On January 18, radical leftists invaded Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. They shouted down the pastor’s sermon, intimidated the congregation, harassed women, and told children that their parents were Nazis. The disgusting attack prevented Christians from worshipping Jesus on Sunday morning in America!
This invasion of a peaceful church service must not be forgotten. Dr. Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said the event should be “a wake-up call for the church.” He added, “Fear-mongering is not a faithful option, but denial is not an honest strategy.”1 He is right, of course. We are not to fear, but we also must face the threat that persecution of Christians is a growing reality.
During the Civil Rights movement, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., black churches were vandalized, and worse. Those attacks drew widespread condemnation by all decent people. Thankfully, instead of stopping the Civil Rights movement, the attacks increased public support for it.
Today, attacks on American churches are increasing, but they often are ignored by the biased media. Even outright violence, including murder of Christians, is downplayed.
After a demon-possessed killer murdered two children and injured eighteen others at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis last summer, the media quickly moved on from the atrocity once it was discovered that the killer was a transgender radical. What was also ignored was the hostility of the Left toward Christianity. Numerous celebrities and politicians, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, mocked the prayers of Christians around the country, just as the Christ-hating killer mocked the prayers of his Christian victims. “Where is your God now?”2 he wrote.
In the wake of the assault on Cities Church, there is a concerted effort to spread disinformation and lies to justify the violation of religious liberty that Christians suffered that Sunday. Discerning Christians must see through the deception. Let’s examine each lie.
Lie number one: Among the demonstrators was former CNN anchor Don Lemon. Leftists are claiming that when he went into Cities Church, he was exercising his First Amendment right of freedom of the press. Thus, he had a “right” to be in the church and should not be prosecuted.
But freedom of the press does not permit “journalists” to violate the First Amendment rights of other people. Freedom of the press doesn’t allow Lemon to interfere with the freedom of religion, the freedom of speech, and the freedom of assembly that the congregation was exercising in Cities Church.
Lie number two: The defenders of the church invasion claim that the Marxist demonstrators were using their freedom of speech and were therefore protected by the Constitution. This is the same lie used regularly on left-wing university campuses to shout down conservative speakers.
The freedom of speech is the right to express yourself. It’s not a right to shout down and silence somebody else’s speech. That would lead to anarchy. The far-left demonstrators could have legitimately held a rally across the street from Cities Church. But once they entered the church, they were violating the speech rights of others.
Lie number three: The far-left demonstrators were simply following the example set by Jesus when He cleansed the temple as described in Matthew 21. In other words, when the disruptors went into Cities Church, they were simply cleansing it, too. This lie is sickening and a complete distortion of the gospel.
In the church that Sunday, the pastor and worshippers were praising Jesus and reading the Bible. The Marxist demonstrators were the equivalent of the Pharisees who defiled the church and made a mockery of the worship service.
This argument is yet another example of the Left trying to “steal” Jesus for their own leftist causes. They claim He would be a socialist. They say He would favor open borders, etc.
Lie number four: Prosecutors are twisting a law meant to protect abortion clinics from demonstrations and using it to stop the church disruption. The law is called the “FACE Act.” In addition to its abortion clinic provisions, it contains a specific provision prohibiting demonstrations that disrupt religious services.
Here is one more thing to ponder: For years, the Left has tried to tell us that the freedom of religion in the First Amendment is simply the right of individuals to attend whatever church, synagogue, temple, or mosque they want and to worship God as they see fit. It does not mean, the Left insists, that a Christian or an adherent of any other religion has the right to take those religious beliefs into the public square.
So, the Left always says, “No, you can’t put that crucifix up next to your desk. No, you can’t bring a Bible to work. No, you can’t thank God in your graduation speech.” The Left tries to deceive Christians by saying:
If you just stay in your church and keep your nose out of everything else, you don’t have anything to worry about. You can do whatever you want in your church, but don’t you dare come into the public square. The Constitution doesn’t give you any right to impose your values on the rest of us. So, if you don’t want any trouble, just stay in your church and you’ll be just fine.
Well, that’s what the worshippers at Cities Church were doing that Sunday morning. In fact, there’s no evidence that Cities Church was interested in politics at all. But politics was certainly interested in them! Christians must stand up—now—to defend our faith.
- R. Albert Mohler Jr., “A Church Invaded,” WND-WNG (blog/opinion), January 20, 2026, https://wng.org/opinions/a-church-invaded-176889722.
- Associated Press, “A shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school kills 2 children, injures 17 people,” AP News, August 27, 2025 (updated), https://apnews.com/article/0fb27d2c911fe63a9f04791b444f298f.
