The leaders of a St. Paul church are contemplating legal action against the activists who disrupted a Sunday service after the intruders determined one of the pastors works as the acting director of ICE’s field office in St. Paul.
A statement released on Jan. 20 by Cities Church to the Minnesota Star Tribune said “the group of agitators jarringly disrupted our worship gathering. They accosted members of our congregation, frightened children and created a scene marked by intimidation.”
The statement said the ambush, which included Minneapolis civil rights activist Nekima Levy Armstrong, was “shameful, unlawful and will not be tolerated. Invading a church service to disrupt the worship of Jesus — or any other act of worship — is protected by neither the Christian Scriptures nor the laws of this nation."
Houses of worship, the statement continued, “are meant to be places of peace and solace, where worshipers can hear and live out this message. We therefore call on local, state and national leaders to protect this fundamental right.”
David Easterwood, a pastor at Cities Church, is named in a pending class action lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Minnesota for aggressive tactics used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during the agency’s long-running crackdown on undocumented immigrants.
Easterwood was not leading the Sunday service. Lead pastor Jonathan Parnell was confronted by the activists. In a video of the protest, Parnell can be heard telling activists, “Shame on you.”
Activists in the pews, including members of Black Lives Matter Minnesota, chanted “justice for Renee Good,” the Minneapolis woman who was fatally shot Jan. 7 by an ICE agent, as they stood up in the middle of the sermon.
Local independent journalist Georgia Fort and former CNN host Don Lemon were looped in ahead of the protest and reported from the sanctuary.
