Democrats in the Minnesota House of Representatives blocked legislation that would make it a crime to disrupt a church service with the intent to interfere with the free exercise of religion. The vote came eight weeks after a St. Paul church was stormed by agitators.
On Jan. 18, anti-ICE agitators stormed into Cities Church and disrupted its Sunday morning worship service. Protesters harassed churchgoers, shouted anti-ICE chants, and created such turmoil in the sanctuary that the worship service had to be abandoned.
The agitators allegedly stormed the church because they believed one of the pastors was an ICE official. Since then, dozens of individuals have been charged with federal crimes for their participation in the Cities Church storming.
Former CNN journalist Don Lemon and Minneapolis activist Nekima Levy Armstrong are among those who have been charged. Many of those individuals are being charged under two federal laws which protect access to religious services.
However, Minnesota law does not have a specific statute that criminalizes the disruption of a church service. Republican State Rep. Ben Davis hopes to change that.
Davis is the author of HF 4095, a bill that would criminalize the disruption of any religious service if someone does so with the intent to interfere with the lawful exercise of religion and while committing a crime within the religious establishment.
Should HF 4095 become law, a violation of that provision would be a gross misdemeanor. A second violation would be a felony resulting in up to five years in prison, a $10,000 fine, or both. Davis’ bill was heard this week in the House Public Safety Committee.
Davis, himself a pastor in his legislative district, told committee members that HF 4095 “builds upon existing statutes while making clear that intentional interference with holy gatherings crosses a line that we will not tolerate.”
However, Democrats opposed Davis’ bill and offered a variety of explanations for their opposition. Two Democrats said Minnesota state law already has disorderly conduct, trespassing, and other statutes that could deal with the Cities Church situation.
DFL Rep. Kaela Berg, a current congressional candidate, read through a list of shootings that occurred at houses of worship and essentially accused Republicans of refusing to protect those places because of the GOP’s opposition to gun control.
During the committee meeting, Democrats repeatedly brought up Operation Metro Surge, the federal government’s recent immigration enforcement effort in Minnesota.
Democrats said religious places need to be protected but Republicans blocked DFL efforts to protect constitutional rights in the wake of Operation Metro Surge. In the end, Democrats appeared to oppose Davis’ legislation because their Operation Metro Surge-related bills were previously blocked.
GOP Rep. Walter Hudson was critical of that reasoning.
“I find if frankly mind-boggling that [the] argument against [supporting HF 4095] would be that there’s a bunch of other things that ought to be done alongside it,” Hudson said. “This is how we legislate — one bill at a time, one provision at a time.”
After committee discussion ended, Republicans tried to advance HF 4095 to the General Register, the last stop before legislation is voted on by the full House. However, that motion failed to gain a majority of committee members.
The DFLers who voted against HF 4095 were Kaela Berg, Sandra Feist, Emma Greenman, Athena Hollins, Pete Johnson, Kelly Moller, Dave Pinto, Lucy Rehm, and Brad Tabke.
Luke Sprinkel
Luke Sprinkel previously worked as a Legislative Assistant at the Minnesota House of Representatives. He grew up as a Missionary Kid (MK) living in England, Thailand, Tanzania, and the Middle East. Luke graduated from Regent University in 2018.
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