MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama House passed a bill creating a new crime for the disruption of a worship service.
House Bill 363, sponsored by Rep. Gregory Barnes, R-Jasper, makes disrupting a worship service a Class C felony. If convicted, a person could be sentenced to up to 10 years in jail and could potentially be charged a fine of $15,000. A committee substitute removed a mandatory five-year sentence for repeat offenders.
The disruption of worship has been in the news lately as an anti-U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest interrupted a church service in St. Paul, MN, last month. Republican leaders, including Vice President JD Vance, have called for the protestors to be punished with the maximum penalty allowable by law.
While introducing the bill on the House floor, Barnes said the bill was a narrowly tailored religious protection bill. He said the recent events in Minnesota brought the bill to the forefront but that the issue of disruption of worship is not a new one.
The bill lists unlawful protest, riot, disorderly conduct, harassment or obstruction of people entering or exiting church property as disruptive activities.
“People want to make sure our places of worship, which covers all of them, are safe and we don’t want intrusion, riot, issues…” Barnes told reporters after the bill passed Tuesday night. “I hope this bill never has to be used. Someone will have to cross several thresholds legally to ever be charged with this. We want to send a message that we’re not going to tolerate this in our state.”
The bill states that Alabamians’ right to meet and assemble for religious worship is “imperative” and suggests that right must be weighed against people’s right to protest.
“The exercise of the right of an individual to protest at places of worship must be balanced against the right of another individual to meet and assemble for religious worship in an unobstructed manner,” the bill reads.
Barnes said the bill is preemptive and did not mention any specific instances of disruption in the state of Alabama.
Democrats repeatedly pushed back on the bill, arguing that there could be unintended consequences and that people who did not intend to cause disruption could be charged with the new crime. They also expressed concerns that people from different religious traditions could be viewed as disruptors when visiting a different church.
“Under this particular piece of legislation, when Jesus went in there and flipped over some tables, he would have been a Class C felon,” Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, said in opposition to the bill. “He would have been incarcerated under this bill.”
Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, opposed the bill and said it could be used to stop journalists from doing their job, referencing Don Lemon’s recent arrest after covering the anti-ICE protest in church in Minnesota.
Barnes disagreed that the bill would affect journalists. He several times explained that to be guilty of the new crime, an individual would both have to enter the church with the intent to disrupt and then engage in the disruption.
House Majority Leader Paul Lee, R-Dothan, eventually introduced a measure to cloture debate, his second of the day.
The bill passed by a vote of 75-27. It now heads to the Senate, where Barnes said it will be carried by Sen. Chris Elliott, R-Josephine.