When Tolerance Marched In and Worship Marched Out
St. Paul Protestors and the Desecration of the Sacred
A band of protest enthusiasts decided that the most fitting tribute to the death of Renee Good was not a vigil, a petition, nor even a heated debate in the public square, but an impromptu occupation of Cities Church in St. Paul, MN, during a Sunday worship service. They burst in like uninvited guests at a wedding feast, chanting “ICE out!” and “Justice for Renee Good,” halting the sermon, confronting the flock, and transforming a house of worship into a theater of the absurd. The Department of Justice, bless their bureaucratic souls, has since launched an inquiry under the FACE Act, recognizing that such antics might just qualify as federal mischief against religious liberty.
Lemon, that erstwhile luminary of CNN, who did not merely observe the chaos but embedded himself with the merry band, livestreaming the spectacle as if it were the Second Coming itself. Later, he proclaimed himself “the face of this” affair, owing to his status as “the biggest name there,” a “gay Black man in America” with a bully pulpit. And defend it he did, wrapping the whole fiasco in the mantle of the First Amendment: “This is what the First Amendment is about, the freedom to protest.” Ah, yes—the freedom to protest by invading private sanctuaries, disrupting the sacraments, and badgering the faithful mid-sermon. One might as well claim the right to freedom of speech while assembling unbidden in a neighbor’s livingroom. Lemon knew the script in advance (as videos attest), trailed the troupe inside, thrust microphones into distressed faces, and then, with the self-assurance of a true sophist, denounced the congregants as “entitled” heirs of “white supremacy.” One almost admires the chutzpah. Poor Don. He’s still auditioning for relevance, and still mistaking sacrilege for scoops.
The protesters fancy themselves storming the beaches of Normandy, valiant liberators charging the ramparts of tyranny. They are but playground bullies in activist garb, desecrating a place of peace. Terrorizing worshippers to make a point about ICE is akin to curing a headache by lopping off the head.
Christian Men Must Grasp the Collar
The Bible, that most muscular of books, commands men to be meek as doves yet wise as serpents, and occasionally, fierce as lions when the lambs are threatened. Ephesians 5:25 bids husbands love their wives as Christ loved the church, giving Himself up for her—a mandate not for simpering inaction but for sacrificial shield (Ps. 82; Prov. 24:11).
In that St. Paul church, as intruders barred aisles and bellowed over the pastor, women and children trembled in their seats. The people were stunned and confused, unsure of what to do. It’s understandable. But Christian men need a plan of action. There’s no need to form a committee or pen a stern letter. They should have risen, seized these interlopers by the collar, and propelled them forthwith into the outer air, firmly and decisively, as one evicts a fox from the henhouse. No dithering diplomacy; no velvet-gloved ushering. Eviction pure and simple. Jesus did not parley with the Temple’s profiteers; He fashioned a whip and drove them hence. David slung his stone without debate. Passivity before predators is not piety; it is abdication. Christian men: Find your spines. Churches, equip your guardians.
Christianity, contrary to the milquetoast caricatures, is no creed of absolute surrender to every thug (Ex. 22:2; Lk. 22:36). Augustine taught that force, when proportional and protective, restores the peace it defends, in perfect alignment with the sixth commandment. The mere incursion in St. Paul mocked religious sanctity; no hiding behind “turn the other cheek.” That pertains to personal affronts, not the defense of the defenseless flock.
The Inverted Tolerance of the Intolerant Left
Observe the delicious hypocrisy of the left, those self-anointed apostles of tolerance: They would sooner dance naked on hot coals than storm a mosque during Friday prayers to rail against borders or foreign entanglements. Attempt it, and behold the whirlwind: cries of Islamophobia, indictments for hate, a media scourge biblical in proportion. Yet a Christian assembly? It’s an open house for outrage. For in their topsy-turvy creed, Christianity embodies “oppression,” a relic of patriarchal pallor, while other religions bask in the glow of multicultural exemption (beheadings, hangings, child sacrifice, and all).
They preach that “words are violence.” Misplaced pronouns are mortal wounds, and scriptural citations are “literal” daggers. Yet the seals will clap for the breaching of Christian worship to scarify souls and frighten the young. Lemon hails it as constitutional valor while smearing the victims as supremacists. If mere utterances slay, what then of this ecclesiastical home invasion? A massacre of the spirit? The left seeks not tolerance but triumph: Christianity bowed, broken, banished to the cultural attic. Sorry folks. The gates of Hell will not prevail.
This is no mere spat; it is a siege upon the citadel of faith. Christian men, we must be certain of our place as the sentinels Scripture summons. At the next intrusion, let eviction be your liturgy.