The DOJ also charged five other agitators, including former CNN commentator Don Lemon, who stormed Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, and terrorized congregants, but a federal magistrate refused to sign those complaints.
[UPDATE] Last week, the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that they had arrested three individuals who led the high-profile disruption of Sunday morning worship services at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, on January 18.
An estimated 30 to 40 agitators stormed into the church because they claimed that the church had a pastor who worked for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). They chanted “ICE out!,” while also screaming in the faces of church attendants, including children, and blocking them from leaving.
The three individuals are Nekima Levy Armstrong, a local civil rights attorney and Black Lives Matter (BLM) activist who is alleged to have been a lead organizer of the invasion; Chauntyll Louisa Allen, a St. Paul Public Schools board member; and William Kelly, a well-known left-wing agitator who is also facing disorderly conduct charges in Washington, D.C., where he was arrested for harassing families waiting in line to visit the White House in December and was also filmed screaming obscenities at National Guardsman deployed to help local police in their crime and public safety efforts.
The Department of Justice has charged all three with violations of the Freedom of Entrances to Clinics (FACE) Act, as well as conspiracy against rights under the Klan Act of 1871, which is violated when “two or more persons conspire to injure, threaten or intimidate any person…in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States.” The two charges, taken together, carry a potential sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
However, by Friday, U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz had ordered the release of all three on their own recognizance after ruling that the DOJ had not proved the defendants had engaged in crimes of violence. The Trump administration has promised to appeal.
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the arrests in a series of posts on X, saying, “Our nation was settled and founded by people fleeing religious persecution. Religious freedom is the bedrock of this country. We will protect our pastors. We will protect our churches. We will protect Americans of faith.”
Under the Biden administration, 23 pro-life protesters were arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced to prison under the FACE Act for participating in peaceful sit-in protests at abortion clinics.
But the FACE Act isn’t limited to abortion clinics; it also applies to churches, something that many on the left, most notably Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, have tried to deny. However, the text of the law, which was passed in 1994 and signed into law by President Bill Clinton, clearly states that it bars “the use or threat of force and physical obstruction that injures, intimidates, or interferes with a person seeking to … exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship.”
Kelly, also known as DaWoke Farmer, has a history of protesting churches in different cities and harassing pastors and congregants. For example, Kelly has been protesting outside Christ Church in Washington D.C. for several months, largely because Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and his family sometimes attend. Kelly routinely berates members of the church, following them to their cars and calling them “fake Christians.” Last month, he was arrested by the Secret Service after screaming at a church goer and calling him a “Nazi.”
Joe Rigney, associate pastor at Christ Church, said,
“We’ve had regular protests at our D.C. services for the last few months, a combination of paid, professional agitators, as well as people who just show up periodically. We became aware of William Kelly because through that, he was one of the regular protestors each week.
Kelly stood out because he was one of the more aggressive, angry, vile, profane protesters who would follow people to their car, yell at them, yell at children… profanity-laden attacks on normal church members. When we saw the video come out of Cities Church in St. Paul, our security team flagged it for me and said, ‘That’s the same guy.’”
Kelly started a GoFundMe page in November 2025 for his state-hopping protests. His fundraising has jumped dramatically since his arrest in the Minnesota church invasion, with the current total topping $113,000.
Since the arrests, the Department for Homeland Security (DHS) released more details about the disruption in a court filing, alleging that, among other things, activists screamed in the faces of children “while they were crying.” Video shows that Kelly yelled at some of the children, “Do you know your parents are Nazis? They’re going to burn in hell.”
Churchgoers claim that their children were traumatized by the attack, with one child saying, “Daddy, I thought you were going to die.”
Some anti-ICE activists are accused of blocking parents from being able to get to their children, who were being watched by church workers in the basement. Activists also surrounded one person’s vehicle and blocked it from leaving.
The illegal activity was so intimidating to attendees that some victims tried to flee, fearing violence; one victim broke her arm as she tried to escape.
True North Legal, which was retained by Cities Church, put out a statement after the arrests, saying,
“The First Amendment does not allow premeditated plots or coordinated actions to violate the sanctity of a sanctuary, disrupt worship, and intimidate small children. There is no ‘press pass’ to invade a sanctuary or to conspire to interrupt religious services. It is outrageous that, instead of doing their jobs and protecting Minnesotans’ rights, state officials like Keith Ellison choose to mock the invasion of a church.”
