Christian leaders urge protecting worshippers' rights after protesters interrupt service

Several faith leaders called urgently for protecting the rights of worshippers while also expressing compassion for migrants after anti-immigration enforcement protesters disrupted a service at a Southern Baptist church in Minnesota.

About three dozen protesters entered the Cities Church in St. Paul during Sunday service, some walking right up to the pulpit, others loudly chanting “ICE out” and “Renee Good,” referring to a woman who was fatally shot on Jan. 7 by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis.

One of the church’s pastors, David Easterwood, leads the local ICE field office, and one of the leaders of the protest and prominent local activist Nekima Levy Armstrong said she’s also an ordained pastor.

The Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist Convention called what happened “an unacceptable trauma,” saying the service was ”forced to end prematurely" as protesters shouted “insults and accusations at youth, children, and families.”

“I believe we must be resolute in two areas: encouraging our churches to provide compassionate pastoral care to these (migrant) families and standing firm for the sanctity of our houses of worship,” Trey Turner, who leads the convention, told The Associated Press on Monday. Cities Church belongs to the convention.

The U.S. Department of Justice said it has opened a civil rights investigation.

The recent surge in operations in Minnesota has pitted more than 2,000 federal immigration officers against community activists and protesters. The Trump administration and Minnesota officials have traded blame for the heightened tensions.

“No cause — political or otherwise — justifies the desecration of a sacred space or the intimidation and trauma inflicted on families gathered peacefully in the house of God,” Kevin Ezell, president of the North American Mission Board, said in a statement. “What occurred was not protest; it was lawless harassment.”

Jonathan Parnell, the pastor who led the disrupted service, is a missionary with Ezell’s group and serves dozens of Southern Baptist churches in the area. Cities Church, housed in a Gothic-style, century-old stone building next to a college campus on one of the Twin Cities’ landmark boulevards, has not returned AP requests for comment.

Christians in the United States are divided on the moral and legal dilemmas raised by immigration, including the presence of an estimated 11 million people who are in the country illegally and the spike in illegal border crossings and asylum requests during the Biden administration.

Opinions differ between and within denominations on whether Christians must prioritize care for strangers and neighbors or the immigration enforcement push in the name of security. White evangelicals tend to support strong enforcement, while Catholic leaders have spoken in favor of migrant rights.

The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. and has a conservative evangelical theology.

Miles Mullin, the vice-president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, said faith leaders can and often have led protests on social issues, but those should never prevent others from worshipping.

“This is something that just shouldn’t happen in America,” Mullin said. “For Baptists, our worship services are sacred.”

On Facebook, Levy Armstrong wrote about Sunday's protest in religious terms: “It’s time for judgment to begin and it will begin in the House of God!!!”

But Albert Mohler, the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, called the protesters' tactics unjustifiable.

“For Christians, the precedent of invading a congregation at worship should be unthinkable,” Mohler said in an interview. “I think the political left is crossing a threshold.”

Brian Kaylor, a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-affiliated minister and leader of the Christian media organization Word&Way, called having an ICE official serve as a pastor “a serious moral failure.”

But Kaylor, who has spoken out against the Trump administration’s treatment of immigrants, said he was “very torn” by the protesters’ action inside a church.

“It would be very alarming if we come to see this become a widespread tactic across the political spectrum,” he said.

Many faith leaders were dismayed when the government announced last January that federal immigration agencies can make arrests in churches, schools and hospitals, ending the protection of people in sensitive spaces.

No immigration raids during church services have been reported, but some churches have posted notices on their doors saying no federal immigration officers are allowed inside. Others have reported a drop in attendance, particularly during enforcement surges.

Following the protest in Cities Church, Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Justice, said her office is investigating “potential violations of the federal FACE Act,” calling the protest “un-American and outrageous.”

The 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act prohibits interference or intimidation of “any person by force, threat of force, or physical obstruction exercising or seeking to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt warned in a social media post that “President Trump will not tolerate the intimidation and harassment of Christians in their sacred places of worship.”

Several pastors called for better security in churches.

The Rev. Joe Rigney, one of the founding pastors at Cities Church in 2015 who served there until 2023, said safety would have been his first concern had a group disrupted service, especially since the fatal shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school Mass last summer.

In a statement to the AP, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's spokesperson said that while people have a right to speak out, the governor doesn't support interrupting a place of worship.

Also Monday, the Department of Justice notified a federal appeals court that it will appeal a ruling that federal officers in the Minneapolis area cannot detain or tear gas peaceful protesters who aren’t obstructing authorities. The case was filed in December on behalf of six Minnesota activists who are among thousands of people observing the activities of federal immigration officers in the area.

Yet more protesters braved temperatures that dipped below zero (minus 8 Celsius) Monday to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in St. Paul. Some waved signs from vehicles bearing messages including, “What did you do while your neighbors were being kidnapped?” and “We love our Somali neighbors.”

Dozens of protesters also staged a brief sit-in at a Target store in St. Paul demanding that the retailer bar entry to federal agents. Target, headquartered in Minneapolis, has been criticized by activists after a video showed federal agents detaining two employees at a store in Richfield, Minnesota.

