The Stack: When Protest Becomes Trespass and the Church Loses Its Way
A church in St. Paul, Minnesota was targeted and disrupted during worship — not for criminal behavior, but because one of its pastors works for ICE. In today’s Toddcast, Todd explains why this incident represents a deeper cultural collapse: the erosion of moral, civic, and institutional boundaries. What some call “protest” was, in reality, unlawful trespass and intimidation aimed at silencing religious expression.
Todd breaks down the difference between free speech and obstruction, public space and private property, and compassion versus lawlessness. He also examines how political ideology is increasingly replacing biblical doctrine inside some churches, creating confusion about government authority, law enforcement, and moral responsibility. From the FACE Act to the First Amendment, this episode connects legal reality with historical Christian teaching.
The result is a sobering warning: when our culture — and sometimes the church — abandon truth for political fashion, chaos follows. Order, liberty, and faith itself depend on restoring clarity — before intimidation becomes the norm.
🎧 Listen to Today’s Episode
📰 Stack Links
DOJ launches civil rights investigation after Minnesota agitators allegedly storm church
Don Lemon put on notice by DOJ for role covering protest stormed church
Minnesota AG Keith Ellison denies Don Lemon, anti-ICE protesters violated FACE Act
DOJ reportedly investigating Tim Walz, Jacob Frey for obstruction
DOJ probes protest that disrupted church service attended by ICE official
Protesters disrupt Minnesota church service over pastor’s ICE ties
Anti-ICE protesters storm Minnesota church during worship service
Mob storms Minnesota church during worship to target pastor they say has ICE ties
Don Lemon responds after being put ‘on notice’ by Trump DOJ
Christian leaders demand justice after anti-ICE protesters storm St. Paul church
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📝 Transcript: When Protest Becomes Trespass and the Church Loses Its Way
The Todd Huff Show – January 20, 2025
Host: Todd Huff
Todd Huff: Yes, my friends, this is fresh off last night's national championship for the Indiana's last night. I tell you what, it has been quite the ride. I'm going to hold off saying I'm going to try to stick to the issues today. I know some of you don't like when we venture off into things like this, but I can't help myself today, friends. This is an incredible thing, and I think that there's stories and inspiration tucked into this.
Into this. So we'll talk about that. But what I want to talk about today, my friends, is the breakdown of civic, moral, institutional boundaries. This misunderstanding we have about protest and trespass law. Well, I should say protest and a protest in trespass law enforcement versus, well, law breaking and evil.
Todd Huff: The church is wrapped up in this situation actually in St. Paul, the Twin Cities area in Minnesota. And how all that stuff is breaking down and just the cultural rot that you find in different parts of our society, even inside at times the church. I'm not criticizing the church at large, but there is a portion of the church that has strayed from the teachings of Jesus and of the source, the Bible, my friends.
And so that's happening inside some churches, outside of churches, and in our government, in our communities. And I want to talk about this today. Talk about this Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota that was targeted by protesters, which really are — we’ve got to come up with a different term.
Todd Huff: I don't know if I want to call them rioters, but they are not just protesters. They are people who are infringing upon the rights of other people. Trying to infringe upon the rights of people to worship as they did this weekend at a church in Minneapolis.
You've probably seen this with Don Lemon. Don Lemon's got himself all messed up in this. He's getting warnings from the Department of Justice. We'll see where this goes.
Todd Huff: But friends, this is a disaster that is absolutely rooted in the moral depravity we find in the radical left. In the radical left and everywhere that they go, in the media, in the churches that the radical left has gotten a hold of, in government, my friends, it is everywhere.
It is insidious, and it has to be defeated, my friends. So that's where we're headed today. And yes, there will be some references to the Indiana Hoosiers winning their first national championship. I'm still on cloud nine.
Todd Huff: Listen, I'll be honest with you. I shared this with you before. You know, I live about, what is it, forty minutes from Indiana University. My best friend played on the team years ago. He's a lot older than he thinks he is. So he played in the late nineties.
I had another friend who was one of the managers for the team in the early to mid-nineties. And, you know, we would go to IU football games. But I gotta be honest, it was not anything to get too excited about.
Todd Huff: Other than, of course, my friend being a part of it and just other things like that. Basketball was a different story when I was a kid. I remember growing up and my dad being a huge fan of Bobby Knight. Everybody was a fan of Bobby Knight.
I live in the part of the state that's really pretty red Hoosier country, but there's Purdue fans here as well. But I think there's a lot more Indiana fans.
Todd Huff: And listen, I am an Alabama fan as well. In fact, I was neutral. I think I wanted IU to win, I just didn't want to admit it. But I was barely fifty-one percent of me wanted IU to win when they played Alabama here a few weeks ago.
But what happened, it's incredible for the area, the state. It's an incredible story and it's inspirational, and I'm probably going to talk about it. But I'm going to do my best to stick on this issue first because this is important as well. So that's where we're headed this morning, my friends. Thank you so much for tuning in.
