On the very weekend when many churches celebrated Sanctity of Life Sunday and when the nation reflected on the life and legacy of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., we witnessed an ugly and vicious attack on religious liberty.
 
Radical leftists and Marxists stormed Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, in a calculated attempt to intimidate and silence Christians. They verbally assaulted the Christians gathered for worship and shut down the church service with their left-wing propaganda.
 
History is repeating itself. During the Civil Rights movement led by Martin Luther King, Jr., Black churches were set on fire or bombed by haters trying to stop King’s drive for equal rights.
 
As many as 100 Black churches were attacked by the KKK and other bigots. One church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, killed four little Black girls and wounded 20 people. Those attacks were roundly condemned by every decent person.
 
But in stark contrast to the past, major leaders of the Democrat Party today are defending the attack on Cities Church, claiming it was “free speech.”
 
 
 
What It Is Not
 
The vile attack on Cities Church has nothing to do with free speech, immigration enforcement, or protesting the tactics of federal immigration police.
 
It’s freedom of speech when people can gather inside a church and listen to the sermon.  That’s also freedom of religion. Freedom of speech does not give radical Marxists the right to go into the church and shout down the pastor.
 
Freedom of speech would allow the Marxists to peacefully protest outside the church. It does not give them the right to disrupt church services and terrorize Christians, including women and children.
 
The incident at Cities Church was another skirmish in the war over what America is and will be. Will we stay rooted in our Judeo-Christian traditions? Or will Christians be marginalized and persecuted in a “fundamentally transformed America” just as they are around the world?
 
Donald Trump interrupted the Left’s “fundamental transformation of America” and the persecution of Christians when he won his second term. For now, the federal government is on our side.
 
But make no mistake about it—the neo-Marxist Left is a powerful force in cities all across America, and it is growing in strength and numbers. One “bad” election and we will be in the “cross hairs.”
 
 
 
The Left’s Stormtroopers
 
Left-wing politicians, pundits, and activists are denouncing federal immigration police as “Trump’s Gestapo.” It’s a false and disgusting smear against the brave men and women doing their duty to get illegal aliens out of the country.
 
But what we saw Sunday morning at Cities Church were the stormtroopers of the Left. They are created in our universities. They are funded by socialists and Marxists. They are nurtured by a network of anti-American organizations. They are an enemy within.
 
They do not want common ground. You’re not going to be able to love them out of their hate. They worship another god.
 
The rioters shouted, “We have a duty to win.” They are willing to die and even kill for their cause, as we have seen over and over again.
 
A transgender in the Minnesota legislature called for more church invasions across Minnesota, claiming this assault on religious liberty was “essential” and “must continue.”
 
The revolting Marxists personally attacked Christians at Cities Church for their “lattes” and “jewelry,” while insisting Somali migrants were struggling. It was classic Marxist class warfare.
 
 
 
Wake Up, Church!
 
Pastors who struggle mightily to avoid “politics” will not be able to escape the Left’s wrath. There is no amount of LGBTQ flags that a “woke” church can fly that will satisfy the Left. The radical secular Left is bringing the culture war into our sanctuaries, just as Marxists have done throughout history. They always go after the family and the church.
 
One of the major demands of the entire leftist establishment, and certainly of leftist politicians, organizations, and activists, is for Christians and particular evangelical Christians to “get their noses out of government and public policy.”
 
Yet this weekend, a church minding its own business getting ready to celebrate the Lord’s Supper was invaded by radical leftists demanding that the church get involved in the Left’s politics.
 
They never wanted Christians out of politics; they only wanted Christians out of conservative politics. That’s why they keep trying to steal the Bible and co-opt Jesus’s teachings while trying to turn Christ into a little Marxist to justify their revolutionary agenda.
 
 
 
Sanctuary Hypocrisy
 
Minneapolis is a so-called “sanctuary city” that protects criminal illegal aliens from federal immigration police and deportation. The demand of the Left is, “This place is a sanctuary. Don’t you dare come here and try to enforce our immigration laws!”
 
But in the very next breath, these same leftists go into a sanctuary where the worship of Jesus Christ is taking place, violating the sanctity of a church. Their support of sanctuaries only goes as far as it is useful to the Left’s radical agenda.
 
 
 
Do As I Say…
 
At one point, federal immigration police talked about their legal right to enter a church if they had reason to suspect that someone was violating the law there. The Left demanded that federal immigration police respect the sanctity of churches and stay out of houses of worship.
 
While there have been reports of immigration enforcement actions near churches and cases of immigration police detaining fleeing illegal aliens in church parking lots, there have been no “raids” in churches during services.
 
But hateful leftists deliberately went into Cities Church to disrupt the service. They did the very thing they demanded that law enforcement not do.
 
 
 
What If
 
It’s always useful to do the “what if” test. What if this past weekend a large group of pro-law enforcement citizens in Minnesota walked into a mosque during services. They shout down the imam and demand to know why these Muslims in the mosque are not supporting law enforcement to get criminals out of their community.
 
There would be a national meltdown. Muslims in every city with their socialist, Marxist allies would be marching in the streets. Our cultural big wigs would be running to the microphones.
 
None of that will happen today. Mosques are as sacrosanct as you can get. Churches and synagogues, not so much.
 
 
 
Remember COVID
 
Don’t believe pathetic performance artist Don Lemon and the fake news media lies, claiming this was just an anti-immigration enforcement demonstration. The attack on Cities Church was an anti-Christian demonstration.
 
The obnoxious Marxists accused the church itself of being a church of “Christian supremacists.” Other demonstrators called the worshippers “Christian nationalists.”
 
The effort to get federal immigration police out of Minneapolis has tremendous momentum and favorable press coverage. But there is nothing this church could or couldn’t do about federal immigration police apprehending illegal aliens. Cities Church does not set federal immigration policy.
 
This was a pre-planned, orchestrated attack on a church. It’s what the Left ultimately wants to do in a much more serious way and on a much larger scale. That’s why when they could, left-wing politicians shut down our churches during COVID. It’s why in every Western nation churches and their congregations are under physical attack.
 
 
 
Left-wing Hate
 
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called the attack on Cities Church “unsettling.” Think of the words he has used in recent days aimed at federal law enforcement personnel. Frey is never at a loss for words (including expletives) when it comes to demonizing federal immigration police.
 
Less than five months ago, Frey, Gov. Walz, and other leftists openly mocked the prayers of Christians after a demon-possessed transgender murderer went to a church and killed two children while he mocked their prayers. If that doesn’t wake people up to what is going on, then there are just some people who will never wake up.
 
 
 
The Face Act
 
Harmeet Dhillon, the United States assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, called the illegal invasion of Cities Church “un-American—straight out of another era and place.” She immediately launched an investigation to determine if the radical Marxists who attacked the church violated the FACE Act.
 
Democrats passed the FACE Act with the intention of protecting abortion mills from protests. But the law includes a key sentence that also protects churches.
 
The act “prohibits the use or threat of force and physical obstruction that injures, intimidates, or interferes with a person seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health services or to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship.”
 
It’s an open question as to whether these radicals would be convicted in the left-wing city of Minneapolis under the FACE Act. Many conservatives want to get rid of the FACE Act after the Biden administration abused the law to persecute pro-life activists. At least we now have an administration that is committed to enforcing the entirety of the law.
 
But it may be better to bring charges under the Civil Rights Act.
 
No one has a “right” to disrupt church services. The civil rights of the members of Cities Church were violated Sunday at a time when their rights and the church should have been sacrosanct.
 
The fundamental basis of our protection is the Constitution of the United States and the First Amendment right of religious freedom.