A controversial protest last Sunday at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minn., is symptomatic of a spiritual sickness in American society, Joe Rigney told Tucker Carlson.
Rigney, a conservative Calvinist pastor who believes empathy is a sin, helped start Cities Church 11 years ago. He now lives in Idaho, where he serves as associate pastor at Christ Church, a congregation led by Doug Wilson. Cities Church is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.
Last Wednesday, Rigney appeared on “The Tucker Carlson Show” and said protesters walking in to Cities Church last Sunday are part of a larger cultural hostility toward Christianity.
The protesters were there to draw attention to the fact that one of the church’s elders, David Easterwood, serves as an area director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which in the past year has been accused of atrocities against legal residents as well as asylum seekers.
Cities Church is not populated by political activists, Rigney said. “This is not a political church. These are normal, Bible-believing evangelicals.”
“This is not a political church. These are normal, Bible-believing evangelicals.”
BNG previously reported on the church’s controversial theology that subjugates women to male headship.
The mission of Cities Church is worshiping Jesus, loving one another and seeking the good of the Twin Cities, Rigney said. “And instead, this political chaos intrudes in the middle of a worship service and disrupted.”
Although conservatives control every branch of government, Rigney accused government officials of refusing to punish lawbreakers: “They’re terrorizing normal, law-abiding citizens, and then they’re encouraging the lawless and the lawbreakers.”
Rigney echoed a common evangelical complaint, that conservative Christians in America today are persecuted for their faith. He compared that persecution to the fate suffered by the early church under Roman rule in the first century.
“When you think about the last 20 years and the escalating collisions we’ve seen in our country — about, say, sex, sexuality, and people being harassed just because they won’t make a cake or because they won’t do flowers for a gay wedding — and you see that kind of escalating collision as Christians just try to live faithful lives,” Rigney said,
“The lawlessness spreads, and now it doesn’t matter if you’re a leader or not. It doesn’t matter if you’re prominent or not. You could just be what normal people going to church on a Sunday in an American town, and now you’re going to be harassed and intimidated.”
In earlier social media post, Rigney called Cities Church “a normal Baptist church” and said members there “seek the good of their neighbors. And the Left hates them and wants to shut them down, because one of their pastors serves his country in law enforcement, putting his life on the line to remove rapists and violent criminal illegal immigrants from our streets.
“The Democrats are the party of lawlessness, of cultural decay, social disorder and death,” he wrote. “It’s time for Christian boldness — for courage and clarity about Jesus and sin. And it’s time for our governing officials to fulfill their mandate and become a terror to evil conduct. They do not bear the sword in vain. That’s what our nation needs.”
Related articles:
Let’s talk about how Cities Church treats women | Analysis by Rick Pidcock
Calvinist pastor prays for God to smite the people of Minneapolis
Protest at St. Paul church ignites cries of religious persecution
Cities Church isn’t being persecuted for righteousness | Opinion by Rodney Kennedy
Rigney out at Bethlehem Seminary due to Christian nationalism and infant baptism