ORLANDO, Fla. — A growing number of protesters have been interrupting Sunday worship services at progressive Orange County churches, prompting fears that the rhetoric could continue escalating into violence.
At least four churches in the Windermere and Orlando areas have been targeted since November, with some churches enduring multiple rounds of demonstrations.
What started with a couple and a bullhorn on the sidewalk outside, pastors said, has turned into a group of six or seven men, children in tow, entering the sanctuary and standing up to demonstrate midway through a sermon.
In all cases, they said members of the group have filmed the protests, which later end up playing the starring role in social media videos.
Rev. Terri Steed Pierce’s Joy Metropolitan Community Church in Orlando was targeted last Sunday, one of several hit that day.
“They were greeted. They were given welcome bags that have a little snack and some of the little tchotchkes in it,” Steed Pierce said. “One of them was sitting in the back acting a little strange, and so that caught people’s attention. But you just don’t imagine this is going to happen.”
Steed Pierce and other pastors said the group appears to be targeting churches that welcome LGBTQ community members or are led by female pastors.
With Joy MCC being a well-known, LGBTQ-friendly congregation, she said they prepared an action plan they put into effect the moment one man began calling them a synagogue of sin: singing hymns – loudly.
“I said everybody’s welcome here, but all behaviors aren’t, and that kind of behavior and that kind of hate is not welcome here,” Steed Pierce said. “We can disagree, but you coming in here and interrupting worship has nothing to do with God. That is not godly. It is not Christ like and if that’s who you think you’re following, it’s not the same Jesus I serve.”
Rev. Rushing Kimball, of Broadway United Methodist Church, said the same group held a prayer rally in his parking lot because he is gay, and congregation members prevented them from attempting to enter his building.
“It’s not a comfortable feeling,” he said “So many people talk about people just come back to church. Well, people are in church, and then you still don’t like it. It’s disappointing.”
Kimball, Steed Pierce and other pastors have gotten law enforcement involved, with each of them saying the protesters have been trespassed from their buildings.
However, they want police and sheriff’s deputies to do more. Florida law does not give First Amendment protections to protests that disrupt worship services.
“If your protest disrupts or disturbs a worship service, there is a criminal statute of the Florida Statutes that makes it actually a crime to engage in that activity,” First Amendment attorney Lawrence Walters explained. “In the absence of the law, there is a recognized concept in First Amendment law of violating the First Amendment rights of others through disturbance, by shouting down speakers or preventing others from being heard. That in itself is a First Amendment problem known as a heckler’s veto. You can’t allow one or two people to shut down somebody else’s ideas.”
The pastors said the men in the latest demonstrations appeared to have ties to a conservative Sanford-based church that, in its core beliefs, urges followers to preach the gospel, salvation, and traditional masculine values.
Leaders of the church declined to comment or take up WFTV’s offer to meet to review video footage of the demonstrators.
While the pastors called the protests unnerving, they said the apparent momentum behind the group was more concerning.
They cited the Pulse massacre or the 2015 shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church, the latter of which involved an attacker who initially sat side-by-side with his victims.
“They welcomed him in, just like we welcomed these people in. They could have had weapons,” Steed Pierce said. “When Pulse happened, every faith stood up and said, our faith teaches us that your love your God, whoever that may be, and you love your neighbor. This is not neighborly love.”
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