The Charlie Kirk Show - The Left's Modern Bolsheviks Attack Minneapolis Churches

00:00:03.000 My name is Charlie Kirk.

00:00:05.000 I run the largest pro-American student organization in the country fighting for the future of our republic.

00:00:11.000 My call is to fight evil and to proclaim truth.

00:00:14.000 If the most important thing for you is just feeling good, you're going to end up miserable.

00:00:19.000 But if the most important thing is doing good, you'll end up purposeful.

00:00:24.000 College is a scam, everybody.

00:00:26.000 You got to stop sending your kids to college.

00:00:27.000 You should get married as young as possible and have as many kids as possible.

00:00:31.000 Go start a Turning Point USA college chapter.

00:00:33.000 Go start a Turning Point USA high school chapter.

00:00:35.000 Go find out how your church can get involved.

00:00:37.000 Sign up and become an activist.

00:00:39.000 I gave my life to the Lord in fifth grade.

00:00:41.000 Most important decision I ever made in my life.

00:00:43.000 And I encourage you to do the same.

00:00:45.000 Here I am.

00:00:46.000 Lord Musemy.

00:00:48.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:00:49.000 Here we go.

00:00:56.000 The Charlie Kirk Show is proudly sponsored by Preserve Gold, the leading gold and silver experts and the only precious metals company I recommend to my family, friends, and viewers.

00:01:09.000 All right, welcome to the Charlie Kirk Show.

00:01:11.000 Happy Monday.

00:01:12.000 It is January 19th, 2026.

00:01:15.000 We are in studio here in Phoenix.

00:01:16.000 Blake, happy Monday.

00:01:18.000 Happy Monday.

00:01:20.000 The Bears lost.

00:01:21.000 They did.

00:01:22.000 That was.

00:01:22.000 I was on a plane when it happened.

00:01:24.000 That's right.

00:01:25.000 Yeah, you were coming back from the middle of the country.

00:01:27.000 Yes.

00:01:27.000 Yeah, it was quite entertaining.

00:01:29.000 It was a great game.

00:01:31.000 And so, having lived in California, I found like my flesh was trying to root for the Rams, but then I wanted the Bears to win for Charlie.

00:01:42.000 So I was very, it was very, it was a weird experience.

00:01:46.000 I don't think Charlie could ever make me a Bears fan.

00:01:49.000 Well, fair enough.

00:01:50.000 But I was pulling for the Cubbies.

00:01:52.000 That didn't happen.

00:01:54.000 Cubs were okay.

00:01:54.000 I was okay with the Cubs.

00:01:56.000 I was pulling for the Ducks.

00:01:57.000 That didn't happen.

00:01:57.000 I was pulling for the Bears.

00:01:58.000 And sadly, that didn't happen.

00:02:00.000 Although the late heroics from Caleb Williams to get that game tied up right there at the end was amazing, actually.

00:02:07.000 He ran 25 yards back.

00:02:09.000 12-yard Hail Mary.

00:02:10.000 It was like, well, yeah, it was crazy because he ran 20, 25 yards back.

00:02:14.000 And the other thing that was crazy about this weekend was you had all these games in the snow, right?

00:02:20.000 You had the Bills games.

00:02:21.000 You had the Chicago game.

00:02:24.000 And, you know, and then you had all this stuff in Minneapolis.

00:02:27.000 It was like in a country that seems increasingly defined by the sunbuilt and the warmer climates.

00:02:32.000 It was like the whole country was fixated on snowy environs.

00:02:36.000 And then the NFL is getting rid of all of them.

00:02:38.000 That's really loud.

00:02:39.000 That's really loud.

00:02:39.000 They're building more dome.

00:02:41.000 Every time a new stadium, like the new Chiefs Stadium, is going to be a dome.

00:02:44.000 Which is a mistake.

00:02:44.000 Big mistake.

00:02:45.000 Big mistake.

00:02:46.000 And that sort of, in a roundabout way, leads us to the lead story today.

00:02:52.000 Now, there's stuff going on in Greenland.

00:02:54.000 There's developments in Iran.

00:02:56.000 All of that stuff is important.

00:02:57.000 We will get to it.

00:02:59.000 But I was horrified, truly, truly disgusted, actually, in what happened in Minneapolis.

00:03:06.000 And of course, what we're talking about is what happened at City's Church in Minneapolis when Don Laman tags along with a group of far-left agitators, and I would say communists even.

00:03:20.000 And by the way, we're finding Bolsheviks. 0.55

00:03:22.000 And this is what one of the things I want Blake to explain to the audience is I think increasingly the best analogy for what's going on in Minneapolis, but you've seen it in Portland, you've seen it in LA, you've seen it in all these cities, you've seen it in Atlanta when they went after the police training facility.

00:03:41.000 You see it with this Antifa front groups and these street gangs.

00:03:46.000 They are neo-Bolshevik Bolsheviks. 0.71

00:03:49.000 And one of the things that Bolsheviks did is they targeted Christian churches. 0.53

00:03:54.000 Every time.

00:03:55.000 So you give us the background here.

