I’m going to be honest. I was mad as a hornet when I saw what happened this morning to Cities Church, a Southern Baptist congregation in St. Paul, Minnesota. For those of you who haven’t seen the news, a group of leftist radicals shut down Cities Church’s worship service by shouting down the pastor, marching around the sanctuary yelling protests against ICE, and haranguing the men, women, and children who were gathered for worship.
For a first person account of what happened, see the video below which was posted by one of the protesters. Please note the vile things coming out of the protester’s mouth and the terrified child being comforted by his father at 1:05.
Here’s what happened inside Cities Church today. Look at the terrified child being comforted by his father at 1:05.
If the FACE Act isn’t enforced against these lawless radicals, then expect for this to continue all over the country.@AAGDhillon pic.twitter.com/uV8Btg1tFX
— Denny Burk (@DennyBurk) January 19, 2026
I don’t know how any Christian can watch this and not feel outrage over this spectacle. One of the signs of being a Christian is that it matters to you deeply when other Christians suffer or are mistreated for their faith (Hebrews 10:34), and that is definitely what happened at Cities Church this morning. A group a radicals marched into that church and shouted down the worship service.
Let that sink in.
You can see the pastor trying his best to tell the protesters to leave, but they shout him down too with a wave of insults and slogans. It is an ugly, ungodly sacrilege. It is a desecration of worship and an affront to the holiness of God.
Former CNN journalist Don Lemon also led a team into the church to “report” on the protest. I put “report” in scare quotes because he wasted no time to find the pastor, take the side of the protesters, and falsely accuse the pastor of “pushing” him (watch here). Don Lemon behaved disgracefully. He can pretend he was there doing dispassionate reporting, but you can see with your own eyes what he was doing. It wasn’t dispassionate reporting on events. It was leftist pot-stirring disguising itself as “journalism.” What a farce. Don’t be gaslit by Lemon.
Among the awful things that Lemon said and did while “reporting” on events was to tell the pastor that the protesters had a first amendment right to shut down the worship service with their protest. Lemon could not have been more wrong about that. It is actually against federal law to disrupt worship services like this.
Ironically, a federal law called the FACE Act – which has been used for years by Democrat politicians to prosecute pro-lifers at abortion clinics (like happened to a member of my own church) – that very same federal law prohibits protesters from disrupting worship services. That is why the Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi, has already announced that she is all over this:
Don Lemon couldn’t be more mistaken, and he’s probably going to get a call from the Attorney General’s investigators. I don’t see any evidence in the videos that Lemon had anything to do with organizing the protest, and he has denied that allegation. But the claim that he was just there doing dispassionate journalism is laughable. Whatever he was doing, it wasn’t that.
So yeah. I’ve been mad as a hornet, and maybe you have been too. And for good reason. But as the day has worn on, I don’t want anger to be my only response. We do, after all, serve a Savior who when reviled did not revile in return or utter any threats but “kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously” (1 Pet. 2:23). He also gave us our marching orders for situations like this: “love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:44-45).
If none of those words from King Jesus have crossed your mind since seeing all this, it would be good to remember them now. During the confrontation, these words seemed to be on the mind of Pastor Jonathan Parnell, who acquitted himself admirably in the videos I saw. Like the pastor, our response to these kinds of outrages must be otherworldly if we really wish to bear witness to a kingdom that sinners cannot see with their eyes. If they don’t see it in us, they won’t see it anywhere. Remember that.
Having said that, a part of “entrusting ourselves to Him who judges righteously” means to forsake any kind of personal retribution and to “leave room for the wrath of God” (Rom. 12:19). That means that we trust God to settle all accounts in accord with His perfect justice in the age to come. In this age also, we have governing authorities who can be “a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil” (Rom. 13:4). Because the government bears the “sword,” you don’t have to. And if the Attorney General’s words are any indication, the sword-bearers are on their way.
In the meantime, be angry, and do not sin (Ephesians 4:26). Pray that Cities Church and all our congregations will be able to lead peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and dignity and that we will be free from abusive authorities and chaotic protesters (1 Timothy 2:2). Pray that our governing authorities would do their job and use their authority to become a terror to those who do evil (Romans 13:3).
Finally, pray for these sad sinners who desecrated the worship service. They touched the apple of God’s eye today (Zechariah 2:8). If they don’t repent of their sin and trust Christ, they will spend eternity suffering the unrelenting wrath of God in hell (2 Thessalonians 1:6-8). Pray that there will be some Sauls among them (1 Timothy 1:13). There may yet be some. God, let it be so.
