Nothing quite captures the spirit of modern leftist outrage like storming a church sanctuary, confusing a sermon for surveillance, and realizing too late that you’ve rebuked a congregation instead of a government agency. Loaves, fishes, and a quick fact-check would’ve gone a long way here, Dear Readers. This goes beyond just a simple faux pas.
According to The Post Millennial, 'The incident occurred at Cities Church, a Southern Baptist Convention congregation, where protesters stormed into the sanctuary chanting anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement slogans. The group alleged that one of the church’s lead pastors was affiliated with ICE, a claim the protesters repeated while interrupting the service.'
BREAKING - Anti ICE agitators, led by failed CNN host Don Lemon, stormed a Minneapolis church this morning, halting services and holding members hostage because they believed the pastor was ICE affiliated.
— Right Angle News Network (@Rightanglenews) January 18, 2026
“The whole point of it is to disrupt and make people uncomfortable.” pic.twitter.com/ddwPwpwV5E
The controversy, as we said, centers around whether or not one of the church's associate pastors, named David Easterwood, is the SAME David Easterwood listed as the ICE Field Director for St. Paul. As of this writing, this has not yet been confirmed.
Of course, this did not matter to CNN former employee, Don Lemon. Here is what he had to say:
This is the beginning of what's going to happen here. When you violate people's due process, when you pull people off the street, and you start dragging them and hurting them and not abiding by the Constitution, when you start doing all of that, people get upset and angry. And if you remember what the Civil Rights Movement was about, the Civil Rights Movement was about these very kinds of protests.
And for some reason, in our modern era, people think that in order to have protests, you've got to be cordoned off to a certain area, and what time you can protest. There's nothing in the Constitution that tells you what time you can protest. You can protest at any time.
That's the whole point of it, is to disrupt, is to make uncomfortable. And that's what they're doing. And that's what I believe when I say everyone has to be willing to sacrifice something. You have to make people uncomfortable in these times. If you see how uncomfortable people, uncomfortably and how harsh people are being treated on the streets, you have to be willing to go into places and disrupt and make people uncomfortable.
Recommended
Let's be real here, guys. This may not be technically 'domestic terrorism' under U.S. law, but it's flirting with that line in a way that should make all of us super uncomfortable...
When mobs start treating rumors like divine revelation and physically descending on random buildings full of uninvolved people, we’ve wandered well past 'awkward protest fail' and into deeply not okay territory. You don’t get to shrug this off as passionate activism when innocent people are suddenly wondering whether their worship comes with a side of shouting, intimidation, or worse. Call it whatever makes you feel comfortable, but when fear, chaos, and misdirected rage are unleashed on civilians because someone couldn’t be bothered to fact-check, that’s not righteous anger...it’s recklessness dressed up as virtue. And maybe that’s the part that should really set off alarm bells: if this is what happens by accident, what happens when someone decides to do it on purpose?
TFW the so-called champions of freedom of speech squelch freedom of religion.
— Aggie The Barbabe (@AggieTheBarkeep) January 18, 2026
This is one sour Lemon. https://t.co/khZAaWf3Yu
Doing everything they can to turn public opinion against them again. Idiots. https://t.co/XU4tkSVfmg
— Souvenir de la Malmaison (@ShiversShana) January 18, 2026
Nothing endears people to your movement like storming churches and shouting down the pastor.
— Fight With Memes (@FightWithMemes) January 18, 2026
Everyone will instantly like you and definitely not think you're a crazy extremist agitator.
If there were an Olympic event for self-sabotage, this would be a gold medal for leftists and Democrats. Every stunt like this turns 'maybe hear them out' into 'please stop,' as regular people watch activists light their own credibility on fire and then insist it’s everyone else’s fault that the smoke is so thick.
This is harassment and trespassing and not a protest. https://t.co/AtNBvZ4xZL
— Dr. Interracial 🇺🇸 (@billysandytodd) January 18, 2026
Was this CNN's idea? https://t.co/HW9PQJkoHL
— Juliana 🌌 (@julianajaeger) January 18, 2026
In this day and age? That's a very fair question.
Invoke the Insurrection Act. https://t.co/XZwuZRIne2
— Oscar Von Reuenthal (@OscarVReuenthal) January 18, 2026
This isn’t peaceful protest, it’s thug behavior. You aren’t converting people, you are repelling them. https://t.co/3DyY1qzcYC
— Kirsten Fleming (@KirFlem) January 18, 2026
Ironically, one could accurately call this behavior 'fascism,' the very thing that leftists and Democrats like to pretend that they're fighting AGAINST.
It's insane that this even needs to be said, but if you're literally storming a church to force your political views on people, you are NOT the good guys in ANY way whatsoever.
— Councilwoman Vickie Paladino (@VickieforNYC) January 18, 2026
And you most definitely deserve whatever backlash comes next.
And that’s the part that should chill normal, everyday people, regardless of where they fall politically. If a half-baked rumor is enough to send an angry crowd swarming into a church today? It can be your workplace, your kid’s school event, or your neighborhood meeting tomorrow. You don’t need to be ICE, adjacent to ICE, or even aware of ICE to become the next target, you just need to be unlucky enough to be standing where someone’s "Outrage GPS" glitches out.
When mobs feel entitled to show up first and verify later, everyone outside the activist bubble becomes fair game. That isn’t passionate civic engagement; it’s a warning sign that the rules meant to protect ordinary people are being treated as optional ... and that’s terrifying.
Editor's Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie about President Trump, his administration, and conservatives.
Help us continue to expose their left-wing bias by reading news you can trust. Join Twitchy VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member