No.Nonsense.

On Sunday in Minneapolis, protesters stormed a Baptist church during morning services, blocking the congregants and screaming at them for 45 minutes until the police finally showed up to make them leave. Other videos show protesters standing in front of churches in other cities, yelling profanities at those who are entering for their services.

As I watched these videos, my heart broke because I lament how far we’ve fallen. I’m a free speech purist and believe in our right to protest. I don’t agree with the infringement of others’ rights to assemble in their sacred spaces. The 1994 FACE Act made it a federal crime to block entrances to abortion clinics. This act further protects blocking of all religious properties including churches, synagogues, and mosques. The Supreme Court has further upheld that the right to assemble, aka protest, is protected but there can be restrictions on the manner and place of those protests. It’s why cities have the ability to mandate permits for protests or can stop people from blocking traffic on major roadways.

But it’s not just about the law. It’s about common decency. It’s about saying that certain places are sacred and respecting those places. These protesters feel they have the right to enter a church because it was reported that ICE would be going into churches and hospitals and schools to find illegal migrants, and that the pastor was somehow involved with ICE. My question to you, though, is how many stories have there been on the news of ICE raids in these spaces? I personally have not seen a single one. What’s more, there is absolutely no evidence of the pastor’s involvement in anything related to what is happening in the city. It seems we’re returning to the days of tarring and feathering dissenters to our cause with no evidence of whether they actually are dissenting.

But even more than that point, why do you feel that you have the right to enter my sacred space of worship to harass me with your agenda? I’m not in your face so why do you feel you have the right to be in mine?

After the shooting in the church in Charleston, my own church established a security team and had a local uniformed police officer posted outside at every service. They did that because of the increased threats of violence at worship places across the country. That security has now been in place for more than ten years, and it’s sad that we feel the need for it to be there so that we can feel at peace in our services. It seems now we not only have to protect ourselves from shooters but from protesters as well.