Christian leaders urge protecting worshippers' rights after protesters
interrupt service
[January 20, 2026]
By GIOVANNA DELL'ORTO
Several faith leaders called urgently for protecting the rights of
worshippers while also expressing compassion for migrants after
anti-immigration enforcement protesters disrupted a service at a
Southern Baptist church in Minnesota.
About three dozen protesters entered the Cities Church in St. Paul
during Sunday service, some walking right up to the pulpit, others
loudly chanting “ICE out” and “Renee Good,” referring to a woman who was
fatally shot on Jan. 7 by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer
in Minneapolis.
One of the church’s pastors, David Easterwood, leads the local ICE field
office, and one of the leaders of the protest and prominent local
activist Nekima Levy Armstrong said she’s also an ordained pastor.
The Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist Convention called what happened “an
unacceptable trauma,” saying the service was ”forced to end prematurely"
as protesters shouted “insults and accusations at youth, children, and
families.”
“I believe we must be resolute in two areas: encouraging our churches to
provide compassionate pastoral care to these (migrant) families and
standing firm for the sanctity of our houses of worship,” Trey Turner,
who leads the convention, told The Associated Press on Monday. Cities
Church belongs to the convention.
The U.S. Department of Justice said it has opened a civil rights
investigation.
The recent surge in operations in Minnesota has pitted more than 2,000
federal immigration officers against community activists and protesters.
The Trump administration and Minnesota officials have traded blame for
the heightened tensions.
“No cause — political or otherwise — justifies the desecration of a
sacred space or the intimidation and trauma inflicted on families
gathered peacefully in the house of God,” Kevin Ezell, president of the
North American Mission Board, said in a statement. “What occurred was
not protest; it was lawless harassment.”
Jonathan Parnell, the pastor who led the disrupted service, is a
missionary with Ezell’s group and serves dozens of Southern Baptist
churches in the area. Cities Church, housed in a Gothic-style,
century-old stone building next to a college campus on one of the Twin
Cities’ landmark boulevards, has not returned AP requests for comment.
Christians disagree on immigration enforcement
Christians in the United States are divided on the moral and legal
dilemmas raised by immigration, including the presence of an estimated
11 million people who are in the country illegally and the spike in
illegal border crossings and asylum requests during the Biden
administration.
Opinions differ between and within denominations on whether Christians
must prioritize care for strangers and neighbors or the immigration
enforcement push in the name of security. White evangelicals tend to
support strong enforcement, while Catholic leaders have spoken in favor
of migrant rights.
The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Protestant denomination
in the U.S. and has a conservative evangelical theology.
Miles Mullin, the vice-president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty
Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, said faith leaders can
and often have led protests on social issues, but those should never
prevent others from worshipping.
“This is something that just shouldn’t happen in America,” Mullin said.
“For Baptists, our worship services are sacred.”
On Facebook, Levy Armstrong wrote about Sunday's protest in religious
terms: “It’s time for judgment to begin and it will begin in the House
of God!!!”
But Albert Mohler, the president of The Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary, called the protesters' tactics unjustifiable.
“For Christians, the precedent of invading a congregation at worship
should be unthinkable,” Mohler said in an interview. “I think the
political left is crossing a threshold.”
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Cities Church is seen in St. Paul, Minn. where activists shut down a
service claiming the pastor was also working as an ICE agent,
Monday, Jan. 19, 2026 in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)
Brian Kaylor, a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-affiliated minister
and leader of the Christian media organization Word&Way, called
having an ICE official serve as a pastor “a serious moral failure.”
But Kaylor, who has spoken out against the Trump administration’s
treatment of immigrants, said he was “very torn” by the protesters’
action inside a church.
“It would be very alarming if we come to see this become a
widespread tactic across the political spectrum,” he said.
Federal protections for houses of worship
Many faith leaders were dismayed when the government announced last
January that federal immigration agencies can make arrests in
churches, schools and hospitals, ending the protection of people in
sensitive spaces.
No immigration raids during church services have been reported, but
some churches have posted notices on their doors saying no federal
immigration officers are allowed inside. Others have reported a drop
in attendance, particularly during enforcement surges.
Following the protest in Cities Church, Harmeet Dhillon, the
assistant attorney general for civil rights at the U.S. Department
of Justice, said her office is investigating “potential violations
of the federal FACE Act,” calling the protest “un-American and
outrageous.”
The 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act prohibits
interference or intimidation 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.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt warned in a social
media post that “President Trump will not tolerate the intimidation
and harassment of Christians in their sacred places of worship.”
Several pastors called for better security in churches.
The Rev. Joe Rigney, one of the founding pastors at Cities Church in
2015 who served there until 2023, said safety would have been his
first concern had a group disrupted service, especially since the
fatal shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school Mass last summer.
In a statement to the AP, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's spokesperson
said that while people have a right to speak out, the governor
doesn't support interrupting a place of worship.
Legal developments and protests in the Twin Cities
Also Monday, the Department of Justice notified a federal appeals
court that it will appeal a ruling that federal officers in the
Minneapolis area cannot detain or tear gas peaceful protesters who
aren’t obstructing authorities. The case was filed in December on
behalf of six Minnesota activists who are among thousands of people
observing the activities of federal immigration officers in the
area.
Yet more protesters braved temperatures that dipped below zero
(minus 8 Celsius) Monday to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in St.
Paul. Some waved signs from vehicles bearing messages including,
“What did you do while your neighbors were being kidnapped?” and “We
love our Somali neighbors.”
Dozens of protesters also staged a brief sit-in at a Target store in
St. Paul demanding that the retailer bar entry to federal agents.
Target, headquartered in Minneapolis, has been criticized by
activists after a video showed federal agents detaining two
employees at a store in Richfield, Minnesota.
___
Associated Press journalists Holly Meyer in Nashville, Tennessee,
Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis and Jack Brook in St. Paul,
Minnesota, contributed.
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