California Jews and Christians sue disrupters of pro-Israel event

When a San Diego–area church and an interfaith organization held a pro-Israel event in March, protesters blocked church entrances, yelled vulgar phrases, and held up signs with images of bloody children. The agitators demonstrated again at the church’s Easter Sunday service and again at a September event that the two groups organized.

The Mission Church in Carlsbad, Calif., and the Christian and Jewish Alliance hosted their events to show support for Israel during the country’s war with Hamas while also bringing together churches and synagogues in worship. But they say agitators created a culture of anxiety that spooked church members.

“These worship services are meant to glorify Jesus, to gather people together, and in no way, shape, or form are going after another group of people. We are there to learn about God’s word,” said J.C. Cooper, a pastor at the Mission Church. “We should be able to use our front doors freely to come and go.”

The two religious organizations filed a federal lawsuit last week against nearly 50 agitators, alleging that the protests infringed the ministries’ constitutional right to hold religious gatherings safely. The lawsuit contends that the protesters violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which legislators passed in 1994 to stop pro-lifers from engaging in sit-ins at abortion facilities.

In March, the Mission Church, a 3,000-member nondenominational church, hosted an event with the Christian and Jewish Alliance that invited church members and Jewish guests to hear an Israeli speaker. But as the event began, 30-40 protesters outside the church started chanting and using bullhorns while holding signs with images of dismembered children, Cooper said. They accused each attendee of being a “Nazi” and labeled one of the church officers a “pervert,” accompanied by an expletive.

The protesters stood on a sidewalk outside the church just a few feet away from the ministry’s main entrance, Cooper said. He told them he would be happy to hold a reasonable conversation, but they retaliated with obscenities, according to the lawsuit.

Inside, about eight protesters gave false names and pretended to be attendees to gain access to the event. The lawsuit says they took turns disrupting the event by screaming, threatening congregants, and physically resisting removal—rendering it nearly impossible for the speaker to present her message.

Cooper added that he and his four children were shaken after the incident. “My kids have been through some hard things. It’s part of being in ministry, but this was different for them,” he said. “It definitely got to them.”

On Easter Sunday, disrupters shouted vulgarities and held up the same graphic signs for four hours. The protests occurred directly across from the church parking lot, where children were participating in Easter activities, Cooper said. Children cried as the agitators shouted curse words, he said, and church leaders had to walk families to their cars because they were afraid to leave the building.

In May, the church sent a cease-and-desist letter to the protesters, several of whom are leaders in the San Diego chapter of the activist group CodePink, a leftist feminist organization. In September, the protesters blocked entrances, blared sirens, and banged pots and pans during a three-hour event hosted by the Christian and Jewish Alliance. Agitators called attendees “baby-killers” and pushed a Jewish guest into the street, according to the lawsuit. They also assaulted the car of one of the attendees, Ruth Mastron, who is Jewish.

“A masked person holding a vulgar sign jumped onto the hood of our car, screaming and banging on the windshield,” Mastron said in a news release. “We just want to be able to gather safely, pray, and worship together without fearing for our lives.”

The three protests have shifted the environment at the Mission Church, Cooper said. Members are jumpy if a water bottle or book falls on the floor, and some people have stopped attending the church.

But these experiences have shown church members what Jews often go through, Cooper noted. “Jews have been persecuted for thousands of years, and as the church, you begin to experience that alongside of them, there’s a new reality that comes to the Scriptures,” Cooper said. “Persecution is real. There really is anti-Semitism in the world.”

Kayla Toney, an attorney at First Liberty Institute, which represents the ministries, said the protesters violated the FACE Act, a federal law originally designed to prevent people from obstructing access to abortion facilities. The statute bans the use of force, threats, or physical obstructions against someone seeking or providing what it terms “reproductive health services.” Authorities have used the law to prosecute, convict, and imprison peaceful pro-life protesters.

But an amendment to the act ensured that it also protects “any person lawfully exercising or seeking to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship” from aggressive activity and intimidation.

The protesters’ decision to block the church’s sidewalk and doors is “very significant,” Toney said. “That’s the sort of thing that the FACE Act is really getting at when it comes to protecting houses of worship,” she continued.

This isn’t the first lawsuit to seek protection for Jewish worshippers under the FACE Act. Last year, the StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice sued several activist groups for blocking access to synagogues. This September, the Department of Justice filed a similar lawsuit, saying that advocacy groups held a protest that turned violent and damaged attendees’ hearing at a rabbi’s memorial service.

“It’s very important to bring some accountability to these obstructions and to really strengthen the protection that houses of worship and individuals that are seeking to worship will have in the future,” Toney said.

Cooper said that the church carefully weighed its decision to take legal action against protesters. He said church leaders looked at how Paul at times endured persecution and in other moments called on his rights as a Roman citizen.

“We’re simply calling upon the rights that we’ve been given in our great nation,” Cooper said. “Our desire is out of the right to freely worship. And this is not a politically held belief for us.
This is a Biblical belief that the Jews, Israel, remain God’s chosen people.”