By Rev. Dorothy S. Boulware

Overview: A veteran and mother of an 8-year-old, Nikalie Monroe launched her experiment during the government shutdown, when SNAP benefits ran out. One church that showed compassion has received more than $90,000 in donations from around the world.

(WIB) – It was a simple social experiment: a Kentucky TikTokker, posing as an impoverished mom with a hungry, crying newborn, randomly dials houses of worship and records what happens when she asks for infant formula. Her child, she says, hasn’t eaten since the day before, and she’s desperate.

For the clergy, it went viral on social media, for all the wrong reasons.

LEARN MORE: As SNAP Benefits Stall, Black Churches Step Up to Feed America

Rather than follow Christ’s teachings to tend to their flock, both near and far, without question, many of those churches — most of them white — turned Nikalie Monroe down flat, or told her to visit a food bank. Some megachurches told her to fill out forms or suggested she apply for government aid. While a few churches, after learning they failed Monroe’s test, promised to do better, others shamed her from the pulpit.

‘Not Gonna Let a Baby Starve’

“Doubling down and pushing out more division and not kind words … not really the route to go,” Monroe, a military veteran and mom to an 8-year-old son, said in one video.

But several of the Black churches and mosques Monroe contacted, by contrast, offered to feed her starving baby — no questions asked. The apparent disparity set social media abuzz. 

“This was a white woman calling a historically Black church and a mosque,” @1stliminalspacecowboy, a white TikToker, posted in a response video. “And neither of those places needed to know who she was or what she was like. They were just like, ‘Let me get your information, we’re gonna get you what you need.’”

Meanwhile, the white churches “are means-testing,” the TikToker said, “requiring paperwork and saying ‘come to our church, be a member, your baby and you’ll starve in the meantime, but at least he’ll be one of us.’”

“If you’ve ever met Black folks, they are not gonna let a baby starve,” 1stliminalspacecowboy said.

Churches Put to the Test

Monroe, a drug addiction counselor from Somerset, a small town in southern Kentucky about 80 miles from Lexington, called dozens of churches and temples to test how charitable they are. She began the calls during the government shutdown, around the time that federal anti-hunger programs like SNAP, as well as aid for newborn children and their mothers, had run out of money.

If you’ve ever met Black folks, they are not gonna let a baby starve. – TIKTOK USER 1stliminalspacecowboy

The videos drew millions of viewers worldwide, sparking social media conversations about the role of the church in today’s America. But it also put churches themselves to the test under a social media spotlight.

According to a recent Pew Research Center survey. 51% of Americans have a positive view of churches and other religious organizations, while 29% have a negative view, and the remainder hold mixed views

While Monroe began the experiment by randomly phoning local churches near her in Kentucky, she soon expanded her survey to churches in other states — including megachurches.  Most of them refused, citing paperwork requirements or directing her towards their standard donation process. 

‘Nobody Starves on Our Watch’

In Atlanta, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church sent her call to voicemail. Lakewood Church in Houston — the home pulpit of Pastor Joel Osteen and his faith-based, multimillion-dollar media empire — told Monroe to submit an application for the baby formula, advising her that the process could take days or even weeks. Broadmoor Baptist Church, which initially turned Monroe down, reversed course after its video went viral. Church leaders apologized for the outcome and pledged to do better. 

And one Appalachian church that eagerly offered to help Monroe is being blessed many times over after its response video went viral. After hearing her plea, Johnny Dunbar, pastor of Heritage Hope Church of God in Somerset, Kentucky, didn’t hesitate: he asked for her information immediately and even offered to get the formula himself.

”Nobody starves on our watch,” said Dunbar, whose kindly demeanor on the call has social media users calling him The Appalachian Grandpa. 

Pastor Exposed

Since Monroe posted that video, Heritage Hope has received more than $95,000 in donations and pledges from around the world. Dunbar says he’ll use the money to bolster the church’s outreach to the community.

While most in the small sampling of Black churches Monroe contacted offered help to the struggling young mother on the other end of the phone, at least one — Living Faith Christian Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana — refused. Its pastor, Bishop Raymond W. Johnson, then pointed the finger at Monroe, calling her a heretic.

“I say, really, the person is low,” he said from the pulpit the following Sunday. He condemned Monroe as  “evil,” then called her a “witch” and a “woke liberal.”

“How you gon’ do your little dirty deed?” Johnson said. “And you know, it’s just the spirit of a witch.”

This caused much online consternation. 

Compassion Blessed, Tenfold

“Not too loud — your motives are showing,” TikToker CherryBerry90 posted in a response video. “You got mad. You let that fester in your spirit all the way up to Sunday. Got up there in the pulpit in front of your brothers and sisters and called that woman a witch? Not very godly of you.”

#PoullardPrettyBlack, a TikTok user who says she attends Johnson’s church, took a swing at the minister in a video, then said she’s quitting the church.

“The lady is not the only one to ask for help, [but] he doesn’t even help his own members,” she said. “Not right calling the lady a witch. Making it my last Sunday.” 

TikToker LarryLew had a couple of questions for Johnson. 

If she’s evil and a sorceress, “then why is the Appalachian Grandpa — the one who asks what [formula] flavor [Monroe needs] — why is he getting tens of thousands of dollars in donations?” he says. “Is that the devil, too? His faith was tested. He passed with flying colors, and he’s being blessed. Explain that.”