#easterwood — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

The Christian right will never turn down an opportunity to make false accusations of religious persecution.

These days, they’re especially eager to play the victim.
Doing so allows them to distract from the ugly reality that they,
in voting for Donald Trump, have helped to unleash in Minnesota:
A woman killed in front of her wife,
children ripped from their parents,
a baby nearly killedby Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents firing tear gas at a family driving home from a basketball game.

On Saturday, there was another unjustifiable shooting.
Video appears to show 37-year-old Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an intensive-care unit nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital, helping a woman to her feet when Border Patrol agents swarm and pepper-spray him
— and then shoot him while he is pinned down.

❌All this, though, apparently pales in comparison to a more serious form of oppression:
right-wing Christians being told it’s immoral to support a brutal, racist assault on their neighbors.

On Sunday, Jan. 18, a group of anti-racism activists disrupted services at the far-right Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota,
because one of the church pastors, #David #Easterwood, acts as a field director for ICE as it rains terror on the Twin Cities.
The protesters denounced the shooting death of Renee Nicole Good at the hands of an ICE agent,
as well as other ICE offenses, such as charging into people’s homes without warrants,
threatening violence against protesters,
and detaining and beating non-white people
— including citizens,
many of whom are elderly or children.

“We will protect Americans of faith,”
Attorney Pam Bondi declared in a statement
defending the arrest of three non-violent protesters for interrupting the service.

Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem falsely described the peaceful demonstration as
“Church Riots,”
and continued to lie by saying the protesters
prevented “someone from practicing their religion.”

Turning Point USA head Erika Kirk called anti-ICE protesters “demonic.”

Far-right Baptist leader William Wolfe
— who is closely connected to leadership at Cities Church
— declared,
“Christians are the most persecuted religious group in America,
and it’s not even close!”

Jonathan Parnell,
the pastor who was leading services at Cities Church that day, wrote in a statement that the protesters
“accosted members of our congregation, frightened children, and created a scene marked by intimidation and threat.”

https://www.salon.com/2026/01/26/pro-ice-churches-should-be-shamed/