00:03:57.000 It's, if you really just go into history, probably one of the most defining features of radical left political movements from the French Revolution 230 years ago on down into really the present is they'd call it anti-clericalism, anti-religion, anti-clergy, anti-anti-churches, anti-Christianity.

00:04:22.000 And so the Bolsheviks are the most notorious one. 0.96

00:04:24.000 They blew up, when they seized power, they blew up churches.

00:04:28.000 They would execute priests. 0.97

00:04:29.000 They would execute nuns. 0.99

00:04:31.000 They would humiliate them in a lot of ways. 0.94

00:04:34.000 There's a fun history of the Russian.

00:04:36.000 Well, okay, not a fun, a good history of the Russian Revolution.

00:04:40.000 Preface that by Blake thinks all history is really enjoyable.

00:04:45.000 So, for example, they would torture priests and then make them do mock debates with atheists where they would admit that they were liars or wrong about everything. 0.64

00:04:55.000 Although sometimes the priests would not go along with it.

00:04:58.000 There was a very, the reason I said it was fun was this priest was made to argue about whether God exists.

00:05:05.000 And so the priest asked the guy, where did reality come from, if not for God?

00:05:12.000 And the Bolsheviks said reality and life evolved itself into existence. 0.97

00:05:18.000 And the peasants who were watching thought this was so stupid, they immediately voted the priest the winner, which was not the way the stream was supposed to go. 0.90

00:05:25.000 But there's always this spectacular violence in countries you're not even familiar with. 0.98

00:05:28.000 Mexico 100 years ago had a revolution, huge amount of violence against religious and churches.

00:05:34.000 Spain, 1930s, they had a civil war.

00:05:37.000 Tremendous amounts of violence against priests.

00:05:39.000 And they would execute nuns. 1.00

00:05:40.000 They would rape nuns. 0.98

00:05:42.000 They would loot these churches of all of their valuables and say that these are being hoarded against the poor when really a beautiful church is one of the things that it's one of the most beautiful things the poor have direct access to. 0.97

00:05:55.000 That's a church that has beautiful things belongs to all the believers.

00:05:59.000 It's not that it belongs to the church.

00:06:02.000 And it's just a recurring thing that happens over and over and over again.

00:06:06.000 And so it's not terribly surprising that in Minneapolis, as we get left-wing agitation against police, against the public, against pastorby, essentially, that this would also turn into agitation against churches and against Christians.

00:06:21.000 And as I said online yesterday, this one was unarmed.

00:06:25.000 But if they thought they could get away with doing it while armed or using violence, I think they would because they have for hundreds of years.

00:06:31.000 Well, and this is what's so infuriating.

00:06:32.000 I completely agree.

00:06:34.000 They will absolutely do this.

00:06:36.000 You are watching happen in real time. 0.99

00:06:39.000 If you start piecing some of these clips together, like Jennifer Welch, who's a very awful, disgusting, deplorable person. 1.00

00:06:47.000 She is a nasty woman. 0.97

00:06:49.000 And she's, you know, you see increasingly that they are showing their hand, that they want to imprison us. 0.99

00:06:57.000 They want to prosecute us.

00:06:59.000 And then you've got Don Lamon here, who thinks that this is somehow justified.

00:07:04.000 This is his First Amendment rights.

00:07:06.000 He doesn't understand the law because Harmeet Dylan is now on record this morning saying that this was 100% a violation of the FACE Act, which protects places of worship, which protects people to be free to go and pews, to pray.

00:07:23.000 So people are going to get charged.

00:07:24.000 The only question is how many, how severe the charges are going to be, and so forth.

00:07:30.000 And this guy is a washed up media anchor who got fired from CNN.

00:07:34.000 He is cosplaying as a activist, and he doesn't know how to do it.

00:07:39.000 And he thinks that he's somehow protected from consequences because he's a journalist.

00:07:45.000 And I would say Don Lamon, who basically gloried in the fact that you've got to make people terrified.

00:07:51.000 You've got to traumatize people.

00:07:52.000 That's what protests are all about.

00:07:53.000 That's what he said.

00:07:54.000 I hope you woke up this morning, Don Lamon, terrified in the knowledge that federal charges are likely coming for you.

00:08:01.000 Let's show the clips here.

00:08:02.000 Which order do you want to do it in?

00:08:04.000 Well, I think we just start at 220.

00:08:06.000 Let's get it where he's outside with these protesters.

00:08:09.000 Operation Pull-up is what he calls it, 220.

00:08:12.000 They're in the middle of the church.

00:08:14.000 In the beginning of the church service, the pastor was speaking, and Nakima stood up and said her piece, and then the protesters surrounded her.

00:08:24.000 But this is a clandestine mission.

00:08:25.000 I think they found out one of, according to them, this is according to Operation Pull-up, that one of the pastors here is a member of Ice.

00:08:36.000 And so.

00:08:38.000 You can hear them just shouting the bile, the vitriol, the anger just spewing out of these people's mouths.

00:08:45.000 And by the way, we're going to have Megan Basham on at the second half of this hour, and she's done research on some of these protesters.

00:08:51.000 Many of them have been arrested for this before.

00:08:54.000 And so now you've got to ask yourself, well, if they're getting out and they're doing it again, then maybe they're not getting charged in prison long enough.

