‘In on the terror’: Minnesota pastor breaks silence on Don Lemon
Former CNN host Don Lemon has pleaded not guilty to federal charges for his role in the invasion of a Minnesota church last month, claiming he was merely covering the “protest” as a journalist, but the church’s pastor says Lemon was “in on the terror.”
Jonathan Parnell, the pastor of Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, had been attempting to read aloud from the Bible when agitators opposing Immigration and Customs Enforcement disrupted the Jan. 18 service. He wrote about the event for WORLD magazine Tuesday.
Parnell recalled that “several individuals scattered throughout the sanctuary rose together and, like a flash mob, converged with chants and clenched fists.” When the mob shouted, “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” that led worshippers to flee, “fearing it was an active shooter situation.”
The agitators “had stormed into the house of God, a place of peace and refuge, and they defiled it with rage.”
“In that instant, I interpreted what was going on: this was about provocation, intimidation, and spectacle,” the pastor wrote. “They were here to incite violence. The spiritual dimension of it all came into focus. A malevolent darkness was behind this—the same darkness behind the murder of pre-born children, and the mutilation of children’s bodies, and the manipulation of children’s minds. Those were all evils our children had escaped, so now the weapon was terror.”
“The agitators screamed in our faces and said we weren’t a real church,” he recalled. “They harassed individuals for their ethnicity and ‘uttered all kinds of evil’ against us falsely. They spewed lies upon lies, and our refusal to retaliate seemed only to frustrate them.”
Charges Against Church Invaders
A federal grand jury indicted nine people, including Lemon, on two charges: violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which also protects access to churches; and violating the Ku Klux Klan Act, which criminalizes efforts to deprive Americans of their fundamental rights—in this case, the right to the free exercise of religion.
According to the indictment, between 20 and 40 agitators, who claimed to be opposing Immigration and Customs Enforcement because one of the church’s pastors worked for ICE, refused to leave when asked and shouted, “Who shut this down? We shut this down!”
The indictment also mentions that agitators screamed at crying children, blocked parents from getting to their children in Sunday School, and that one agitator told a child that his parents were Nazis and going to hell.
The indictment states that Lemon strategized with the group’s leaders Nekima Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Louisa Allen before the invasion, and notes that Lemon said the group planned to “disrupt business as usual” at the church. Lemon appeared to hide the target location on his livestream, before the disruption.
Once inside, Lemon allegedly confronted Parnell, while other agitators blocked the pastor in, and asked him questions to further the agitators’ narrative. When people finally exited the church, Lemon observed that they were “frightened,” “scared,” and “crying.” He said that was understandable because the experience was “traumatic and uncomfortable,” which he added was the purpose of the incident.
Parnell’s View of Lemon
Parnell did not mention Lemon by name, but he did recall the interaction, noting, “The man questioning me certainly seemed disappointed” by his cool response.
“I told him, plainly, that we had gathered to worship Jesus and that he should leave. He did not leave. He was in on the terror,” Parnell recalled.
“He continued to accost members of our congregation, eventually moving outdoors, but still on our property.”
Many—including elected Democrats—have defended Lemon, claiming that President Donald Trump’s administration brought charges to intimidate him and prevent him from acting as a journalist, covering ICE. Yet Lemon hadn’t been covering ICE actions, nor was he covering a protest on public property.
Renee Carlson, who represents Cities Church as general counsel for True North Counsel, noted that being a journalist does not give someone license to invade a church building or disrupt services.
“The First Amendment does not allow premeditated plots or coordinated actions to violate the sanctity of a sanctuary, disrupt worship, and intimidate small children,” Carlson said in a statement shortly after the invasion. “There is no ‘press pass’ to invade a sanctuary or to conspire to interrupt religious services.”
Returning to the Gospel
The pastor cited Matthew 16, when Jesus said the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church.
“Hell had barged into our local church that morning, boasting to have shut us down, but hell doesn’t have the final say,” he wrote. “Nobody does, except God alone.”
Parnell concluded his article by presenting the forgiveness of the gospel.
Of the church invaders, he wrote, “God willing, they will answer for what they have done in a court of earthly justice. But if they turn from their sins and trust in Christ, they need not fear the court of heaven. All of their sins can be wiped away.”
[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]