Congressional candidate Valentina Gomez (R-TX) stormed into Faith United Church of Christ in New Braunsfels, Tex. and called the Open & Affirming congregation an abomination. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice have refused to prosecute.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi sent federal agents to Georgia Fort’s home while her children watched. More than two dozen agents arrested Don Lemon in a Los Angeles hotel lobby after midnight.

Their crime? Covering a protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, where demonstrators confronted a pastor who doubles as the local ICE field director.

The administration called it a “coordinated attack on religious freedom.” Officials held press conferences. Conservative pundits demanded accountability.

U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) deployed the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act—ironically, the same law they criticized when used to protect abortion clinics.

But here’s what the Trump administration won’t prosecute: Valentina Gomez, a Republican congressional candidate, disrupting worship at Faith United Church of Christ in New Braunfels, Texas.

Gomez burst into their Sunday service. Called them “pedophile churches.” Got escorted out by church staff. Posted the video herself.

No arrests. No DOJ press conference. No federal agents at her door.

As the father of Black liberation theology, James Cone, wrote:

“To be Christian is to be one of those whom Jesus called ‘the least.’”

This administration’s selective prosecution tells us exactly who they consider disposable and who they protect. Today, we examine this double standard through the lens of prophetic witness and constitutional law.

• Journalists arrested for doing journalism: Don Lemon and Georgia Fort were taken into federal custody on January 30, 2026, in connection with their coverage of a January 18 protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, where demonstrators confronted Pastor David Easterwood, who also serves as head of the local ICE field office.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi charged them under the FACE Act, though both maintained they were present solely as journalists documenting a newsworthy event. (Source: Associated Press, CNN, Free Press Foundation)

• First Amendment groups sound alarm: The Committee to Protect Journalists, Free Press Foundation, and National Association of Black Journalists issued statements calling the arrests “authoritarian” and “unconstitutional.” Seth Stern of the Free Press Foundation told CNN, “The answer to this outrageous attack is not fear or self-censorship. It’s an even stronger commitment to journalism, the truth, and the First Amendment.” (Source: CNN, Newsweek)

• Texas candidate disrupts LGBTQIA+-affirming church, faces no consequences: Valentina Gomez, a Republican candidate for Texas’s 31st Congressional District, crashed a worship service at Faith United Church of Christ in New Braunfels.

Gomez filmed herself calling the Open and Affirming congregation a “pedophile church” and claiming it was an “abomination.” Church staff escorted her out.

As of February 2, 2026, federal authorities have announced that no investigation is underway. (Source: PinkNews, multiple social media sources)

• Legal experts predict charges won’t stand: Constitutional scholars and legal analysts interviewed by CNN noted the likely weakness of the government’s case against Lemon and Fort. A magistrate judge initially dismissed charges against five people, including Lemon, citing insufficient evidence, but prosecutors appealed to a grand jury. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison called the arrests “deeply troubling.” (Source: CNN, Associated Press)

The pattern is unmistakable. It’s documented. It’s dangerous.

When protesters enter Cities Church—a Southern Baptist congregation led by an ICE official—the federal government mobilizes. Grand juries. Midnight arrests. Homeland Security Investigations. The FBI.

When a Republican candidate storms Faith United Church of Christ—an LGBTQ-affirming congregation doing the actual work of the gospel—the Trump administration says nothing. Does nothing. Protects nothing.

This isn’t about protecting religious freedom. It’s about protecting power.

Consider the evidence. The Trump Justice Department argues that journalists filming a protest violated the FACE Act because they were on “private property” and their presence “impeded” worship.

Yet Gomez literally interrupted a worship service, on private property, filming herself harassing congregants and clergy—and federal prosecutors remain silent.

The difference? Cities Church’s pastor enforces Trump’s immigration agenda. Faith UCC’s pastor married same-sex couples and hosts drag shows for charity.

One church gets federal protection. The other gets called pedophiles by a congressional candidate while DOJ looks away.