00:09:03.000 But this was crazy.

00:09:04.000 So he starts talking to the pastor here, and the pastor I thought did a beautiful job, 226.

00:09:09.000 This is unacceptable.

00:09:10.000 It's shameful.

00:09:11.000 It's shameful to interrupt a public gathering of Christians in worship.

00:09:18.000 But there were folks who will say, I have to take care of my flock.

00:09:22.000 Listen, we live in a, there's a constitution in the First Amendment to freedom of speech and freedom to assemble and protest.

00:09:28.000 We're here to worship.

00:09:29.000 We're here to worship Jesus because that's the hope of these cities.

00:09:32.000 That's the hope of the world.

00:09:33.000 I thought the pastor did a beautiful job.

00:09:35.000 It's actually a pretty insightful view of the left-wing attitude that they always believe they have the right to kind of do what they want.

00:09:44.000 We have the freedom of assembly, freedom to protest by bursting into your church.

00:09:49.000 The hecklers veto.

00:09:50.000 Your event, the hecklers veto.

00:09:52.000 It's just like whenever they would attack our events on campuses, even before the tragedy, just they would blame, you know, they would blame Charlie.

00:10:00.000 They would blame Turning Point.

00:10:01.000 They would do a riot and they'll have to come out and like, look what you made us do.

00:10:04.000 Yes, by assembling.

00:10:05.000 There is a riot. 0.99

00:10:06.000 There has never been a more entitled, pretentious, disgusting group of protesters, agitators. 0.99

00:10:14.000 You will never find one. 0.99

00:10:16.000 The entitlement is truly through the roof, and it's disgusting.

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00:11:18.000 President Trump is fighting for America's future.

00:11:20.000 Now it's your turn to help protect yours.

00:11:24.000 We're going to keep going through these clips because they are legitimately disgusting.

00:11:28.000 And by the way, I will say this.

00:11:29.000 You know, we've heard that Axie, you know, this Axios piece that we're losing the polling battle on immigration.

00:11:35.000 It's just too intense.

00:11:36.000 I was texting with Mark Halperin, who we're going to get back on the show, and this Joe Rogan-esque sentiment that, oh, there's masked agents.

00:11:43.000 Well, they're getting doxxed.

00:11:45.000 Okay.

00:11:45.000 And secondly, you see this where there was a big bust of child predators in Northern Virginia right before Abigail Spangberger, the new governor, comes into power.

00:11:56.000 Now, Democrats control all of Virginia.

00:11:59.000 And what was the first thing they did?

00:12:00.000 They cut off cooperation with immigration enforcement.

00:12:04.000 So there's a big drug, big bust of child predators.

00:12:08.000 The next day, they cut off immigration cooperation.

00:12:10.000 It's clear. 0.97

00:12:11.000 They do this because Abigail Spanberger wants more rapists in your country. 0.83

00:12:17.000 Abigail Spanberger, much like members of the Biden administration, celebrates internally when she sees a story about someone from Central America or someone from Africa or someone from the Middle East who kills an American child, rapes an American, robs an American. 0.56

00:12:33.000 She wants that to happen, period.

00:12:34.000 Straight up.

00:12:35.000 Nothing they do makes sense without accepting that premise.

00:12:38.000 Yeah, Virginia's toast.

00:12:39.000 And we're going to talk about that. 0.52

00:12:40.000 It's probably lost for a general.

00:12:41.000 I don't want to blackpill on you, but what they are doing, it's the wildest thing. 1.00

00:12:45.000 And it contrasts with the fecklessness of the GOP.

00:12:50.000 We can't even redo maps in Indiana, and what do they do in Virginia?

00:12:54.000 Instantly, they do 10 to 1 maps.

00:12:56.000 In a state that Kamala took by six points, there are now going to be 10 Democrats in the House versus one Republican.

00:13:04.000 So Republicans, you can keep wussing out.

00:13:06.000 You can keep putting your head in the sand and acting like this isn't a war for the future of this country, an existential battle.

00:13:13.000 And then you get these people going into churches in Minneapolis like they own the place.

00:13:17.000 Absolutely disgusting display.

00:13:19.000 But this is what I would say, full circle on my point.

00:13:22.000 Axio says the polling isn't going our way on immigration enforcement.

00:13:25.000 Well, then you have Don Lamon doing a gift for all of us. 0.91

00:13:28.000 He's giving us a gift because it's so disgusting. 0.64

00:13:32.000 Let's go ahead and play.

00:13:36.000 This is amazing.

00:13:37.000 Don Lamon's even acknowledging how traumatic this is for the parishioners.

00:13:41.000 229.

00:13:42.000 Watch this guy here.

00:13:43.000 Look, he's hugging his kid.

00:13:46.000 And, you know, I imagine it's uncomfortable and traumatic for the people here.

00:13:51.000 But again, careful.

00:13:52.000 It's very slippery right here.

00:13:54.000 That's what protesting is about.

00:13:56.000 And so.

00:13:57.000 That's what protesting, traumatizing little kids, making parents that are at church comfort their little kids. 0.94

00:14:05.000 How disgusting. 0.98

00:14:07.000 Absolutely disgusting. 0.95

00:14:08.000 But this is the Bolshevik revolution, and it's right here in front of us.

