21 Jan 2026 5 min read

Stand With Us Or You're Not A Christian.

The Secular Litmus Test For Believers

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

On January 18th, the anti-ice protests in the twin cities spilled into a place it never should have.

The Church.

Protestors stormed inside Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, accusing the Pastor David Easterwood, one of many on the pastoral staff, of being involved with ICE operations. People were uncomfortable, kids were terrified.

Underneath the direct accusations against Easterwood was a broader judgement against the church which was essentially this: You’re not a Christian if you don’t stand with us.

This was reflected in Don Lemon’s interview of Lead Pastor, Jonathan Parnell, who stated the protesters were exercising their first amendment right to protest. Parnell rightly stated his need to protect his church and family and walked away.

A Voice Of Reason?

As I was watching videos, my attention went to one particular protestor in a thick beard and an obscene hat. He was walking around recording and harassing congregants, once again, accusing them of being fake Christians, sinners etc.

One of his quotes was this:

“You’re pretending to be Christians. BUT WE KNOW YOU LIVE AN EASY LIFE, DON’T YOU? A very easy life while people are starving. Shame.”

For some reason, he struck me of being a weird, self-proclaimed prophet of sorts. William Kelly. A man who travels from state to state protesting ICE.

Another man who feels the need to tell Christians how to be Christians, who may not even be one himself.

This is a pattern that I see over and over. Someone has been hurt by the church or by Christians and then feels they have a right to judge them according to their standards. It’s an understandable and very human conclusion to come to.

But it’s a very misguided one.

Here’s why: Christians believe that God is the judge of all. Christians and non-Christians alike. Christians are ultimately judged by God Himself according to God’s standards not man’s.

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The only thing that makes Christians different is the acceptance of Christ who makes them righteous and holy before God. That’s the gospel message. Sinners saved by grace. Period.

Demanding that Christians abide by secular ethics in order to be clean in the eyes of the world is the exact thing that Jesus was against.

The religious leaders basically said to Jesus: “You’re not a real Jew because you don’t [insert grievance here]. You’re a hypocrite because you don’t do this or that. You’re causing good, faithful, God-loving Israelites to stumble because of your false teachings.”

And Jesus responded with grace. Always. Except when holy spaces were violated or corrupted with secularism. See John 2:15. Jesus might’ve taken a whip to the protestors who were bringing a false gospel of works to the church when calls believers to worship in Spirit and truth.

In the same way, when a sacred space like a church service is invaded with demands for political conformity as proof of true faith, it echoes the corruption Jesus confronted, not with personal harm, but with zealous defense of what’s holy. The protesters may have felt righteous, but they brought a message of works-righteousness into a place meant for grace.

Compromise Is Not An Option

This is why Christians can’t simply adopt secular ethical frameworks as their ultimate authority. It’s not that Christians don’t care about justice or compassion, they absolutely do. But they have a higher allegiance. When the culture says “You must affirm X to be a good person,” and God’s Word says something different, Christians have to choose God. This has always put believers at odds with the prevailing culture, whether it was the Roman Empire, Soviet Russia, or modern America. The moment the church bows to secular standards as its ultimate authority, it ceases to be the church. It becomes just another NGO with a religious aesthetic.

We see this tension throughout Scripture. When the Pharisees dragged a woman caught in adultery before Jesus, demanding He condemn her according to the Law, Jesus didn’t play their game. He exposed their hypocrisy and then told the woman, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” He offered grace without compromising truth. Or consider Zacchaeus, the corrupt tax collector who collaborated with Rome and extorted his own people. The crowd was outraged when Jesus invited Himself to Zacchaeus’s house for dinner. By their standards, Jesus was endorsing corruption and betraying His people. But Jesus saw a heart ready to repent, and that’s what mattered. Zacchaeus’s life was transformed not by public shaming, but by an encounter with Christ. That’s how God works. That’s the standard that actually changes lives.

The Reality Of Post-Christian America

What happened at Cities Church would have been unthinkable in America just a generation or two ago. Not because Christians were more faithful then, they weren’t necessarily, but because there was still a broad cultural consensus that churches were sacred spaces, off-limits to political theater. Even non-believers generally respected that boundary. You didn’t storm a church service to make a political point. That was understood.

That consensus is gone. America has transitioned from a Christian culture to a post-Christian one, and the shift has been remarkably swift. And by the 2010s, Christianity itself was increasingly viewed not as true or false, but as potentially dangerous. Something that needed to be monitored, regulated, and corrected by secular authorities.

Here’s the irony: as America has become more secular, the demands placed on Christians to prove their faithfulness by secular standards have intensified. It’s not enough for Christians to worship in their own spaces anymore. Now activists feel entitled to invade those spaces and demand conformity. They’ll cite Bible verses at you, tell you what Jesus “really” meant, insist that if you were truly Christian you’d support their political agenda. The church is no longer allowed to be the church. It must become an auxiliary of the progressive movement, or it will be branded as hateful, bigoted, and un-Christlike. This is the new religious test. And it’s administered by people who don’t believe in the religion at all.

A Good Response

I was amazed at how well some of the congregants responded when harassed by William Kelly in the video. Some of them smiled, or politely said “You’re not helping” or chose not to engage with him at all.

That’s responding like a true Christian. A true follower of Christ.

No violence. No angry outbursts. If I saw my pastor and my friends being harassed this way, in my church or any church I was visiting, I think I’d have a hard time responding in love. What those congregants did was hard. Really hard.

But here’s the thing: no matter what they did, someone would say they’re doing Christianity wrong. If they’d argued back, they’d be called unloving. If they stayed silent, they’d be called complicit. If they smiled, they’re not taking it seriously. If they didn’t smile, they’re proving the protesters’ point. The standard keeps shifting because the people holding it aren’t using God’s standard. They’re using their own.

That’s what this whole incident reveals. The anger isn’t really about whether Cities Church is being Christian enough. It’s about who gets to define what Christian means. The protesters want to judge Christians by secular standards. But Christians believe they answer to God, not to cultural consensus.

You can disagree with that. You can think they’re wrong about what God wants. But at least be honest about what you’re asking for. You’re not asking them to be better Christians. You’re asking them to stop being Christians altogether.

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