On Sunday, Jan. 18, anti-ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) protestors and former CNN anchor Don Lemon disrupted Cities Church, a Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) church located St. Paul, Minnesota, during a Sunday morning worship service.
Pastored by Jonathan Parnell, Cities Church is a church plant supported by the SBC’s Send Network. It is also the church where Desiring God’s President and CEO Marshall Segal and Executive Editor David Mathis serve as pastors.
Videos on social media show a group of anti-ICE protestors entering the sanctuary of Cities Church yelling, “Hand’s up. Don’t shoot. ICE out! ICE out!,” as the congregation attempted to worship.
Video of Cities Church’s worship service shows the moment Parnell is taken off guard after protesters start to disrupt the service. From the pulpit, Parnell politely says, “Ma’am you’re interfering with our worship.”
As Parnell looks on, the protestors can then be heard loudly chanting. At one moment, Parnell yawns before getting down from the stage and telling the protestors, “Excuse me. Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you! This is the house of God and we are worshiping. Shame on you. You may leave. You may leave.”
In another video circulating online, Lemon is filming the protest while providing commentary. “So you can see the protestors have gathered over here. They’re in the middle of the church. During the beginning of the church service a pastor was speaking and Nekima [Levy Armstrong] stood up and shared her piece and then the protestors surrounded her,” he said. “But this is a clandestine mission. I think they found out one of, this is according to ‘Operation Pull Up,’ that one of the pastors here is a member of ICE. And so here we go.”
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CNN fired Lemon in 2023, following various controversies, after 17 years at the news media giant.
Armstrong is a local activist who is the former president at NAACP Minneapolis, founder of Racial Justice Network, and civil rights attorney at Law Office of Nekima Levy Armstrong. In 2014 Armstrong was charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing due to her involvement in a Black Lives Matter protest. Those charges were later dismissed.
“We’re not part of the [activists], but we’re here just reporting on them,” Lemon said.
The former CNN host approached Parnell and asked the pastor if the protestors told him why they were disrupting their Sunday morning worship service.
“They did not,” Parnell responded.
Lemon informed the pastor, “They said that there is someone here—Easterwood—who is a member of ICE and he’s a pastor of the church.”
On Sunday, Jan. 18, anti-ICE protestors and former CNN anchor Don Lemon disrupted Cities Church, a Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) church located St. Paul, Minnesota, during a Sunday morning worship service.Click to Post