00:14:11.000 It's right here in our home country.

00:14:13.000 And they're going to come for Christians because they know Christians are the last firewall to freedom in this country. 1.00

00:14:17.000 They know that Christianity gives you true freedom to put the state in its rightful place, to not worship it, to not deify it, but to demand freedom, that God gives us our freedoms.

00:14:31.000 And meanwhile, I just can't get over it.

00:14:34.000 The difference between the left and the right here, they would never have got to go to us to destroy, to go into a church.

00:14:41.000 Yeah, but here's the other thing.

00:14:42.000 If this was a mosque, Don Lamond wouldn't have been within 100 feet of it. 1.00

00:14:46.000 Also that.

00:14:48.000 He would have absolutely understood that that is a no-go zone.

00:14:53.000 Not in that sense.

00:14:54.000 But he would have absolutely respected the fact that when there's worshipers there, you don't interrupt that.

00:15:00.000 But he does not give that same type of space or respect to Christian worshipers.

00:15:06.000 And that tells you everything because here's the thing.

00:15:08.000 He knows that Christianity is a religion of peace.

00:15:11.000 He knows that those people in there are going to act respectfully.

00:15:14.000 He knows that after Charlie was assassinated, that we held visuals and we lit candles and we did a memorial in peace.

00:15:22.000 We didn't burn down cities. 1.00

00:15:24.000 He knows that we're not going to act like complete idiots. 1.00

00:15:27.000 And so he takes advantage of that. 1.00

00:15:29.000 And he goes and walks in there like some washed up, over-the-hill burnout from CNN.

00:15:37.000 And I'm just so disgusted by this story.

00:15:40.000 Let's keep going.

00:15:41.000 He then talks to what Blake would say is the most sinister, probably, of all the forces in the state of Minnesota, and that's Attorney General Keith Ellison.

00:15:49.000 So he goes and does this church raid, traumatizes little kids, and then he talks to the top cop in the state of Minnesota about it, 228.

00:16:00.000 I just want to be clear.

00:16:01.000 The state has every right to investigate this matter and prosecute this matter.

00:16:08.000 The state has every right.

00:16:09.000 And, you know, as a prosecutor, I'm not really allowed to make conclusory statements before the investigation is completed.

00:16:18.000 But I do want to make it clear that there is absolutely no legal barrier to the state taking action in this matter.

00:16:24.000 So the first point here he makes is that they're going to try and prosecute the ICE agent that was involved.

00:16:31.000 Yeah, ICE agents.

00:16:33.000 Anybody that they deem to be a criminal, which I would love to see their definition of it.

00:16:38.000 And then he asks about the church.

00:16:40.000 Yeah, what's that?

00:16:40.000 That's the Rolling Stones line.

00:16:42.000 Every cop is a criminal and all the sinners saints.

00:16:45.000 Yeah, well, exactly.

00:16:46.000 We do live in upside-down bizarro world now.

00:16:49.000 And then he asks about the church, 230.

00:16:53.000 You heard what some of the folks said in there, you know, that this is they shouldn't be there and, you know, they shouldn't be uncomfortable and this is our house and whatever.

00:17:04.000 That's what protesting is about, is to make people uncomfortable.

00:17:07.000 You may not like it, but I mean, if they went into a church, you know, any church.

00:17:12.000 Yeah, so now he's trying to walk it back, by the way.

00:17:15.000 Protesting is about making people uncomfortable.

00:17:18.000 That sounds like what Ilhan Omar, AOC say, the new Bolsheviks.

00:17:22.000 It's actually so sinister because, no, like a big point of protest is to just show that a lot of people support a cause.

00:17:31.000 That's the point of you turn out a million people on the National Mall.

00:17:34.000 That's the point of you turn out at a city council meeting at your state legislature.

00:17:40.000 You show a lot of people believe this.

00:17:42.000 The point of these, when you make people uncomfortable, the point of this is to subvert the normal political process using fear. 0.63

00:17:49.000 And so you have to say, okay, you should actually give us what we want because you're worried the next time we'll shoot you.

00:17:56.000 You're worried the next time we'll burn down your church. 0.97

00:17:59.000 Don't worry.

00:17:59.000 You're worried we'll do something illegal.

00:18:01.000 There was a church that was just shot up in Minneapolis by a left-wing loony for left-wing loony reasons. 0.50

00:18:08.000 This is a wild clip. 0.57

00:18:10.000 A crazy good pool.

00:18:11.000 I want to give credit to Western Lensman for this.

00:18:14.000 This was December 2025.

00:18:16.000 It's not even a month ago.

00:18:18.000 This is Tim Waltz saying that our side doesn't go and raid churches.

00:18:23.000 We don't do that.

00:18:24.000 235.

00:18:26.000 So I would fully expect, and we are preparing for an influx of more agents, more of the very visible public theatrics of the raids, of the harassments.

00:18:37.000 And you got faith leaders here.

00:18:41.000 I would not put it past this administration to target midnight mass services amongst folks going to worship because that's who they are.