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Use coupon code Todd Huff and you'll save ten percent off your first purchase. Christopher's Organic Botanicals dot com. Truth. Tradition. Transparency. Friends, if you haven't seen the video or read the stories or seen any of the fallout, let me give you a quick rundown here. A quick rundown of what happened over the weekend in St. Paul, Minnesota. There's a church called Cities Church.
And protesters — I'm using that word loosely — although I wouldn't say that they're rioters. They're at least trespassers. How about that? Let's call them trespassers.
Todd Huff: The trespassers targeted this church called Cities Church. Remember, this is in the Twin Cities region. St. Paul, Minneapolis, or Minneapolis, St. Paul is how they say it.
But anyway, the trespassers targeted this church because one of the pastors, David Easterwood, is believed to work for ICE. In fact, we believe he does work for ICE, although that's not entirely clear to me.
Todd Huff: It appears that that is actually correct. Easterwood is reportedly a pastor at Cities Church and the acting director of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations field office in St. Paul.
So they thought these anti-ICE agitators, these folks who believe in lawlessness, went to a pastor's church because the pastor has the audacity to work for ICE.
Todd Huff: To do something that is perfectly legal within the bounds of both the law and the Constitution. And they stormed his church, interrupted it, terrified some kids along the way that were in service there.
And they viewed this as a legitimate thing to do because of their self-righteousness. The trespassers did. They believe that the church is morally implicated here.
Todd Huff: Because he's employed both by the church and by ICE. Now, a lot going on here. A whole lot going on here. Number one, this protest at its core has this foundational belief that working for ICE is immoral.
Especially if you're a Christian. Especially if you're a Christian pastor. So working for ICE, they believe, is immoral. Enforcing immigration law, they would argue, is immoral. And so the pastor cannot, I guess, hold the pastor's position and work for the evil Gestapo, as the left would have you believe, known as ICE.That's the framing of this. Now, there's no allegation of criminal behavior by Pastor Easterwood. There's no allegation that he abused his authority. There's no allegation that he engaged in any sort of personal misconduct. The objection by these — again, the self-righteous here — is that this is immoral.
Ideologically immoral and inconsistent, they would say, with being a pastor. And so they believe they have a right to storm a church.
Todd Huff: Private property, by the way. Interfere with people exercising their freedom of religion. They believe that they're in the right on this particular situation.
So what moral law, though, is actually being violated by this pastor? Which commandment? Which of the Ten Commandments?Which of the Old Testament laws? Which of the teachings of Scripture forbids the enforcement of law? Which biblical passage or text forbids law enforcement in general?
Border enforcement specifically? Which moral law prohibits the civil authority from enforcing national law?What are they so upset about? There's no clear biblical prohibition that these folks have cited because, my friends, it doesn't exist.
Now you'll find teachings about being kind and compassionate to people who are in need, which include people who are migrants, who are refugees.
Todd Huff: But there is no guaranteed right that this country, or any country for that matter, has to be a wide-open border for anyone who wants to come here.
There is nothing biblically that says states cannot be sovereign or that governments cannot have sovereignty over what is happening inside their country.
Todd Huff: In fact, God instituted government. You realize this. God instituted government. People have ruined government.
The leftists ruin it every time because their ideas are not predicated upon truth, freedom, liberty, or personal choice.
Todd Huff: And so order is preferred to chaos. This is God. We serve a God — for those of you who are Christian, for those of you who are just generally interested — God is a God of order. Government is good.
Now, there's obviously a line where you take away there's so much quote-unquote order that you're taking away people's ability to live their lives according to their own consciences and direction that the Spirit of God might give a person.That's not good. That's not what we want. In fact, I fight against that on this program each and every day. But order in general in a free society is a good thing. It's preferred to chaos and to violence, which is what happens when you have absolute anarchy.
By the way, pastors have historically served in roles like soldiers, like law enforcement officers. What is wrong with this?
Todd Huff: I understand that there are people and that there are sects of Christianity where people are pacifists and so forth, and I respect their interpretation and their consciences in that respect. I don't see it that way. I don't see it that way at all.
I don't think that we should just go out there and blindly start being violent. But there is a time when violence is necessary.
Todd Huff: Because violence is being imposed on the rest of us. You have to at some point. The only thing that keeps evil men from using violence are good men prepared and ready to use violence to stop them from instituting — or I should say initiating — violence on the population or groups of people.
So it's actually quite commendable. We've lost that in society. By the way, you know, I was talking to Oz the other day, and you know this. I think modern feminism has done so much damage beneath the surface.
I think I go as far to say I think the average person who knows feminism is bad has been subtly impacted by feminism in ways that I don't think many of us even comprehend. I think that it is so insidious and that it is so cooked into the culture today that we don't recognize men and women.
Now, obviously, I'm preaching to the choir here. But I think even those of us who know that there are clear distinctions that God made man and woman to be different.
