The internet is outraged after a clip of a Virginia church service has now gone viral. In the video, Pastor Terry W. Jackson of True Vine Apostolic Church brings a young, unidentified woman to the podium to apologize to the whole congregation for being pregnant out of wedlock.
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“We don’t condone sin,” the pastor told the congregation after the woman’s statement. “Ain’t no baby showers. You have a baby out of wedlock ain’t nobody in this church bout to attend one.”
Despite church members seemingly in agreement with the pastor’s actions, Black Twitter was not as kind. X user, @nitaliciousss, said “Making a teen girl come up to the front of the church to apologize for being pregnant out of wedlock makes want to b*rn every church DOWN.”
Another user, @NinaBrown101, agreed, saying “Extremist practices like this are seen within cults.”
After the Sunday, Jan. 5 incident, one man even took matters into his own hands and confronted the pastor for embarrassing the young girl... but it didn’t go exactly as planned. In a video he took confronting Pastor Jackson, the man asked “Are you the pastor that publicly shamed that lady?” He was eventually kicked out the church by “the church goons,” as he called them.
Despite the outrage, True Vine Apostolic Church wasn’t the first nor is it the only church set in such an old-school practice. But in light of the bad press True Vine is receiving, X user @gorgeous_enigma said she hopes this doesn’t stop people from attending church.
“Lord, I didn’t know they still do this. I hate how this will reach so many ppl and keep them turned away from the church,” she wrote.
Another user said this is exactly why so many young folks have turned their back on the church in the first place. “And ppl wonder why so many in the younger generations don’t go to church! Who are they for her to be apologizing to?” wrote @adoseofmeaux on X.
She even posed a question that so many online are curious about: where was the unborn child’s father in all of the madness?? One user @Fancy_That1989 even said “So why isn’t the man who impregnated her not up there with her? It takes two to tango.”
In response to the foolishness, the girl’s own mother came out on Facebook telling people to mind their business. On Facebook, Dee Myles wrote “I do want you to know that you all are interrupting my peace and is causing more damage than good.”
The woman continued saying her daughter “willingly approached the congregation and was welcomed and embraced with open arms. I stand on what I’ve been taught, and I’m raising my daughter to do the same.”
The pregnant woman has yet to come forward and speak on the matter. But in the meantime, she has the support of many in the community and online who continue to come to her defense.
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