Two Crowds, One Nation: What January 6 and the Minneapolis ICE Protest Reveal About Our Moral Blind Spots
America has always been a nation of crowds. We gather to worship, to celebrate, to mourn, to demand justice, to defend our interests, and sometimes to indulge our worst impulses. Crowds can be holy or unholy, prophetic or destructive, courageous or confused. Scripture is full of them — from the Israelites dancing around a golden calf to the multitude fed by Jesus on a hillside. Crowds are mirrors, revealing what individuals often hide.
In recent years, two crowds have captured the nation’s attention and exposed its fractures: the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and the Minneapolis protest involving ICE agents. They were not the same. Their causes, contexts, and consequences differed dramatically. But they share something deeper: each became a Rorschach test for the American conscience, especially within the church.
The HippocraticParty.org — that spiritually necessary movement whose first rule is do no hypocrisy — would argue that the events themselves matter less than the selective outrage they provoked. If Christians are to be people of truth, justice, and neighborly‑love, we must learn to see crowds not through partisan lenses but through biblical ones.
This is an attempt to do just that.
1. Two Stages: A National Temple and a Local Gate
Every crowd gathers somewhere, and the location shapes the meaning.
The Capitol: A Civic Temple
On January 6, 2021, the U.S. Capitol — a symbol of national authority and constitutional order — became the site of a violent breach. The building is not sacred in the theological sense, but it carries a civic sacredness. It is where laws are debated, where power is transferred peacefully, where the nation’s representatives deliberate.
Scripture speaks to the importance of such order. Paul calls governing authorities “ministers of God” for the common good. The prophets condemn rulers who abuse power, but they also warn against chaos that tears down the structures meant to restrain evil.
When rioters stormed the Capitol, they weren’t merely trespassing. They were attacking the idea of ordered governance itself.
Minneapolis: The Gate of Justice
The Minneapolis ICE protest take place not in a national temple but at a gate — the biblical place where justice is contested. In ancient Israel, the gate was where elders judged disputes, where prophets confronted corruption, where the vulnerable sought redress.
Protests against ICE practices often arise from concerns about due process, racial profiling, and the treatment of immigrants — people Scripture repeatedly commands God’s people to protect. “You shall love the stranger,” God says, “for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
The Minneapolis protest was not an attempt to overthrow authority but to hold authority accountable.
Two crowds, two stages, two symbolic worlds.
2. Two Sparks: A Disputed Election and Disputed Treatment of Immigrants
Crowds do not gather without a spark. And a tiny spark can set a huge forest afire.
January 6: A Lie Believed
The Capitol riot was fueled by claims of a stolen election — claims that had been investigated, litigated, and rejected. Whether individuals sincerely believed the narrative or cynically exploited it, the biblical category is the same: false witness.
Falsehood is not a harmless political tactic. It is spiritually corrosive. Proverbs warns that a false witness “breathes out lies,” and Jesus calls the devil “the father of lies.” When deception becomes a rallying cry, the fruit is predictable: confusion, anger, and violence.
Minneapolis: A Cry for Accountability
The Minneapolis ICE protest was sparked by concerns about how federal agents were treating individuals — including allegations of arbitrary arrests and violations of due process. These concerns are not abstract. They involve real people, often vulnerable, often without legal representation, often terrified.
Scripture is unambiguous about God’s concern for the foreigner, the sojourner, the refugee. The prophets thunder against those who “turn aside the stranger from the gate.”
One crowd rose from a conspiracy.
One crowd rose from a concern for the vulnerable.
But both crowds contained a mix of motives — righteous anger, confusion, opportunism, and fear. Human hearts are rarely pure, even when the cause is.
3. Two Crowd Dynamics: Overthrowing Authority vs. Confronting Authority
January 6: A Crowd Against the Center
The Capitol crowd sought to interrupt the peaceful transfer of power — the beating heart of constitutional democracy. This was not protest; it was insurrectionary. It resembled the riot in Acts 19, where a confused mob, inflamed by agitators, threatened the social order.
Minneapolis: A Crowd at the Margins
The ICE protest was confrontational but not insurrectionary. Protesters challenged federal agents, questioned the legitimacy of certain arrests, and demanded accountability. This aligns with the biblical tradition of confronting unjust power — though Scripture also warns that anger can quickly become destructive if not disciplined.
One crowd tried to overturn authority.
One crowd tried to restrain authority.
Both crowds reveal the fragility of our social order.
4. Two National Reactions: Outrage in Reverse
This is where the Hippocratic Party raises its eyebrows.
January 6
Many who typically champion “law and order” suddenly discovered nuance, context, and therapeutic language for the rioters’ frustration.
Minneapolis ICE Protest
Many who typically defend protest as a sacred democratic right suddenly discovered a deep affection for federal agents and strict compliance.
The outrage flipped depending on whose tribe was implicated.
Jesus warned about this:
“Judge with right judgment.”
The Hippocratic Party translation:
If your moral tape measure changes length depending on the crowd, it’s not morality — it’s partisanship.
5. The Biblical Mirror: Two Crowds, One Human Condition
Scripture gives us two archetypal crowds:
- The crowd that shouted “Hosanna!”
- The crowd that shouted “Crucify him!”
Sometimes they were the same people.
Crowds are fickle. Crowds are dangerous. Crowds are easily manipulated by fear, grievance, or righteous anger. And crowds reveal what individuals often hide: the collective heart condition of a nation.
January 6 and the Minneapolis ICE protest were not morally equivalent. But they were symptoms of the same disease:
- A nation discipled more by cable news than by Scripture
- A people quicker to defend their tribe than to seek truth
- A church often more animated by political identity than by the Sermon on the Mount
America doesn’t have a protest problem.
America has a discipleship problem.
6. The Way Forward: Truth Without Tribalism
The biblical path is not to flatten distinctions or pretend all events are morally equal. It is to:
- Tell the truth, even when it hurts our side
- Condemn violence, whether committed by the powerful or the powerless
- Defend the vulnerable, including immigrants and refugees
- Seek justice, especially at the gate
- Pursue peace, not as sentiment but as obedience
- Reject hypocrisy, the yeast that corrupts the whole loaf
The Hippocratic Party motto applies here:
First, do no hypocrisy. Second, love your neighbor. Third, repeat.
Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you. Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord. May God have mercy on your soul. And may God be merciful to me a sinner.”
