Don Lemon, in his neverending quest to reacquire some form of relevance after his CNN show assumed room temperature, barged into a St. Paul, Minnesota, church during a Sunday service — accompanied by a horde of obnoxious protesters — to rail against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers operating in the city.

In some cases, especially this one, the term “obnoxious protesters” can be considered redundant. But how else to describe a group of people who think it’s perfectly acceptable to storm a house of worship, disrupt the proceedings and leave worshipers — including children — frightened and traumatized?

Yes, obnoxious protesters fits like a glove. But what about Lemon and his pathetic attempt to call what he did journalism?

Was meeting up with the protesters and buying them coffee and donuts journalism, too? For a man so focused on himself, Lemon operates with a stunning lack of self-awareness.

When word of his livestream of the church takeover emerged in reports from actual news people and a backlash ensued, Lemon swiftly shifted into victim mode.

He had the unmitigated gall to blame the congregation at Cities Church for being upset by his antics and those of the protesters he claimed he was “covering.”

“I think people who are in religious groups like that — it’s not the type of Christianity that I practice — but I think they’re entitled, and that entitlement comes from white supremacy,” Lemon said during an interview with Jennifer Welch, a co-host of the “I’ve Had It” podcast.

(If you’ve had the misfortune of watching clips of the podcast, you might be wondering just what Ms. Welch has actually had. My guess? Too much Botox or a plastic surgeon she found on Craigslist.)

Lemon wasn’t finished.

“They think this country was built for them, that it’s a Christian country,” he said.

No, Don. But those Minneapolis churchgoers are entitled to something: The freedom to show up on Sunday morning without being accosted by you and your chosen pressure group of the week.

Welch, of course, played along with her guest’s persecution complex and helped push the Lemon-as-victim narrative.

Responding to a report that the Department of Justice was looking into the incident at the church as a possible violation of the 1994 FACE Act, Welch said that the backlash against the former CNN host was intended to intimidate him as an “independent, gay, black, happy, successful man.”

The FACE Act — or Freedom of Access to Clinics Act — is a federal law that criminalizes the use of force, threats or physical obstruction to stop people from getting or providing reproductive health services and the damage of facilities. Clearly, it was designed to prevent aggressive tactics of anti-abortion protesters.

But here’s where it applies to Lemon and the anti-ICE group he hooked up with on Sunday: The law also protects places of worship from similarly disruptive tactics.

It’s a federal offense to interfere with clinics and churches and those who do could be fined or face prison time and be subject to civil actions aimed at preventing violence and intimidation.

It’s 2026 and whether Don Lemon, Jennifer Welch or anyone else want to admit it, we have evolved as a nation. Almost no American with a functioning brain cares if someone is independent, gay, black, happy or successful — or all of those things and more.

What many people do care about is being able to get up on Sunday morning and go to church without being harassed because you and some ICE protesters believe they’re complicit in the work presently being conducted by federal officers in the Twin Cities.

Apparently it never occurred to Lemon or the protesters that they might actually have allies inside that church.

But the odds of that probably decreased significantly in the wake of their intrusion on those folks’ time of worship. If the goal was to bring folks around to their way of thinking, that fiasco was a miserable failure.

The same is true of protesters who block traffic to get their point across. I’ve never understood that tactic.

If you impede someone’s ability to get to work, take their kids to school or make it to an appointment on time, you’re not helping your cause. You’re actually turning people against that cause — whatever it might be.

And you’re at risk of becoming a hood ornament if you’re standing in the middle of the road and preventing someone with less patience than most from getting where they want or need to go.

As a former boss used to say, “Some people haven’t got the good sense God gave a goose.”

Don Lemon seems to be one of them and, unfortunately, he has lots of company.

Ed Puskas is editor of the Tribune Chronicle and The Vindicator. Write him at epuskas@tribtoday.com or reach him at 330-841-1786.