What happened at Cities Church in St. Paul over the past several weeks is a reminder that political hysteria does not stop at the church doors anymore. According to Caleb Phillips, a 21-year-old congregant and recent college graduate, leftist agitators have continued to harass worshippers for two consecutive Sundays following a Jan. 18 disruption in which protesters stormed the sanctuary mid-service, screaming chants and bringing worship to a halt.
Phillips describes the experience not merely as political hostility, but as something deeper. Drawing directly from Scripture, he framed what he and other congregants have endured as a spiritual confrontation rather than a personal one. The language he used is striking precisely because it rejects the activist script of victimhood and retaliation. Instead of rage, Phillips speaks in terms of endurance, prayer, and resolve.
The initial disruption was sudden and violent in tone, even if not in physical action. Dozens of anti-ICE protesters flooded into the church, shouting accusations that congregants should be “ashamed” and declaring they were “not real Christians” for allowing a pastor associated with ICE to worship among them.
Phillips recalls the noise as explosive, likening it to a firework detonating inside the sanctuary. Children began crying almost immediately, frightened and confused by adults screaming in what was supposed to be a place of peace.
Yet the reaction inside the church did not mirror the chaos outside. Congregants regrouped later that same evening and completed their service. In the weeks that followed, attendance reportedly grew. Rather than shrinking under pressure, the church filled up. Protesters remained outside, heckling worshippers as they arrived and left, but police ensured they did not reenter the building.
The harassment, however, turned personal. Phillips said that the Sunday after the invasion, agitators hurled racial insults at his girlfriend, who is Asian, accusing her of “hanging out with Nazis.”
He described stepping outside the church as walking into an “ice bath,” an abrupt shock after the calm of worship. Despite that, Phillips and other young members chose to respond by praying, singing, and reading Scripture, even offering to pray with protesters willing to engage peacefully.
Some accepted. Others did not. Phillips recounted a moment when, after praying for peace and blessings over the city and even over the protesters themselves, a woman with a megaphone singled out his girlfriend, attacking her race and threatening future targeting. He admitted feeling anger, then deliberately pulling himself back, reminding himself that the confrontation was not about one person shouting slurs but about something more corrosive beneath the surface.
Phillips was also clear about the source of the outrage: a pastor’s association with ICE. His response was unapologetic. The church, he said, will not shun a fellow Christian because his profession is politically unpopular.
