On the holiest Sunday of the year, people who attended Resurrection Sunday at Cities Church had to listen to bullhorn-toting protesters cursing and mocking them from right across the street.
“Your parents would be embarrassed. They're worshipping pedophiles,” one of the protesters can be heard telling churchgoers.
Back in January, the little church became famous overnight after radical protesters targeted the congregation because an assistant pastor there is also an ICE official. Rather than protest outside, those protesters burst through the church doors during a worship service, shouting and cursing at worshippers, and are now facing federal charges for violating the FACE Act.
Police eventually ordered the Easter protesters to disperse, and all of them did but one. A well-known radical named Emily Phillips, most famous on social media for cursing ICE agents at an airport, was arrested by police after refusing their repeated order to leave.
Phillips, who is from Wisconsin, is nicknamed “Red Witch” and is a common sight at ICE-related protests around the Twin Cities, according to The Minnesota Star Tribune.
Facing four misdemeanor charges, including a charge for obscenity and a second for interrupting a religious service, Phillips walked out of court (pictured at right) after Judge Maria Mitchell dismissed the charges on the basis of no probable cause.
A spokesperson for the St. Paul Police Department blamed the dismissal on a clerical error – the standard probable cause paperwork was not included in the citation – and said the City Attorney’s Office plans to resubmit the case.
Jonathan Parnell, lead pastor at Cities Church, said he was “disheartened” after learning Phillips was allowed to walk out free.
“State law protects the right of people of faith to worship in peace, and I call on state and local officials to enforce the law,” Parnell stated in an X post.
Parnell’s post said protesters numbered about 20 who held signs with obscene messages and yelled harassing comments at families entering the church for the Easter service.
Dr. Richard Land, of Southern Evangelical Seminary, told AFN the free speech rights guaranteed by the First Amendment got stretched outside Cities Church on Easter morning.
“Well, you have two conflicting rights in the First Amendment,” he said. “One is the right to free speech, and the other is the freedom to worship as you please, without interference.”
Going back to the FACE Act, and the January incident, Land said the Easter Sunday protesters such as Phillips likely violated the federal law even with their protest outside the church.
“That sounds like a violation of laws that have been passed to protect people that go into abortion clinics,” he pointed out.
Despite his demand for police to help maintain law and order, Pastor Parnell concluded his X post with a reference to John 3:16 and God's plan to save sinful mankind. The pastor wrote that message is unchanged and the invitation “is open to all.”