00:18:49.000 Oh, that's who they are.

00:18:50.000 No, Tim Waltz, that's who you are.

00:18:52.000 That's what your side is doing. 1.00

00:18:54.000 You desecrate churches because you're entitled, because you're ignorant, you're ill-informed, and you refuse to cooperate with law enforcement. 0.99

00:19:03.000 These are routine law enforcement operations. 0.98

00:19:06.000 Forcing immigration law is not an option.

00:19:09.000 You have two options in this country.

00:19:10.000 Either cooperate with ICE and you don't have these raids, or you don't cooperate with ICE, and you do get the raids.

00:19:18.000 There's not an option where you just get to ignore immigration law.

00:19:21.000 That's not the way this works.

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00:21:23.000 I'm very excited.

00:21:25.000 We're going to talk to Megan Basham.

00:21:27.000 She is an absolute go-to source on anything in the church, what's going on there.

00:21:32.000 Megan, welcome back to the show.

00:21:34.000 Hey, Andrew, thanks for having me.

00:21:35.000 Good to be here.

00:21:36.000 It's great to see you.

00:21:38.000 I've just been, we've, the whole first half of the show, we've just been going off on Don Lemon, Don Lamon, and Keith Ellison, this whole Bolshevik neo-Bolshevism that is taking over the, I would say, the activist class, the agitator class of the far left.

00:21:54.000 Find it incredibly disgusting, very disturbing what's going on here.

00:21:59.000 Give us your reaction of what we saw in Minneapolis at City's Church, and then you have some, you've been doing some research and some investigation into some of these players that were involved in this.

00:22:09.000 I want to hear it all.

00:22:10.000 Megan Basham, the floor is yours.

00:22:12.000 Yeah, I mean, obviously, it's appalling and abhorrent to see what these activists did storming into this church.

00:22:17.000 You know, I've talked to some pastors associated with this church.

00:22:20.000 They're telling me that the children were terrified, that they were crying, that, and I think the pastors handled it very well, but they did have to end the service early because these kids were terrorized and they couldn't continue with the service.

00:22:32.000 So they shut it down and they reconvened later that night and finished holding the service after all of these protesters left.

00:22:39.000 But, you know, what I think is really important to note here is that the police, the local law enforcement, did not arrest anyone.

00:22:46.000 So they knew that this was happening.

00:22:47.000 They were on site.

00:22:48.000 They were observing and they did nothing.

00:22:50.000 So obviously, this is a violation of the FACE Act.

00:22:53.000 It is illegal to break into a church and disrupt worship services.

00:22:57.000 And yet, local Minneapolis police did nothing.

00:22:59.000 They said that they were trying to balance freedom to worship with free speech.

00:23:04.000 But your free speech rights do not entitle you to break into churches and disrupt the services going on there.

00:23:11.000 So, you know, that obviously is just one more point to how lawless it has become on the ground in Minneapolis and Minnesota at large.

00:23:18.000 And so clearly, we need some federal authorities to go in there and take charge.

00:23:22.000 And on that note, one of the guys who was a ringleader of this mob is a guy named William Kelly.

00:23:28.000 He was one of the guys who was circling.

00:23:30.000 If you've watched the videos online, demanding Whether or not that the people in this church support ICE.

00:23:37.000 He was demanding to know what they've done for their Somali brothers and sisters.

00:23:41.000 And he's a paid professional agitator.

00:23:44.000 He claims to be a combat veteran.

00:23:47.000 And he has been seen repeatedly outside of Christchurch in DC as well, because that's the church that Pete Hegseth goes to.

00:23:55.000 So he's been there harassing them weekly.

00:23:59.000 And I spoke to one of the pastors associated with that church, and he told me that it has become so severe that at one point they screamed through bullhorns with amplification, and they actually burst a church member's eardrum with these tactics and sent him to the hospital.

00:24:14.000 So, you know, one question I have at this point is how these guys are able to continue harassing churches and church members this way and why they're not behind bars.

00:24:22.000 Because William Kelly was reportedly arrested a few weeks ago in D.C. for this very kind of thing for harassing DC church.

00:24:29.000 And he's released again and back out on the streets bothering Christians. 1.00

00:24:34.000 Well, bothering is a very right.

00:24:36.000 That's quite the understatement.

00:24:37.000 Yeah, that's a very, yeah.

00:24:39.000 And you know what's interesting about this, though, because you are the author, of course, of Shepherds for Sale, New York Times best-selling author.

00:24:46.000 Very, Charlie loved this book.

00:24:48.000 You came on and talked about it with Charlie.

00:24:51.000 And one of the storylines here that I don't think people are paying enough attention to is that this was an SBC church, and you've done a lot of investigations into some of the leadership at SBC.

00:25:04.000 And then you sent me this article from the Baptist press.

00:25:07.000 And, you know, you've got this crazy leaders of 13 Southern Baptist ethnic groups. 0.96

00:25:15.000 Stop right there.

00:25:16.000 Why are there SBC leaders of ethnic groups in the first place? 0.99

00:25:21.000 Okay.