The hypocrisy would be comic if it weren’t so calculated. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News about the Minnesota protesters: “You’re not allowed to stop people from worshiping.” True. So why isn’t Gomez under investigation?

Because authoritarian governments don’t enforce laws uniformly. They enforce them selectively against enemies while shielding allies. This is textbook.

Fort’s teenage daughter spoke at a press conference, voice breaking: “She is not a protester. She is not an activist. She is a mom working to provide for her children through the only way she knows how—documenting and sharing stories of the community, and truth of what’s happening here every day in our state.”

Gomez, meanwhile, has a history that the administration ignores. She’s burned LGBTQ books with a flamethrower. Staged mock executions of immigrants. Burned the Quran. Infiltrated Muslim events to spew Islamophobic hate. No federal charges. No consequences.

The message is unmistakable: disrupt a church that supports our agenda, face prosecution. Disrupt a church that welcomes LGBTQ people, and we’ll look the other way.

Justice, as the prophet Amos reminds us, should “roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Not trickle-down, selectively protecting the powerful while crushing the marginalized.

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SEE: The Trump administration prosecutes journalists who document protests against an ICE official’s church. They ignore a political candidate who disrupts an LGBTQ-affirming church’s worship.

JUDGE: This selective enforcement reveals what theologians call “idolatry of the state.” When government power decides which religious communities deserve protection based on their political alignment, we’ve abandoned both the Constitution and the gospel.

Kelly Brown Douglas writes in Stand Your Ground that America has a history of “a religio-cultural narrative” that determines whose bodies are sacred and whose are expendable. We’re watching that play out in federal courtrooms.

The Black church tradition teaches us to recognize when power dresses up oppression as order. When the state claims to protect “religious freedom” while targeting journalists and ignoring actual disruption, they’re not protecting worship. They’re protecting white Christian nationalism.

ACT: Our response must be twofold. First, we defend the journalists facing prosecution. Their work documenting ICE violence and community resistance is a prophetic witness. Second, we loudly and repeatedly name the hypocrisy.

Faith United Church of Christ in New Braunfels responded to Gomez’s attack with this statement: “Some people have too much time, too much fear, too little information, and too much hypocrisy... far too many people claim to be Christian but exhibit no love, awareness of Jesus’ teachings, and no sign of practicing his qualities.”

That’s what resurrection looks like. Not vengeance. Not retaliation. Truth-telling and continued ministry.

As Dorothee Sölle wrote, “God is not in heaven. God is in us, or nowhere.” When the federal government protects power and punishes prophets, we become God’s hands doing justice. No one’s coming to save us. We save each other.

The early church was criminalized by the Roman Empire. They worshiped anyway. They told the truth anyway. They protected the vulnerable anyway.

So do we.

→ LEARN: Read the Free Press Foundation’s full statement on the arrests at freepress.net. Study the FACE Act and understand how it’s being weaponized. The Committee to Protect Journalists has resources at cpj.org.

→ ENGAGE: Contact your member of Congress and demand they speak publicly about this double standard. Call local newspapers and ask why they aren’t covering the comparison between these two cases. Support independent journalists like Fort through her work at BLCK Press.

→ ADVOCATE: Donate to the legal defense funds for Don Lemon and Georgia Fort. Sign the National Association of Black Journalists’ statement defending press freedom. If you’re a person of faith, issue a public statement from your congregation naming this hypocrisy and standing with LGBTQ-affirming churches.

May you remember that the powerful always tell us who they are. They show us, through their actions, whom they protect and whom they abandon.

May you refuse to be fooled by rhetoric about religious freedom when it’s wielded as a weapon against the marginalized while shielding the violent.

May you stand with journalists who document truth at great risk. With churches that welcome the outcast. With prophets who call power by its name.

We do not do this work alone. We do it together, sustained by the long arc of justice-seekers before us and the beloved community we’re building.

Go forth. Tell the truth. Protect the vulnerable. Rest when you need to.

The work continues. We continue. Together.

Amen and amen.