Americans watched in disbelief as a group of activists stormed Cities Church in St. Paul during a Sunday service on January 18, 2026, chanting about ICE and dragging political theater into a place of worship where families and children were gathered to pray. This wasn’t a newsworthy act of civil disobedience — it was an intentional, coordinated intimidation of worshippers that violated the sanctity of a house of God. The footage of shaken congregants leaving early should outrage every decent person, regardless of politics.
The Justice Department and federal agents moved quickly after the incident, arresting organizers they say played key roles in coordinating the disruption, a move Attorney General Pam Bondi described as a signal that attacks on houses of worship will not be tolerated. Conservative leaders who have been warning about the weaponization of protests praised the arrests as long overdue enforcement of basic law and order. For once, the federal government acted to defend ordinary Americans’ right to worship without harassment.
Don Lemon — who has spent a long career at the center of left?wing media stunts — livestreamed the incident and has insisted he was merely “reporting” on the protest. Video shows him embedded with the agitators before they entered the church, and his own public posture has been more cheerleader than neutral observer. This isn’t nuance; it’s the media industrial complex masquerading as journalism to provide cover for political intimidation.
When federal agents arrested Lemon in Los Angeles days later and announced charges tied to alleged civil?rights violations related to the church disruption, critics cried “attack on the press.” The Department of Homeland Security and prosecutors, however, framed the matter as interference with worship and conspiracy to block civil rights, not a case about truthful reporting versus protected commentary. If celebrities and media stars think they can trample on ordinary citizens’ freedoms simply because they have a camera, they will face the consequences like anyone else.
The law in question — enforced to protect places of worship from targeted disruption — is not a partisan invention but a common?sense guardrail that keeps sacred spaces from becoming the stage for political violence. Prosecutors have relied on statutes designed to prevent groups from conspiring to deprive others of their right to worship freely, and federal authorities say several arrests in the case are tied to those statutes. The message should be simple: your right to perform political theater ends at the church door when it violates others’ rights.
Meanwhile, the usual chorus in the coastal media is trying to turn this into a free?press martyrdom story, invoking scary?sounding First Amendment rhetoric while ignoring the fact that freedom of the press does not grant license to participate in or facilitate the targeted harassment of private citizens at worship. Outrage from press?advocacy groups is predictable, but they shouldn’t get to rewrite facts to shield political operatives who cross the line. Law abiding citizens don’t want America turned into a stage for performative politics where the powerful can abuse their platforms without consequence.
Patriots who love both liberty and order should demand even?handed enforcement of the law and reject the double standard that lets the media and their activist allies off the hook. Protecting churches, schools, and neighborhoods from intimidation is not repression — it’s the core duty of government to secure the rights of peaceful Americans. If the left wants to claim moral superiority, it must first learn to respect the private worship and civil peace of the very communities it claims to champion.
