A TikToker is exposing churches that refuse to help a hungry baby
Nikalie Monroe’s viral experiment reveals a devastating truth: Many houses of worship preach compassion but practice indifference
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For the past week, TikToker Nikalie Monroe has been running a fascinating social experiment to find out if religious groups are actually willing to live out their stated values.
She recently told her followers about how SNAP benefits were set to expire because of Republican cruelty, leaving a lot of people without vital resources to feed their families. (That video received under 1,000 views.)
Then, instead of just explaining the problem, Monroe tried a different tactic: She started calling local houses of worship while pretending to be a new mother who couldn’t afford formula for her baby.
Would they help her out?
She recorded their conversations and posted them online—along with their names and contact information. It should have been great publicity for those religious groups! After all, this would be an easy way for them to live out the Gospel message, right?
The first place she called was East Somerset Baptist Church in Kentucky—a place that was supposedly founded on a “commitment to Bible-based teaching, heartfelt worship, and community care.”
The person who answered the phone said, “They stopped doing anything out of the church office about two years ago.” He directed her to local food banks, including the Pulaski (County) Emergency Relief Ministry (PERM), which the church gives to, but the church itself wouldn’t be able to help her out, he said.
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So then she called First Christian Church of Somerset, Kentucky, a church that proudly declares “There is no greater joy than serving others” on its website.
The person who answered the phone said they had nothing to offer. When Monroe pressed again, she was asked if she knew any members of the church. She said no. The receptionist responded, “Without knowing a member of the church—and this is just the policy that the board members have set here—without knowing a member of the church, there’s nothing that we can do.”
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Victory Christian Fellowship, an evangelical megachurch in Somerset, had nothing for her either. They directed her away from the church to a local food bank. But as Monroe noted in that video, “It’s not even that they don’t have it; it’s the fact that they won’t even try to get it, or they give you one resource and then think that that’s doing something. That’s the frustrating part.”
This experiment kept going, with each video racking up hundreds of thousands of views. Then she started calling Mormon congregations and mosques, too—in Kentucky, Tennessee, and neighboring states.
There was a Baptist church in South Carolina that admitted they only help people who are “part of the church.” (Monroe reacted by mimicking him: “The audacity! Oh my god! If you don’t attend my church, your baby don’t get to eat!”)
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Commenters told her to call The Satanic Temple, though Monroe quickly found out they don’t actually have “congregations.”
As of this writing, Monroe has posted 39 videos and only 9 houses of worship have offered to help her: They include a Catholic church in Alcoa, TN; a Baptist church in Louisville, KY; a Buddhist temple in Chapel Hill, NC; and an Islamic Center in Charlotte, NC.
Monroe said of the Islamic Center, “Would help feed a starving baby no hesitation.”
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MONROE: Hi, yes, I was trying to call… I have a two-month-old baby and I ran out of formula last night, and I just wanted to see if there was any way y’all could help with a can of baby formula.
ISLAMIC CENTER: We can, ma’am. Where do you live? Do you live in Charlotte?
MONROE: Yes, I’m like ten minutes from you all.
ISLAMIC CENTER: Okay, and what kind of formula do you need?
MONROE: It’s the Good Start.
ISLAMIC CENTER: Good Start. Yeah, that’s fine, ma’am. If you come over here, we’ll help you.
Compare that conversation with the one Monroe had with someone at (pro-MAGA) Abundant Church in El Paso, Texas:
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ABUNDANT CHURCH: Unfortunately, the food pantry is only available on Sundays and I don’t know if we have any baby formula at the moment.
MONROE: Okay… Is it something that you all can get and I can just pick it up or something?
ABUNDANT CHURCH: Um… Well, there’s nobody at the food pantry.
MONROE: Okay. You don’t have a pastor that can get it?
ABUNDANT CHURCH: I’m sorry. I’m not understanding your question. We don’t have, like, food products for babies. We only have… for older people, like canned foods and noodles and stuff like that available.
MONROE: Okay. I’m just curious, though. Are you all a pro-life church?
ABUNDANT CHURCH: If you’d like, I can go ahead and take your information, and you’re more than welcome to ask a pastor [those information?]
After Monroe explained her experiment, the person at the church hung up on her.
So much for abundance.
Critics online are saying she’s not calling the right places or talking to the right people, but if a church’s phone number is online, and the person who answers the call doesn’t direct you to someone who can help, what’s the difference? Even if they believe the call is a scam, why not at least try to verify the details?
Monroe got an offer of help from an anti-abortion clinic—at least confirming that a place that billed itself as “pro-life” was living up to expectations. She got no help from Dream City Church in Phoenix, where Charlie Kirk held several events. Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Texas? They said they would need a “couple days to weeks” to offer any help because she would need to get “approved” first.
Like I said: It’s a fascinating social experiment being conducted by someone who was once a teen mom herself. With her more recent videos, commenters are saying they’re making donations to the houses of worship that offer to help her. People are making spreadsheets of the successes and failures.
While the videos themselves are terrific, the comment threads are arguably even more fascinating, with responses like these:
The downside of this experiment is that Monroe’s videos are going so viral, churches may start to catch on and offer to help her—and just her—because they don’t want to be caught on the wrong side of these videos. But until that happens, game on.
This whole series reveals a moral bankruptcy at the heart of American Christianity. When churches that preach about the sanctity of life refuse to give or buy a can of baby formula for someone in need, they’re revealing the giant chasm between creed and compassion. The same institutions that claim to stand as moral anchors in their communities are showing that, under pressure, their mission statements are nothing more than marketing copy.
While some of those churches are very small, some are huge. They take in tithes by the thousands and own plenty of real estate. But they can’t offer a simple act of mercy for a hungry infant? So many of these churches had nothing to give her but a referral elsewhere. Unless she’s a member, that is. The very places that pretend to embody unconditional love have turned compassion into a membership perk. Grace apparently requires an application process.
It is heartening to see a handful of groups live up to their values. But the percentage shouldn’t be this skewed in the “No” column.
Monroe’s calls should haunt every pulpit in America. She’s challenging believers to show her what “loving your neighbor” means when that neighbor is hungry and there’s audio of a baby crying in the background.
You have no business preaching about saving souls if you won’t even save a baby from hunger.
This shouldn’t be surprising- but it’s truly disgusting! Good for her for proving what we already knew they believed: pro-life ends at birth.
This illustrates why giving money to your church is not actually charitable giving any more than paying dues to your country club is charitable giving. You are keeping your clubhouse going for the benefit of the club.