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A Minneapolis pastor said churches must continue to worship and remain resilient in the face of adversity after anti-ICE agitators disrupted a Sunday church service in St. Paul, an incident now under investigation by the Justice Department.
“This is an opportunity as Christians, as believers, to be strong, to be bold, to resist the darkness,” Pastor Kirk Graham of River Valley Church said on “Fox & Friends” Tuesday.
Activists shut down a service at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minn., on Jan. 19 2026, claiming the pastor was also working as an ICE agent. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)
“And like in Jesus’ most famous sermon, Matthew chapter five, we are a light to this world. We’re to be light in the dark, like a city set on a hill. And so we’re gonna continue to show up.”
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On Sunday, anti-ICE demonstrators stormed Cities Church over a pastor’s alleged ties to immigration enforcement amid escalating protests across the Twin Cities.
Anti-ICE agitators stormed a St. Paul church mid-service over alleged ICE ties, prompting a DOJ civil rights probe and sharp criticism from the Department of Homeland Security. (Google Maps)
Graham called the incident “unjust,” “un-American,” and “against God.”
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“You do not want to be the people that get between God, the living God, the creator of the universe and His children who come into His house to worship,” he said.
He praised Cities Church Pastor Jonathan Parnell for “responding like Christ in a very difficult moment” and said he was praying for the church to be “full of worshipers, full of peacemakers, full of those that are just doing their best to be more like Jesus” following what he described as “a moment of persecution.”
Graham affirmed that his community would continue to show up, worship and pray for “every Bible-believing church across the Twin Cities and across our nation,” encouraging Christians not to fear.
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“[In] the words of the living God, ‘do not be afraid.’ We don’t believe in this dualism. Light is not equal to darkness. It’s not an equal match.
“The light of Jesus Christ is infinitely more powerful than the darkness that would want to come against it.”
