By Tyler O’Neil, The Daily Signal | May 14, 2026
A protester prominently displayed lewd materials outside a St. Paul, Minnesota, church in the presence of children, saying she intends to prevent kids from attending services.
Protests have dogged Cities Church, an evangelical Reformed congregation affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, since Immigration and Customs Enforcement surged to the Twin Cities.
In January, agitators opposing Immigration and Customs Enforcement took over the sanctuary during a service, chanting, “Who shut this down? We shut this down.” A federal grand jury indicted 38 people on charges of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and the Ku Klux Klan Act for that incident. Yet protests outside the church have continued.
Photos of a protest outside the church on Mother’s Day reveal that a protester’s car had two dildos attached to the windows. One of the church members confronted the protester about the sex toys, and the protester responded by telling church members not to bring their children to church. The church’s pastor claims the protester “harasses” the church weekly.
The Lewd Protester Aims to Block Children
Alpha News published a video showing a church member asking the protester about the lewd display.
“Why the dildos?” the member asks.
“Why the pedophiles?” the protester replies. “Because pedophilia involves penises.”
“I think you should not bring your children here,” the protester adds, raising her voice for the last five words. “How disgusting.”
“What’s disgusting is showing children that,” the church member replies.
“You’re right, so they shouldn’t come here,” she claps back. “Don’t bring your children here.”
“There might be dildos, and we wouldn’t want them to know what dildos are,” the protester says. “We got to keep it a secret until they get raped.”
When the church member asks the protester to name alleged rape victims, she says, “Women are being raped in ICE custody.”
The church member asks her for the names, and she says she hadn’t memorized the names.
“I believe victims, I don’t laugh at ’em,” she added.
What Does This Have to Do With Cities Church?
Anti-ICE activists have targeted Cities Church, saying that one of its pastors also worked for ICE. Yet the protester did not name any alleged rape or pedophilia in relation to the church itself.
Some ICE agents have pleaded guilty to sex crimes involving detainees, but no case directly implicates the pastor or the church.
Cities Church Senior Pastor Jonathan Parnell noted that the woman in the video “harasses our church every Sunday.”
“By their own admissions, as captured on video, these agitators are deliberately targeting families and children,” he wrote on X. “It is a coordinated effort to desecrate our Sunday mornings. St. Paul officials are doing nothing to stop it, and the City Attorney will not respond to my emails. We are simply asking for equal protection under the law.”
In addition to the agitators arrested for the January church invasion, police filed charges against another protester for making loud noises outside a service on Easter Sunday. Emily Phillips, 33, faced charges for misdemeanor disorderly conduct, misdemeanor interference with religious observance, and two noise violations, according to the police incident report. A judge dismissed the charges on procedural grounds, and while police signaled their intent to re-file, it appears they have not done so.
Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., jogged by the protesters Sunday morning. He did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment about the jog or the ongoing protests.
Walz previously condemned the Jan. 18 invasion.
“The governor has repeatedly and unequivocally urged protesters to do so peacefully,” a spokesperson told The Daily Signal in January. “While people have a right to speak out, he in no way supports interrupting a place of worship.”
Tyler O’Neil is senior editor at the Daily Signal and the author of two books, “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center” and “The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government.”
Original article link
