At a house of worship, an SBC congregation called Cities Church, the church pastor was about to start his sermon when protesters barged into the sanctuary.
Cities Church was targeted because the left-wing mob had learned an associate pastor there is a hated Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agent.
Perkins: Churches indeed covered by FACE ActSteve Jordahl, AFN.net Talking about the radical protesters who interrupted a St. Paul church service, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins told Fox News the Far Left was once better at hiding its hatred for orthodox Christians. “The hostility toward religion in this country has been latent for some time,” Perkins said. “Now it has become blatant, this hatred toward God.” Reacting to claims the protesters were exercising their First Amendment rights, Perkins said Cities Church is protected by the federal FACE Act law that is best known for protecting abortion clinics. “What we're seeing here is a very clear violation of the FACE Act,” Perkins said. “Orrin Hatch put a provision in there to protect churches.” Don Lemon, the former CNN anchor, joined the protesters to record them. Inside the church, he even argued with a church member the mob had the First Amendment right to interrupt the service. |
Video from the scene shows church members trying to shield frightened, crying children from an angry, shouting mob.
According to church members, not only were they harassed in their seats but the protesters followed them outside, yelling at them as they fled their own church.
Megan Basham, the Daily Wire religion reporter, identified one of the protesters as a professional protester named William Kelly. Kelly is known for regularly disrupting services at Christ Church, located in Washington, D.C.
Fox News reported the mob was organized by Nekima Levy Armstrong, a lawyer-turned-activist. Armstrong is also known as a Black Lives Matter protest leader.
SBC leader Miles Mullin, a spokesman for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, told Baptist Press the government has a responsibility to not only allow people to gather for worship but to protect them when then do.
"The sanctity of church services should be inviolable,” he stressed.
Longtime SBC leader Dr. Richard Land told AFN he believes the protesters were hoping for a violent reaction from church members.
“They're doing everything they can to foment violence,” he warned. “They're trying to replay their Black Lives Matter playbook."
Land says the SBC has been quick to denounce the stunt, including major leaders who have publicly supported Cities Church, and the North American Mission Board is using funds to improve security at the church.
Kevin Ezell, president of the North American Mission Board, said in a statement: "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."
