Following his viral Minneapolis church incident, journalist Don Lemon has ruffled some feathers with faith leaders like Bishop Patrick L. Wooden Sr, who have issued harsh warnings against the former CNN anchor making any appearances.
The pastor of Upper Room COGIC in Raleigh, NC, spoke out against the actions of Lemon and First Amendment protestors storming into a church service to confront Cities Church’s lead pastor, David Easterwood, who was revealed to be an ICE agent.
While things were seemingly peaceful during the service interruption, Wooden said that wouldn’t be the case if the same thing took place in Raleigh.
“Y’all see when those people invaded that church the other day? Now I just wanna say to protestors and all of them…don’t do that here. Amen,” the pastor started. “Don Lemon, don’t come here. You roll up in this church doing stuff like that, and it’s going to be the Royal Rumble.”
As parishioners started to giggle, Wooden stood firm on his stance: “The funny thing is, I’m not joking.”
He added, “We have worked hard. We built the church in the name of the Lord. We dedicated it to the Lord. It’s built for worship. Our
blood, sweat, tears, and finances are in this place. So, people who have never knocked on the doors of the church, and never contributed one dime to it, going to roll up in here and disturb our service and scare our children and shout obscenities in the church—that will not stand in this church.”The federal government feels Lemon and protestors went too far in disrupting the church service, resulting in the Department of Justice being hopeful that a judge would charge Lemon for his anti-ICE protest coverage.
That didn’t happen, upsetting U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Nicki Minaj.
This isn’t the first time Wooden has controversially spoken out on the day’s hot topics. Following the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, Wooden praised him for promoting conservative Christian values, offering condolences, and urged his parishioners to do the same.
In 2024, according to The Christian Post, he defended former North Carolina gubernatorial candidate and the state’s first Black lieutenant governor, Mark Robinson, following a bombshell report that he labeled himself as a “black NAZI” and praised slavery on a pornographic website between 2008 and 2012.
“Whether this stuff that they’ve unearthed is him or not
…. he said those are not the words of Mark Robinson, and I believe him,” said the pastor, who once called Kamala Harris a danger to Black Americans. “I believe him more than I believe this media.”RELATED CONTENT: Pam Bondi ‘Enraged’ After Judge Rejects DOJ Attempt To Charge Don Lemon For Anti-ICE Church Protest