Nekima Levy Armstrong, Chauntyll Louisa Allen and William Kelly.
Three community leaders and activists. Today, they were arrested by the federal government for their role in a recent protest at a St. Paul Christian Church helmed by an employee, an agent of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Some parishioners were so upset by the protest in their church that they got up and left. It is unclear if they were upset about the nonviolent disruption or about learning that their pastor kidnaps brown people. Maybe both?
It isn’t actually funny. Disrupting religious spaces has a long storied history in nonviolent actions. The most famous case was around 25 CE when a man named Jesus threw a full on fit over behavior he thought unworthy by Jewish people in a temple. He used an actual whip to drive them out, he overturned at least one table, he yelled at them for how they made their money. It was a capital offense in the Roman Empire.
When we retell that parable (historians believes something like this did happen), we focus on Jesus being righteous and the greedy thieves being the problem. A brown man went into a sacred space to tell some truth and open people’s eyes to the behaviors of these Temple authorities. It was a violent action that I presume he deemed necessary to restore order to the Jewish community.
In 1989, one hundred and eleven people demonstrated at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC to draw attention to the hypocrisy and failed leadership of the church to respond to HIV/AIDS and women’s reproductive health needs. No violence except for crumbling a wafer. No scourging, nothing was overturned except the comfort level of those attending Mass.
When Nekima Levy Armstrong, Chauntyll Louisa Allen and William Kelly went peacefully into City Church in Minneapolis, they were there to speak the truth – true Christians would demand the resignation of a pastor at the church, David Easterwood, because he is the acting director of ICE’s field office in St. Paul.
In retaliation, these three people were arrested today. Levy Armstrong and Allen were detained and then due to be released when the Federal Goverment obtained an injunction to keep them confined. As of 7 PM Eastern Time, activists in Minnesota say a large protest outside the courthouse has resulted in the building being shut down. Conveniently, that means lawyers for the women cannot communicate with them.
Kelly was detained by US Marshalls. It is believed he is also being denied access to his lawyer.
This is political retaliation because two Black woman and one US Army veteran had the courage to rebuke the narrative that white Nationalist Christianity is end game for the United States.
It is not about protecting the sanctity of a house of worship, not when attacks against mosques, synagogues and other non-Christian faith spaces result in little response. Dylann Roof got driven to Burger King BY THE POLICE after murdering nine Black Christians in 2015. There are many examples of people shooting up Christian churches, but no gun control responses.
Two Black women with high profiles advocating for justice in Minnesota and one US veteran disrupting a church service to speak some truth are so threatening to the Christo-fascist leaders that they are being held without access to a lawyer for trumped up charges.
No one was scourged or driven out of this Christian church. If people are comfortable worshiping with a pastor who kidnaps their neighbors, they deserved a little discomfort. Or to learn the truth.
Fellow veteran and anti-ICE activist Russell Ellis known as Jolly Good Ginger online has called on all of us to raise awareness of the fact that Nekima Levy Armstrong, Chauntyll Louisa Allen and William Kelly are being held as political prisoners tonight in Minnesota.
Follow Jolly. Pay attention.
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