00:25:22.000 And then they go on to, you know, it's Haitian, Hispanic, African-American, Chinese, Filipino, Nigerian, Liberian, Ghanaian, Korean, Burmese, Thai, and Vietnamese leaders signed a statement and they sent it to Baptist Press basically saying that, yeah, we, you know, countries need to have borders, but we basically can't do anything to enforce those borders.

00:25:41.000 We don't think deportations are necessarily always very nice, and maybe we just do fines instead.

00:25:47.000 What is going on here?

00:25:49.000 Yeah.

00:25:50.000 And so that's a part of the backstory that a lot of people following what's been happening on the ground with this church in Minneapolis won't understand.

00:25:56.000 So the rank and file Southern Baptist churches are typically very conservative.

00:26:01.000 A lot of them will stay out of politics.

00:26:03.000 And I understand that this church, I've been told, is not a church that's particularly involved in politics.

00:26:09.000 They are not what you might think of as a culture-warring church, but they do have a pastor on staff who serves as a field director for ICE.

00:26:17.000 And that is why they were targeted because they have a law enforcement officer on their pastoral staff.

00:26:22.000 And the irony there is that the national leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention, though, as is the case in so many Christian denominations, are much more progressive than the rank and file and the ordinary churches.

00:26:35.000 And that is the case in the Southern Baptist Convention.

00:26:38.000 So, you know, it pains me to say this because I am a Southern Baptist, but you're right, Andrew.

00:26:42.000 We need to take a look at this because just this past April, these national leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention contributed to this false narrative about ICE, that they're dangerous, that they're terrorizing people, when certainly all they're trying to do is enforce the law and to restore order to our immigration system.

00:27:03.000 So back in April, as you said, all of these quote-unquote leaders of the various ethnic groups within the SBC and this is really important, the lobbying arm, the policy arm of the SBC, which is the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, which is paid for by Southern Baptist Tithes, put out a statement further creating this notion that churches have reason to fear ICE.

00:27:29.000 And so, you know, one of the things that they said in this statement that they released, and I'll just read you a little bit of it.

00:27:34.000 Yeah.

00:27:35.000 We are concerned that the current impact on religious freedom as worshipers decide not to attend worship services out of fear because federal agents will carry out law enforcement duties in church buildings.

00:27:48.000 That has not happened.

00:27:49.000 I want to note this really quickly.

00:27:51.000 There was all of this secular mainstream legacy media fear that was ginned up over churches that were going to be raided by ICE.

00:28:00.000 That has not happened.

00:28:01.000 ICE has conducted their business whenever a church is involved, respectfully, with, you know, staying out in the parking lot, getting permission before they enter buildings.

00:28:11.000 They have done nothing disruptive.

00:28:13.000 And you had the ERLC and these other leaderships within the SBC attacking ICE, even though they are the ones who have been respectful and have worked with churches.

00:28:23.000 And in the meantime, we see the result of furthering this false narrative about ICE, and it was allowing protesters to break into buildings.

00:28:31.000 They are the ones that we should have been afraid of the entire time.

00:28:34.000 They are the ones who are disrupting church services, screaming obscenities in the faces of church members and frightening kids going to their church services.

00:28:43.000 Well, and there's reports here that I'm just looking at right now, Megan, that apparently attendance, because this narrative has spread that ICE is raiding churches, attendance at many immigrant-heavy congregations, especially Latino, Pentecostal, and Catholic services, has dropped sharply.

00:29:00.000 So they say sometimes by a third or a half due to fear with some pastors excusing members from mass or moving events to private and online.

00:29:10.000 So these immigrant communities are intentionally avoiding going to church because this narrative has become so strongly spread within the anti-ICE movement, anti-immigration enforcement movement.

00:29:22.000 Right.

00:29:22.000 And the other part of that is that they are endangering ICE when they spread these kinds of false narratives that churches need to be afraid of ICE and Christian denominations need to be afraid of ICE.

00:29:33.000 You know, the ERLC's comment on it was so appalling to me.

00:29:36.000 They said that the administration needs to provide more clarity so that our pastors, churches, and ministries will be free to minister.

00:29:43.000 They're suggesting that ICE is preventing churches from ministering, and that is flatly not true.

00:29:48.000 So I hate to say it because I am a Southern Baptist, but what the Southern Baptist leadership has done here contributed to what we saw at City's Church in Minneapolis.

00:29:59.000 So, you know, what I would love to see is some of these leaders come out and actually apologize and repent and say, we were irresponsible in our language and we were irresponsible with this statement and how we addressed ICE and how we characterized ICE.

00:30:13.000 So I think if they did that, that would send a huge message that one, they recognize that they made a mistake, that they slandered ICE agents.

00:30:22.000 And that includes this pastor who teaches at Cities Church, because what they are suggesting is that ICE is dangerous to Christians.

00:30:29.000 And it is absolutely not.

00:30:30.000 That is not true.

00:30:31.000 They have not done anything that should have sparked a statement like this.

00:30:35.000 So, you know, there is sort of this terrible irony in the fact that this is how SBC national leaders have been behaving at the same time that you have rank and file churches that are in the SBC being targeted by these left-wing progressive agitators.

00:30:51.000 Well, and it's, yeah, this statement goes on.