Associated Press journalists Holly Meyer in Nashville, Tennessee, Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis and Jack Brook in St. Paul, Minnesota, contributed.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Anti-ICE protester Trahern Crews a co-founder of, Black Lives Matter, raises his fist in defiance during a caravan protest, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026 in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

Cities Church is seen in St. Paul, Minn. where activists shut down a service claiming the pastor was also working as an ICE agent, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026 in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

Community members and neighbors of people detained by ICE sing during a protest at a Target store, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

People ride in a car during a caravan protest, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026 in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

Community members and neighbors of people detained by ICE protest at a Target store, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

NEW YORK (AP) — Center fielders Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones appear on track to gain election to the Hall of Fame on Tuesday when voting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America is announced.

As of Monday evening, Beltrán had been picked on 89.2% of the 223 ballots revealed early and tabulated on Ryan Thibodaux's online vote-tracker, just over half of the estimated total submitted. Jones was at 83%, like Beltrán well over the 75% needed for induction to the shrine in Cooperstown, New York.

Making his fourth ballot appearance, Beltrán has moved up steadily from 46.5% in 2023 to 57.1% the following year and 70.3% in 2025, when he fell 19 votes short as Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner were elected.

Jones is on the ballot for the ninth of a maximum 10 times. He received just 7.3% in his first appearance in 2018 — his 31 ballots were just over the 22 needed to remain eligible for future BBWAA votes. He didn't get half the total until receiving 58.1% in 2023, then increased to 61.6% and 66.2%, falling 35 votes short in 2025.

Anyone elected would be inducted on July 26 along with second baseman Jeff Kent, voted in last month by the contemporary era committee after he received a peak of 46.5% of votes from the BBWAA during his time on the ballot from 2014-23.

BBWAA members with 10 or more consecutive years in the organization were eligible to vote.

A nine-time All-Star, Beltrán hit .279 with 435 homers and 1,587 RBIs over 20 seasons with Kansas City (1999-2004), Houston (2004, '17), the New York Mets (2005-11), San Francisco (2011), St. Louis (2012-13), the New York Yankees (20014-16) and Texas (2016).

He was the 1999 AL Rookie of the Year and won three Gold Gloves, also hitting .307 in the postseason with 16 homers and 42 RBIs in 65 games.

Beltrán was hired as Mets manager on Nov. 1, 2019, then fired on Jan. 16 without having managed a game, three days after he was the only Astros player mentioned by name in a report by Major League Baseball regarding the team’s illicit use of electronics to steal signs during Houston’s run to the 2017 World Series championship.

“We all did what we did. Looking back today, we were wrong,” Beltrán said on a YES Network broadcast in 2022, after he was hired as an analyst. "I wish I would’ve asked more questions about what we were doing. I wish the organization would’ve said to us, `Hey man, what you guys are doing, we need to stop this.'”

Jones hit .254 with 434 homers, 1,289 RBIs and 152 stolen bases in 17 seasons with Atlanta (1996-2007), the Los Angeles Dodgers (2008), Texas (2009), the Chicago White Sox (2010) and the Yankees (2011-12). He finished his career with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of Japan's Pacific League from 2013-14.

His batting average would be the second-lowest for a position player voted to the Hall of Fame, just above the .253 of Ray Schalk, a superior defensive catcher, and just below the .256 of Harmon Killebrew, who hit 573 homers.

A five-time All-Star, Jones earned 10 Gold Gloves.

In the 1996 World Series opener at Yankee Stadium, at 19 years, 5 months, Jones became the youngest player to homer in a Series game, beating Mickey Mantle’s old mark by 18 months. Going deep against Andy Pettitte in the second inning and Brian Boehringer in the third of a 12-1 rout, Jones became the second player to homer in his first two Series at-bats after Gene Tenace in 1972.

Chase Utley (68.2%), Pettitte (57.4%) and Félix Hernández (56.5%) were the only other candidates to get at least half the votes revealed on the tracker before the announcement.

Utley was on the ballot for the third time after getting 28.8% and then 39.8% last year, and Hernández received 20.6% last year in his first ballot appearance.

Pettitte, on the ballot for the eighth time, has moved up substantially. He got 9% in his initial appearance in 2019, 13.5% in 2024 and 27.9% last year.

Cole Hamels at 31.4% had the highest total among a dozen newcomers on the 27-man ballot.

Alex Rodriguez (43% in fifth appearance) and Manny Ramirez (40.4% in 10th appearance) are well shy. Both served suspensions for performance-enhancing drug violations.

Buster Posey and Jon Lester are the top first-time candidates on the 2027 BBWAA ballot, followed by Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina in 2028, and Miguel Cabrera, Zack Greinke and Joey Votto in 2029.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

FILE - Former Atlanta Braves player Andruw Jones walks on the field as his number is retired Sept. 9, 2023, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)

FILE - New York Mets' Carlos Beltran smiles during an introductory baseball news conference in New York, Nov. 4, 2019. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

FILE - The Netherlands' designated hitter Andruw Jones (25) tries to dodge Korea's catcher Kang Minho (47) on home plate in the fourth inning of a World Baseball Classic first-round game at the Intercontinental Baseball Stadium in Taichung, Taiwan, March 2, 2013. (AP Photo/Wally Santana, File)

FILE - New York Mets right fielder Carlos Beltran lunges for the ball during the third inning of an MLB baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, April 22, 2011 in New York. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun, File)