Todd Huff: To have different nature, right? To be better at certain things and that sort of stuff. I think even — even I find myself — I'll speak for myself — I find myself sometimes thinking, why do I think that?
And I think it is insidious feminism. It is so insidious it's reached so deep, and it's basically watered down everything. And it's impacted even the church. What's so wrong about this? I remember a story. I used to intern when I was in college when I went to Washington, D.C. back in 1999.
That's been a long time ago now. Twenty-seven years. That is wild to think about. But I remember I interned at a place called the Christian Defense Fund, and they provided — in fact, I've got some of those little booklets and so forth here — but anyway, they helped people understand America's Christian heritage.
They produced a lot of books, and we worked on what they called the college lecture series.
Todd Huff: We tried to connect speakers to go on college campuses and share the message of Jesus and talk in forums on universities and so forth.
But I remember in those days, and I don't know if it was directly associated with that organization or if I consumed this information elsewhere. There was a story back in the Revolutionary War. It was the Revolutionary War. There was a pastor giving a sermon, preaching from Ecclesiastes, where it says there is a time to be born and a time to die.
And when he got to the part — and I don't have it in front of me here — but basically a time for war and a time for peace.
Todd Huff: Apparently underneath his clergy attire, he had a military uniform. And he exposed the uniform and told the congregation he was going to fight for the American Revolution.
If you look at this, it's fascinating even from a Christian perspective. There are a lot of instances, if you go back to the seventeen fifties, you'll find sermons being preached against tyranny and oppression. Talking about the liberty that God had created man to have.
There were pastors talking about these things long before the American Revolution ever officially took shape. And so these pastors served as soldiers historically. They did in the case of the American Revolution and all throughout history.
Todd Huff: So what is so bad? There's no historic Christian consensus that law enforcement is evil or that ICE is evil. ICE is legitimate.
But ICE is treated as uniquely illegitimate by these radical protesters and trespassers who storm church services and think they have the right to do this. Now I've got more thoughts on this as I'm glancing at the clock. Let me just say this. This has infiltrated even some Christian circles.
I'm amazed even at people I see. In fact, my wife shared with me yesterday something someone posted on Facebook about Trump potentially sending in the National Guard to Minnesota.
Todd Huff: This is a woman that we know attends church. Sure she's a kind person, but there are people who believe that in order to be a Christian today, you just have to be all love and peace.
Listen, I believe in that. But if you're not willing, my friends, if you're not willing to stand up — I mean, look at what happened.My goodness, look at what happened after the people of Israel left Egypt. They got to the promised land. There were wars. There were battles.
David and Goliath. Think about these stories of fighting and war. And it wasn't always a good thing, but there were times when God ordered it.
Todd Huff: Joshua was ordered to fight. To pretend that it's just about hugging everybody and saying it's okay, you water down truth at that point.
We should speak the truth in love. Truth is upsetting to people. They don't like it. But this is infiltrated the church. I think it's rooted in feminism, a misunderstanding.
There are a lot of places where the church has catered to women and even feminism in certain areas, and real men have sat back or stopped attending church. And this problem has metastasized. Now we have people who think ICE is the oppressor, that ICE is targeting victims, and that systemic guilt comes with working for ICE.
So that's where we're headed today, my friends. I gotta take a break.
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Todd Huff: Welcome back, my friends. That verse I referenced is Ecclesiastes chapter three, verse eight. A time to love, a time to hate, a time for war, and a time for peace.
That was the passage the pastor was preaching from when he revealed the uniform and said he was going to fight in the American Revolution. Since we're talking about the church being stormed in St. Paul, now we have people who are professional clergy being told they can't work in law enforcement.
Political viewpoints are replacing doctrine. Doctrinal unity is being lost.
Todd Huff: There are people who have more to say about political issues than doctrine. Others are afraid to talk about politics at all.
But there are things the Bible absolutely addresses — abortion, sexuality, God's creation.Affirming churches are a problem. Christianity begins with recognizing you're a sinner.
God is right. I'm wrong. That's the foundation. But that message is being abandoned.
Todd Huff: These trespassers entered a worship service. Private property. First Amendment protected activity.
They interfered. The Department of Justice opened a civil rights investigation under the FACE Act. Don Lemon embedded himself with the trespassers. Filmed inside the church. You cannot be a journalist participating in breaking the law.Public versus private matters. Public spaces belong to taxpayers. Churches are private. You can protest on the sidewalk. You cannot storm a church. This cold civil war is being waged inside churches. Some churches have abandoned truth for political fashion.
I wonder what Paul or John would say to some of these churches today.
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Todd Huff: I told you I was going to talk about Indiana University. What happened last night is remarkable.
Worst program in college football history. Two years later, national champions.
Todd Huff: There are teams that hope to win, teams that think they can win, and teams that expect to win.
Signetti came in and said, “I win. Google me.”
Todd Huff: Two losses in two years. Undefeated this season. A story for the ages.
Hoo-Hoo-Hoo-Hoosiers. Gotta go. SDG.
