(The Center Square) – A member of Cities Church said protesters who disrupted a Sunday morning service in St. Paul were seated throughout the congregation before the service began.
Caleb Phillips, speaking with The Center Square in an exclusive interview on Monday, said, “The entire congregation came alive. Individuals who are planted from front to back throughout the entire place stood up. It felt like we were surrounded, because they were all throughout the congregation.”
The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the protest organized in part by Black Lives Matter Minnesota.
Video posted by the group shows protesters chanting “ICE out” and “justice for Renee Good” during the service. Another video circulating on social media shows a protester calling congregants “pretend Christians” and “comfortable white people.”
Phillips said it was a very tense situation for the congregation, and attendees initially were excited to have so many new people at the service.
“Most of them definitely were already sitting in the congregation with other congregants,” Phillips said. “Some of them had talked with these people, assumed that they were visitors or new attendees, and asked them a little bit about themselves, and just tried to welcome them.”
Published reports say the protesters discovered one of the church’s pastors works for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A descriptor used is a “clandestine mission.”
Enhanced enforcement of federal immigration law has been increased in the Twin Cities in recent weeks. Tensions have escalated, with federal agents often impeded by people trying to prevent them from doing their work.
Phillips said that the church is standing by David Easterwood, a pastor at Cities Church and also head of a local U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field unit. The congregation met again Sunday evening to finish the interrupted service; Phillips said Pastor Jonathan Parnell addressed the protest.
“He said that David Easterwood has worked in law enforcement for the entire time that he’s known him,” Phillips said. “He also said that David Easterwood is a good man and a just and righteous man.”
Phillips said the church’s support for Easterwood is not political.
“He is our pastor and our brother in Christ,” he said. “We love him and we are going to stand with him, regardless of what the current public opinion on his job is.”
Shootings each of the last two Wednesdays, one fatal, have added more tension and rhetoric in conversations. On Jan. 7, 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good drove onto a street with ICE officers conducting immigration enforcement. Her vehicle struck a federal agent and she was killed by what Homeland Security says were "defensive shots" fired.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of Homeland Security, said Good’s vehicle was “attempting to run over our law enforcement officers” and that an officer fired after fearing for his life. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called the incident an “act of domestic terrorism.”
City and state leaders have disputed that account, saying ICE’s presence in the community has created chaos and harm.
On Jan. 14, an agent trying to detain a person believed illegally in the country was beaten by others before firing a defensive shot. Four suspects, including the initial person wanted by the agents, were taken into custody.
Widespread protests, school closures and violence have risen in the nearly two weeks since Good was killed.
Federal officials said Sunday’s protest will receive significant attention, as the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation work together to pursue charges for federal crimes. Some of those crimes could include violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act of 1994, which prohibits obstruction or threats at abortion clinics and places of worship.
“There are already two prosecutors from my office on their way to Minneapolis,” said Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. “There is no more sacred right in our Constitution than the right to assemble and pray to God.”
Phillips, who has lived in the Twin Cities his entire life, explained in more detail the events of Sunday morning’s protest. He said the 10:30 a.m. service was proceeding normally until the sermon began.
“The lead pastor gets up, prays and tells us to open our Bibles to John Chapter 13,” he said. “And then this lady stands up in the back and she says, ‘Excuse me, pastor.’”
Phillips said she then accused the church of employing an ICE official as a pastor. As church members attempted to escort her out, dozens of people throughout the congregation then stood up and began chanting.
“A lot of the children just immediately started crying, because it was so sudden and so loud and just frightening for them,” Phillips said, explaining there were a couple different reactions from the congregation to the protest. “Some people helped the families that had young children … a lot of others stayed in the sanctuary, and we were either praying or singing or reading Scripture.”
Phillips said he read aloud from the Bible until he lost his voice and church staff eventually directed remaining members to a smaller chapel while police removed the protesters.
Church officials and Republicans have been responding to the protest, which quickly captured national attention far beyond Minnesota. Alex Plechash, chairman of the Republican Party of Minnesota, called out Democrats.
“When government closed churches, Democrats cheered,” Plechash said. “When mobs disrupt worship, Democrats look the other way. Governor Tim Walz and Senator Klobuchar: condemn this now!”
Phillips said it has been a surreal experience to see his church in the national news, but warned that there has also been a lot of misrepresentations about what actually happened.
“I was there, and I know exactly what happened,” Phillips said. “I’m seeing all these people who are like, ‘Well, I watched a livestream and I know exactly what happened,’ and it’s like, no, you really don’t.”
So far, Democrats both in Minnesota and nationally have been largely silent regarding the church protest. Others, like journalist Don Lemon, who was on the ground in the church covering the protest, defended the protestors' actions.
“I imagine it’s uncomfortable and traumatic for the people here,” Lemon said. “But, that’s what protesting is about.”
Some commentators are calling for Lemon’s arrest. Dhillon directly addressed those calls during a Monday morning interview.
“Don Lemon himself has come out and said he knew exactly what was going to happen inside that facility,” Dhillon said. “He went into the facility, and then he began ‘committing journalism,’ as if that's sort of a shield from being an embedded part of a criminal conspiracy. It isn't.”
Dhillon promised there will be serious repercussions for those involved in the protest.
“Come next Sunday, nobody should think in the United States that they're going to be able to get away with this,” she added. “The fullest force of the federal government is going to come down and prevent this from happening and put these people away for a long, long time.”
While Phillips said he hopes there is justice in the wake of the protest, he is grateful because of the reaction of “love, forgiveness, and prayer” from the congregation.
“Our response is love for one another,” he said. “Hopefully, in that, even the people who seem to hate us so deeply, will see Jesus Christ in us.”
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