00:30:53.000 And again, this is from the 13 leaders of the ethnic groups within the 13 different.

00:31:01.000 But it says, we call on our Southern Baptist leaders to stand firm for religious liberty and speak on behalf of the immigrants and refugees.

00:31:09.000 It says we ask that consideration be given to their paying a fine and or other penalty in lieu of deportation.

00:31:16.000 So they have been pro-amnesty.

00:31:19.000 Yeah.

00:31:19.000 I'm like, the national leadership of the SBC has been backing amnesty policies for a long time now.

00:31:25.000 And, you know, not to plug my book, but if you want to know a little bit more about that, part of the reason they've been doing that is because they're involved with left-wing NGOs that are funded by George Soros to back those kinds of amnesty policies.

00:31:38.000 They're, you know, working with groups that are part of those NGOs who receive hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government to further illegal immigration.

00:31:46.000 So, you know, there's certainly a monetary incentive here, but also I think part of it is they're always looking for a way to sort of coddle up to the secular progressive left-wing media.

00:31:58.000 And so you will see these kinds of statements that feed into those kinds of false narratives about ICE and about immigration.

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00:33:16.000 We are with Megan Basham.

00:33:18.000 She's the author of Shepherds for Sale. 0.98

00:33:21.000 And we're reacting to some of this church news with Don Lamon storming a church with a bunch of crazed lunatics. 0.73

00:33:29.000 And now he's justifying it.

00:33:31.000 This is an exchange, Megan, that he had with Keith Ellison after the church incident happened.

00:33:38.000 And Keith Ellison, the top cop, the Muslim sympathizer that probably is getting political kickbacks from the Somali fraud ring, is here defending their right to the First Amendment to go raid a church. 0.96

00:33:50.000 The top cop is unaware of the FACE Act, apparently, in the state of Minnesota.

00:33:55.000 241.

00:33:56.000 We witnessed this morning the First Amendment in action with the right to peaceably assemble civil disobedience at a church.

00:34:04.000 What do you think about it?

00:34:05.000 I feel like there's attack on the First Amendment and on people's rights.

00:34:08.000 There's no doubt.

00:34:09.000 Well, you know, the First Amendment...

00:34:10.000 Well, that's you.

00:34:12.000 That's the first.

00:34:13.000 Right.

00:34:14.000 I mean, that's freedom of religion.

00:34:17.000 That's freedom of the press.

00:34:18.000 Freedom of expression.

00:34:19.000 Freedom to redress grievances.

00:34:21.000 Freedom to assemble peacefully.

00:34:23.000 And they are all under attack.

00:34:25.000 Right.

00:34:26.000 Simultaneously.

00:34:27.000 All.

00:34:28.000 And it's deeply disturbing, and I'm very worried about it.

00:34:32.000 But this is a moment, you know, where we all have to stand up.

00:34:35.000 And, you know, there is the possibility we can have a renewal of freedom if we stand up in this moment.

00:34:45.000 I am reaction.

00:34:48.000 I mean, I know that Don Lemon is not the sharpest tool in the shed.

00:34:54.000 I would never mistake him for an intellectual.

00:34:57.000 But the idea that your free speech rights entitle you to barge into a church to storm in with dozens of protesters screaming at the parishioners, terrorizing their children, swearing at the pastors.

00:35:12.000 No, your free speech rights do not cover that.

00:35:14.000 The purpose of your free speech rights is to protest to redress for government grievances.

00:35:19.000 It is not to harass church members.

00:35:23.000 So, you know, what I would like to see happen here is I absolutely think that Don Lemon should face charges for coordinating with Democratic operatives to break into storm and harass members of a church during their weekly Sunday church service.

00:35:37.000 I mean, that is part of what's so appalling to me is that it's not like they showed up on the grounds of this church and just protested in the parking lot outside.

00:35:45.000 They busted into the sanctuary as the Sunday service was going on. 0.90

00:35:49.000 So, you know, the idea that something like that could possibly be legal is ridiculous.

00:35:54.000 I'm actually maybe a little bit more, I don't know, frightened is the right word, but certainly deeply concerned that they are now trying to defend actions like this.

00:36:06.000 Because I think maybe just a couple of years ago, even someone like Keith Ellison probably would have condemned storming into a church like that.

00:36:14.000 And the fact that they are now trying to, in some way, act like this was a legitimate action, a legitimate protest, is crossing a sort of Rubicon to me that I do find really concerning.

00:36:24.000 That I go, if we can't even agree that you can't do this, then we are in very dangerous territory.

00:36:30.000 I think the word you're looking for is disturbed.

00:36:32.000 I'm very disturbed by what happened, the fact that they're doing this.

00:36:35.000 You know, and by the way, I can just tell you, an independent source has just confirmed with me that the DOJ and DHS has possession of all the camera footage from Don Lamont showing what appears to be a violation of the Face Act.

00:36:47.000 So it seems like there's a whole of government approach to dealing with this and bringing accountability.

00:36:52.000 I hope that this happens.

00:36:53.000 I think that they deserve it.

00:36:56.000 And we'll see what happens.

00:36:57.000 So, you know, I think that's important, though.

