When they came for the Christians, I did nothing, I’m not a Christian

Yes, it is time to paraphrase Martin Niemöller.
I am not a Christian. I am not religious at all. When I describe myself as a Jew, what I mean is that my mother was a Jew. Her mother came from Kraków. My grandparents and many of their cousins emigrated on the eve of World War I. Of those who did not, only one survived the Holocaust.

So no, I do not have a denominational or ethnic horse in this race.

But what happened in Minneapolis last Sunday was disgusting on multiple levels.

People who generally have no problem referring to Jesus as “your imaginary friend” decided to confront Christians inside a house of worship and lecture them mid-service on immigration, morality, and even how Jesus would dress. 

Then came the chants. “Hands up, don’t shoot.” Those words are a political slogan. When used in print, it should be followed by (™). If your tactic depends on folklore, you are not doing moral witness. You are doing propaganda.

Propaganda is the point. This activity was not about Christianity. It was about demonstrating that certain institutions are permitted to exist only on the condition that they publicly and performatively submit to the activist script.

Selective Outrage

The Minneapolis area has real suffering. Massive suffering. It just does not always attract roving sanctimony.

From 2015 through 2024, 1,321 people in Minneapolis died from opioid related overdoses. Where were the mobs of activists trailing drug dealers, maintaining shared databases of their personal information, or barging into the spaces where this trade is organized and normalized? No coordinated invasions. No chanting. No weekly harassment. No ritual shaming of the people profiting from the misery.

Were those dead people from the wrong community to matter? Were the neighborhoods that absorbed the damage already voting the right way? Or is it simply that opioid deaths do not serve the narrative as cleanly as agitating against the federal government does?

Then there is another reality Minneapolis politicians and cultural enforcers prefer to treat like a forbidden topic.

Female genital mutilation and cutting, FGM/C, is not a theory. It is not “cultural expression.” It is violence.

According to the AHA Foundation, formerly the Ayaan Hirsi Ali Foundation, Minnesota includes approximately 84,363 women and girls with ancestral ties to countries where FGM/C is practiced, 30,228 women and girls likely living with FGM/C, and 5,478 girls likely at risk. The same report notes that a large share are Somali.

Now imagine the parallel universe where political activists invade mosques and interrupt the Friday call to prayer with chants of “Stop mutilating women and girls!” and “Girls’ lives matter!”

You can stop imagining. It will not happen. Not because the activists are pacifists, but because the rules are not applied evenly. Some communities are treated as untouchable. Some houses of worship are treated as fair game.

That is not justice. It is a hierarchy.

New Hampshire Is Not Immune

The cultural divide in America is vast and growing. Political activists are willing to weaponize it to further their goals. They are not building a pluralistic society. They are building a permission structure. Who may speak, who must apologize, who is allowed to gather in peace, and who gets disrupted “for the cause.”

It would be naive to think this spectacle stops at the Minnesota border. The same money and networks that fund it elsewhere will gladly fund it here, too. Out of state funding is why our federal delegation is Democrat and the state government is Republican. The tactic works. It provokes. It baits. It creates clips. It manufactures a pretext for escalation.

We have already seen the same energy in New Hampshire. You can find it in Claremont, at Broad Street Park, on Friday afternoons. It is not a secret. It is a traveling show.

So here is the practical point.

Every house of worship should have a real security plan. Not paranoid fantasies. Not cosplay. A plan. Trained volunteers. Clear roles. De-escalation procedures. Coordination with local law enforcement. A sober understanding of New Hampshire law on self-defense and defense of others. A commitment to protect worshipers without becoming the thing you oppose.

This is not “militarization.” It is adulthood.

Because once intimidation in sanctuaries becomes normal, it does not stay polite. It does not stay limited. It expands. It always expands.

First, they came for the Christians.

And some people, predictably, did nothing.

A Word for the “Glass Half Full” Crowd

There will always be a temptation to turn this into a comedy of partisan comeuppance. Maybe Don Lemon will be convicted of the KKK Act and do time with prisoners who fulfill his dream of white men being the most dangerous people in America. Maybe Yaqub Frey will be the VP candidate next time. 

Cute fantasies.

The more likely outcome is uglier and more boring. The spectacle will continue, and it will continue to obscure real failures and real abuses, because the outrage machine needs constant fuel. If you can keep people arguing over sanctuary disruptions and viral chants, you can keep them from asking why the promises never materialize, why the institutions keep decaying, and why the people who preach compassion always seem to practice coercion.

A society that cannot protect peaceful worship cannot protect much else

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The opinions expressed in this essay are the author’s alone and do not represent the policies, platform, or position of the Sullivan County Republican Committee