Minnesota protesters’ rare disruption of church services recalls the Quakers during the colonial era before the American Revolution

That’s part of what makes the new case against anti-ICE protesters in St. Paul, Minnesota, so unusual. The group boycotted a service last Sunday at Cities Church, a Southern Baptist congregation, where one of its pastors works for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Three of the protesters were arrested on federal charges on Thursday.

Charles C. said: Haynes, a senior religious liberty fellow at the Freedom Forum, a nonprofit group that advocates for First Amendment rights, said disrupting a worship service is against the law — and that was likely the point.

Civil disobedience is inherently a violation of the law to attract attention to an issue. It is well known that civil disobedience by Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and others led to landmark legislation during the Civil Rights Movement.

Before her arrest Thursday, civil rights attorney Nikema Levy Armstrong, who describes herself as a Christian, filmed the protest in religious terms on Facebook: “It is time for judgment to begin and it will begin in the house of God!!!”

“Certainly, in my view, civil rights law should be invoked when people interfere with the religious freedom of others in their houses of worship,” Haynes said. At the same time, he noted that protesters usually feel that their cause is too urgent to take radical action.

More common are protests outside houses of worship, such as the recent anti-Israel demonstrations outside synagogues in New York City or the picket at a Kansas church for military funerals. Courts and politicians have struggled to balance the rights of protesters and worshipers.

With such systems, “the devil (no religious pun intended) will be in the details,” legal scholars Vikram Amar and Alan Brownstein wrote in a recent analysis in the online journal The Rule of Laws Regarding Protest-Free Buffer Zones around Houses of Worship and Other Sensitive Places.

AIDS activists boycott Mass in New York

Although cult disturbances are unusual, they have a long lineage.

Radical Quakers in colonial America disrupted the services of established churches that they considered illegitimate.

The African Methodist Episcopal Church has its origins in the 18th century, dating back to the exodus of black congregants from a white church where they faced discrimination.

Civil rights activists organized “kneelings” in segregated churches in the 1960s.

One of the most dramatic events in recent memory was the 1989 “Stop the Church” demonstration, organized by members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP).

The organization — which used civil disobedience to protest the government and the Catholic Church for what it saw as a weak response to the AIDS crisis — disrupted a Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York by shouting, lying in the aisles, and in one case desecrating a communion wafer. They faced minor charges under state law, according to news reports.

“There was a lot of rejection,” Haynes said. “But for ACT UP, it was life or death for them at that time.”

In 1984, protesters disrupted services at wealthy churches in Pittsburgh, citing the plight of workers put out of work by the collapse of the steel industry. The demonstrators – who targeted churches housing influential corporate executives and board members – sparked a varied response, with some admiring their courage and others saying they had done more harm than good to their cause.

Some protesters tactically abide by the law while relying on provocative messages and shock value.

Westboro Baptist Church, based in Kansas, has organized controversial protests condemning America for its tolerance of homosexuality, even targeting funerals of fallen soldiers. But the protesters remained outside their shelters, and the US Supreme Court upheld their right to protest, even though states had enacted laws limiting when and where funeral protests could be held.

“The First Amendment doesn’t protect us from unrest if it’s a peaceful protest and it’s far enough away,” Haynes said.

Protesters against Israeli actions in Gaza recently targeted synagogues in New York City, leading to proposed legislation that would keep protests 25 feet from the property line of houses of worship. Such buffer zones are common, as are some restrictions on freedom of expression, including location.

Little support for protest within the church

While many religious groups have denounced the ICE wave in Minnesota, protest within the Cities Church has received relatively little support. For example, the Minnesota Council of Churches, which joined calls for a shopping, school and work boycott on Friday, declined to comment on the arrests of protesters inside the church.

About three dozen protesters entered the Cities Church in St. Paul during last Sunday’s Mass. Some walked to the pulpit. Others loudly chanted “ICE out” and “Renee Good,” in reference to the woman who was shot and killed on January 7 by an ICE officer in Minneapolis.

One of the church’s pastors, David Easterwood, works for ICE.

“There is no reason — political or otherwise — that justifies the desecration of a holy place or the intimidation and trauma experienced by families gathered peacefully in the House of the Lord,” Kevin Ezell, president of the North American Mission Board of Southern Baptists, said in a statement.

Even among clergy who oppose current methods of immigration enforcement, there is unease with such protests.

Brian Caylor, an affiliate minister of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and leader of the Christian media organization Word&Way, criticized the Trump administration’s treatment of immigrants. But he said he was “very torn” by the protest at the church.

“It would be very concerning if we saw this become a widespread tactic across the political spectrum,” he said.

President Donald Trump rejected Bishop Marian Buddy, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, D.C., after she asked him to show mercy to immigrants and LGBT+ people at an inaugural prayer mass last year. This week, she traveled to protest ICE in Minnesota, where she has served as a priest for 18 years. Her response to the arrests of church protesters was measured.

“No one should fear for their safety or security in a house of worship — whether they are members of the Urban Church or immigrants afraid to enter for fear of arrest,” Budd said in a statement. “We must protect the sanctity of every holy place and the safety of all who gather to pray.”

Religious gatherings have tightened security protocols in recent years as deadly attacks on houses of worship and safety concerns intensify.

Many religious leaders were dismayed when the government announced last January that federal immigration agencies could make arrests in churches, schools and hospitals, ending protections for people in sensitive places.

No immigration raids were reported during church services. Some churches posted notices stating that federal immigration officials would not be allowed entry; Others reported declines in attendance, especially during increases in enforcement.

Protesters may face severe penalties

Penalties can be severe. Federal officials said the three protesters were charged under a law originally passed after the Civil War to confront vigilante groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, which targeted newly freed slaves. It has since been revised and has been applied to a wide range of violations of constitutional rights.

The law punishes up to 10 years in prison – or more if it involves injury, death or destruction of property.

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Associated Press writer Giovanna Dell’Orto in Minneapolis contributed.

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