00:37:00.000 So there's another clip here that I just have to get your reaction to.

00:37:03.000 And that is it's 201.

00:37:05.000 So if you guys want to get it ready, this is James Talrico, who's running for U.S. Senate in the state of Texas.

00:37:12.000 He's thirsty.

00:37:12.000 Rising star.

00:37:13.000 Rising star.

00:37:15.000 You got a white Democrat guy that's a seminarian.

00:37:18.000 He's a Presbyterian seminarian.

00:37:20.000 And he goes on Ezra Klein's podcast.

00:37:23.000 And Ezra Klein asks him, Do you think Christianity is more true than other religions?

00:37:27.000 And this answer just like blew me away at how tepid and weak it was.

00:37:34.000 201.

00:37:35.000 How do you think about the competing claims of different religions?

00:37:38.000 Do you believe Christianity to be more true than other religions? 0.87

00:37:41.000 I believe Christianity points to the truth.

00:37:43.000 I also think other religions of love point to the same truth.

00:37:47.000 I think of different religious traditions as different languages.

00:37:49.000 And I've learned more about my tradition by learning more about Buddhism and Hinduism and Islam and Judaism.

00:37:56.000 And so I see these beautiful faith traditions as circling the same truth about the universe, about the cosmos.

00:38:02.000 And that truth is inherently a mystery.

00:38:05.000 Yeah.

00:38:06.000 Okay.

00:38:07.000 You know what scripture calls those beautiful faith traditions outside of his own?

00:38:11.000 It calls them idolatry.

00:38:13.000 They're false religions. 1.00

00:38:15.000 These are the religions that are created by the spirit of the air, which is demonic. 0.97

00:38:20.000 So we need to understand that any religion that does not honor Christ is a demonic religion and it is a false religion.

00:38:25.000 So, you know, I love my friends and other faith traditions, but I don't want them worshiping false gods.

00:38:31.000 So I will continually try to draw them to Christ.

00:38:33.000 And that shows you that whatever else James Tallarico is, he's not a Christian because a Christian understands that when Christ says, I am the way, the truth, and the life, when he tells us that you're not getting to God through any other door, we know that that's the truth.

00:38:46.000 And that's what we preach because we love people and we want them to go to heaven and we don't want them to follow false religions to hell. 0.99

00:38:52.000 So, you know, I would just say that this has clearly, definitively proved that James Tallarico is no Christian, which we already knew because he doesn't follow Christ's commands on issues like protecting the unborn, on protecting life, on sexuality, and gender identity.

00:39:10.000 So we knew that this was not a Christian, but I do think, and you guys can tell me what you think about this, but I think we see a growing battle culturally.

00:39:18.000 And this proves that we are still a very culturally Christian nation, but we are facing a growing battle over who does Christ belong to.

00:39:26.000 Because I think in the past, the left just kind of denigrated Christians and churches, but now what they're realizing is that a better method is to try to claim Christ as their own for their left-wing agenda.

00:39:38.000 And anyone who knows their Bible will see why that won't work, but I think they're going to increasingly try to do that.

00:39:43.000 You know, at the start of the show, we were discussing how attacks on churches are an old leftoist practice, but that's actually this co-opting of religious leaders and religious language.

00:39:54.000 Same thing.

00:39:55.000 The French Revolution had, they imposed an oath on the clergy of France, and they had to swear loyalty to the revolution.

00:40:02.000 And they would get these priests who would come out and they'd say, actually, church doctrine is not true.

00:40:06.000 We're all loyal to the revolution.

00:40:08.000 And you would do this in the early 20th century.

00:40:10.000 They would easily find pastors who said, oh, we're going to create heaven on this earth.

00:40:16.000 And actually, Christ is, you know, a figure of this earth.

00:40:19.000 And the resurrection is a metaphor and all of that.

00:40:22.000 We've had pastors like that for a long time.

00:40:24.000 We've had seminarians like that for a long time.

00:40:28.000 I guess you could say Christ's message is so powerful that everyone does want to claim it, which is a good thing.

00:40:34.000 But you have to be on the lookout for people who are going to claim it for very evil agendas.

00:40:40.000 Yes.

00:40:40.000 And it reminds me of Scott Adams, actually, what he said in one of his last streams where he said, you know, I'm very touched by all these Christians that are trying to get me to convert.

00:40:49.000 He said, because it shows the sincerity of their own belief that they believe this is the way.

00:40:53.000 And that ultimately helped lead Scott to converting.

00:40:58.000 Do you think he got a call from James Tallarico saying, oh, actually, don't worry about it because it's all pointed towards the truth.

00:41:05.000 Islam is a religion of love.

00:41:06.000 And just follow that one to the truth of the cosmos.

00:41:09.000 Megan Basham, thank you for coming on.

00:41:12.000 We appreciate it greatly.

00:41:13.000 We'll see you again soon.

00:41:14.000 Excellent analysis, as always.

00:41:16.000 We'll talk to you soon.

00:41:16.000 Absolutely.

00:41:17.000 Thanks for having me, guys.

00:41:23.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk.com.

The Charlie Kirk Show - January 19, 2026

The Left's Modern Bolsheviks Attack Minneapolis Churches

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