What happened at Cities Church in St. Paul on January 18, 2026 was nothing short of an attack on worship — a band of anti-ICE agitators barged into a service, shouted down congregants, and sent families and children fleeing into freezing temperatures. The disruption was captured live and widely shared, and Americans of faith are rightly outraged that a place of worship was treated like a political staging ground.
Among those who entered the sanctuary was former network star Don Lemon, who livestreamed the encounter and repeatedly framed himself as simply “covering” the event even as video shows him embedded with the group. Lemon’s celebrity status did not grant him a legal or moral pass to join a mob that interrupted prayer, and his presence turned this into more than a local provocation — it became a national scandal.
Thankfully, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has not treated this as mere political theater; Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon has publicly said the DOJ will pursue charges, including potential violations of the FACE Act and even the Ku Klux Klan Act if warranted. That’s the proper standard: when protesters cross into criminal intimidation of worshippers, federal law exists to stop them and the government must not be timid in enforcing it.
The facts are ugly and straightforward — congregants, including children, were terrified and forced out into the cold while activists accused a pastor of being affiliated with ICE, a claim that should have been handled through the courts and proper channels, not by storming a sanctuary. This was coercion disguised as conscience; churches are for worship, not for weaponized performative outrage.
Lemon’s posturing about “journalism” as a shield is especially galling coming from a media class that has normalized enabling left-wing mobs when it suits an ideological narrative. Calling the congregation “entitled” and lecturing them about white supremacy while cameras rolled only inflames divisions and proves how media figures too often swap reporting for agitation.
Conservatives who have long warned about weaponized activism and the erosion of religious liberty should not cheer federal inaction when our fellow citizens are terrorized in their pews. If the DOJ follows through, prosecutions will send the correct message: sacred spaces are off-limits to political intimidation, and no amount of celebrity or privilege should place anyone above the law.
Americans who cherish faith, order, and free worship must stand firm now — hold the perpetrators accountable, reject the mob’s tactics, and demand that our courts and prosecutors protect the right to worship without fear. This moment should remind every patriot that liberty without law is chaos, and that the rule of law must be used to defend churches from being turned into political battlefields.
