ. The target of that praise and honor is different according to the tradtion of the worshipping community. But Sunday, or Friday or Saturday worship, is set aside for that – worship. The congregation may be involved in any number of other concerns, especially related to the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. But Sunday worship is not for politicking, for supporting any one of a number of noble causes, or for intermingling the relationship between church and state. Sunday worship is for worship. To invade this sacred time and space to protest the perceived lack of concern in the actions of others you don’t know but are happy to judge as inadequate in their faith and actions is to desecrate that sacred time and space. This is not to say that worship takes priority over service to others. It is to say that there is a time and place for all of it. There certainly are those Christians who believe that worship should be their focus, and the works of mercy play a much lesser role in their walk with Christ. There are others who regard service to others as the true mark of Christian identity, and worship as a luxury the Church cannot always afford in times of crisis. Both are wrong. We are to worship Jesus and serve Jesus. Serve Jesus and worship Jesus. Because if you’re trying to worship Jesus but you aren’t serving Jesus it may, in fact, be someone else you worship. And if you’re trying to serve Jesus but you aren’t worshipping Jesus it may, in fact, be someone else you serve.

The truth of the Gospel is that we are to worship and serve, to serve and worship. It is not too much to keep both a priority, each with its place in the life of the believer, and of the believing community. To prevent the Church from performing the corporal and spiritual works of mercy – to forbid, for instance, assistance to the poor because they happen to be asking for assistance at a particular street corner – is to prevent the Church from carrying out her God-given mission to serve those in need, and not only when and where the State feels it convenient. To prevent the Church from worshipping – to decide, for instance, that people who carry out their commitment of service in a way you don’t, don’t deserve to worship peaceably is to prevent the Church from carrying out her God-ordained obligation to render praise, thanksgiving, and honor to God. Only those who emphasize one of these – worship and service – over the other can make the mistake of seeing in a congregation’s Sunday worship service an opportunity to attack them for their perceived, or even actual, lack of commitment to a particular social justice cause.

Judging people you don’t know as not responding adequately to the Gospel lacks wisdom and humility. It lacks wisdom because it fails to recognize that following the Gospel according to one’s own standards is not the standard by which one will be judged. It is Christ’s standard by which all will be judged. It lacks humility because it forgets that the measure with which one measures will be used to measure you and, for each of us, our sins are sufficient for our damnation. None of us are saved by the Gospel of any particular political party or movement. We are saved by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And, more than anything else, what Jesus Christ demands is faith in Him, repentance from our sins, relying on His mercy won for us by His blood, and loving God and neighbor. How that works out for each of us is going to be different. But it is not for anyone to tell anyone else, “You don’t do as I do, so you don’t love as the Gospel commands.” That judgment against others is a fast track to hell. We may judge actions, and even lack of action in time of crisis, but we cannot judge the human heart or pretend to determine how another stands before God. And why would we want to? Is your walk with Jesus so uncomplicated and docile that you have time, much less the inclination, to waste your time judging others to heaven or hell, as if your input counted?

Yes, it is for the Church to stand up against tyranny and oppression. For those in the protest movement who sincerely believe that ICE is working for the devil’s cause, I appreciate their zeal and commitment. But that zeal and commitment may not suck up the innocent who are merely trying. as are we all, to ascertain the best Gospel response to this or any other particular crisis. Let’s give each other room to be wrong. Let’s admit that we may be wrong. And, more than anything else, let’s all never forget that the blood of Christ is the only thing on which any of us stand if we hope to be saved.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.