The DOJ brought charges against five others involved in the invasion, including Don Lemon, but U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko, whose wife reportedly works in the Minnesota Attorney General’s office, refused to sign the complaints. The former CNN commentator interviewed Levy Armstrong ahead of the church invasion, went into the church with the agitators, filmed it, and interrogated Pastor Jonathan Parnell, insisting that the church deserved to “feel uncomfortable” for supporting ICE and white supremacy.
The DOJ intends to continue to pursue charges through other means, such as pursuing grand jury indictments. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon stated,
“We are just at the beginning of this process. I intend to identify and find every single person in that mob that interrupted that church service in that house of God and bring them to justice. And that includes so-called journalists who participated in harassing Americans at worship.”
The illegal protest took place as churches are increasingly being seen as ideological targets for left-wing protests and violence.
Family Research Council found that between 2018 and 2024, there were 1,384 documented hostile acts against churches in America, including vandalism, arson, firebombings, bomb threats, and shootings. That is an eight-fold increase over the the prior five years.
These attacks became common following the leak of the Supreme Court’s draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson in early May 2022 showing that Roe v. Wade was going to be overturned. In response, abortion supporters, including an Antifa-related group calling itself Jane’s Revenge, unleashed terroristic attacks on churches and pro-life pregnancy centers across America. Those attacks included attempted and successful church invasions, including at the Basilica of Old St. Patrick’s in New York City and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, the latter a largely Hispanic congregation.
Under the Biden administration, those attacks went largely without any consequence. For example, a House Judiciary Committee determined that although there were 436 documented hostile acts against U.S. churches in 2023, including hundreds of cases of arson, vandalism, and shooting and bomb threats, the Biden DOJ brought zero prosecutions against any perpetrators under the FACE Act.
“To this day, the FACE Act has never been used in defense of a church since it was passed in 1994,” subcommittee chairman Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, at the December 18, 2024, hearing.
A little more than two years later, that fact has finally changed with the arrests of the three Cities Church invaders.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Can Religious Liberty Survive If Radicals Are Allowed to Attack Churches With Impunity?
{Published January 21, 2026} On Sunday morning, January 18, families gathered for worship at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, but they were terrorized by radical activists who invaded their sanctuary mid-service. Approximately 30 to 40 protesters affiliated with the Racial Justice Network and Black Lives Matter (BLM) Minnesota stormed the church chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good,” referencing an activist woman fatally shot by an ICE agent in self-defense just weeks ago.
But there on Sunday, worship stopped. Children screamed. Families fled.
The mob targeted the church claiming one pastor allegedly serves as an acting field director for ICE. Whether true or not is immaterial. The protest was unlawful, and a church should never be targeted for public terror.
What made this even more egregious is that former disgraced CNN host Don Lemon entered with the protesters and filmed the entire incident. He wasn’t observing as a neutral journalist. He embedded with the mob, shoved a microphone in Senior Pastor Jonathan Parnell’s face and claimed that the group had a constitutional right to be on private property without permission.
Police were called, the protesters left, and no immediate arrests were made. But Attorney General Pam Bondi and Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon have vowed to prosecute these federal crimes to the fullest extent, including violations of the FACE Act and the Klan Act. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has put Don Lemon on notice for his involvement, which he documented on social media before, during, and after the event.
So how should Christians think about this? Here are five points.
First, this was an anti-Christian, domestic terrorist attack on a house of worship.
Make no mistake: What happened at Cities Church was not civil protest, it was terrorism. It was targeted intimidation of Christians in a sacred house of worship. A church might be welcoming and open to the public, but it is not a public space. Even if it were, a mob is not a lawful assembly.
These radical Marxists didn’t picket outside or hold a rally down the street. They invaded a sanctuary during worship and terrified women and children. Watch the video—you can it on full display.
The purpose was to instill fear, to make Christians think twice about supporting the rule of law or even associating with anyone who works for ICE. If you do, in their imagination, your church is fair game for mob violence.
The First Amendment protects freedom of religion and assembly. But the only group with a constitutional right of free assembly in that place on Sunday morning was the congregation of Cities Church. No mob has any more right to protest inside a church building uninvited than in someone’s private living room.
Second, Don Lemon committed federal crimes and must be prosecuted.
If President Trump can have his mugshot taken for not committing a crime, it’s high time people on the left are prosecuted for crimes they do commit in broad daylight.
Don Lemon cannot hide behind the veneer of “journalism.” He didn’t observe — he participated and propagated their narrative. He entered with the mob, confronted the pastor on their behalf, and filmed the entire thing.
Under federal law, it is a crime to obstruct, impede, or interfere with religious exercise. Every identifiable protester who entered that church violated federal law. Don Lemon is just as guilty.
He’s one of the central figures, along with professional agitator William Kelly, associated with BLM and the Racial Justice Network, who has repeatedly targeted churches without facing any real legal consequences. Both need to be tried under the law.
Lest we forget, the Biden administration prosecuted 23 pro-life advocates for FACE Act violations, many were elderly. Lauren Handy, a pro-life Catholic, served a 57-month sentence before President Trump pardoned her last year.
If the Trump administration wants to be taken seriously about equal protection under the law—and we all want to take the Trump administration seriously— then Don Lemon, William Kelly, and all participants must face the same consequences for leading an actual church invasion.
Third, Pastor Jonathan Parnell and Cities Church should be commended for their peaceful and poised response.
When radicals burst through the doors, the terrorism was not met with violence. Cities Church was legally entitled to use physical force to remove the mob.
Children were terrified. Parents shielded them from aggressors shouting mid-worship. Yet Pastor Parnell remained calm, telling Don Lemon: “This is unacceptable. It’s shameful to interrupt a public gathering of Christians in worship. I have to take care of my flock.”
He then continued: “We’re here to worship Jesus, because that’s the hope of these cities. That’s the hope of the world — Jesus Christ.”
Pastor Parnell is a hero for standing his ground without balking. His poised, patient response in a hostile situation is a model for every pastor facing physical intimidation.
Fourth, wokism is destroying our nation. It’s as much a problem inside the church as outside the church.
The rot of wokism is destroying and dividing our country between constitutional order and Marxist anarchy. It’s also dividing churches by normalizing the social justice mindset over biblical truth.
For too long, social justice has robbed the evangelical world of its true prophetic voice during BLM, COVID, forced vaccinations, mass illegal immigration, and now this.
Even now, evangelical media outlets refuse to report truth about Renee Good and will be silent about Cities Church. Evangelical leaders who marched for BLM in 2020 — the group that terrorized Cities Church on Sunday — aided and abetted this movement without ever publicly repenting. And they absolutely must today.
Christians should stand — and must stand — clearly on the side of truth, freedom, and justice. There is no time for political third wayism. There is no time for gnostic pietism or apolitical apathy.
The Church must raise its voice righteously. The Church must reengage the public square for truth, morality, justice, and equal protection under the law. We cannot let this moment slide. We must remember and we must act. We need to normalize consequences for the left. Bolshevik activity was outlawed before and it’s high time we enforce the law now.
Finally, we must demand equal justice under the law from the leaders we elect.
If President Trump can have a mugshot, survive two assassination attempts, and pardon hundreds that were imprisoned for praying outside abortion clinics or detained without trial for their activity on January 6, whatever it was, a consequence-free life for leftist radicals who burn our cities, commit violence, and disrupt worship must end.
The same laws that put pro-life grandmas in jail for praying outside abortion clinics must be employed. The right must insist that the same weights be applied, the same measures be applied, rather than just pointing out the double standard. A two-tiered system of justice cannot stand. Either we have equal protection under the law or we do not have any law in this nation.
Every identifiable protester must be charged, prosecuted, and convicted. This isn’t about politics or grievances over ICE. This is about the rule of law and the First Amendment protection that we are all afforded. If religious Americans aren’t safe worshiping in their churches, then we have no religious liberty.
Swift, severe punishment is the only deterrent. Without it, Bolshevik-style church invasions will become the norm.
Pray for Cities Church families and for Pastor Parnell.
Pray for the Trump administration and the DOJ to protect religious liberty swiftly. Because if we don’t prosecute these crimes under the law, we may no longer have a country.
This article is a lightly edited transcript of the “Here’s the Point” podcast by Ryan Helfenbein, executive director of the Standing for Freedom Center (see full video below).
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