A TikTok user named Nikalie Monroe recently did something that got people talking all over the internet. She called more than 40 churches and pretended to be a struggling mom who needed baby formula. She wanted to see if they would actually help her out.
According to Daily Dot, Monroe only had about 300 followers when she started this experiment. She picked a really important time to do it. The government was shut down for a long time, and millions of Americans didn’t know when they would get their SNAP benefits again. A lot of conservative Christians say we don’t need government help programs because churches will take care of people who need it. Monroe wanted to see if that was really true.
She called over 40 different religious places, and only nine of them said they would help. The ones that offered to help included a Buddhist temple, an Islamic center, some Catholic churches, and a Black church. The ones that said no included some pretty famous places like Joel Osteen’s huge church in Houston, Charlie Kirk’s church, and a Mormon church. Plenty of other Christian churches in the South also turned her down.
The churches got really upset about being called out
Monroe’s videos blew up online and the churches found out what she was doing. A lot of them were not happy at all. Some pastors even talked about her during their Sunday services. One pastor called what she did a “dirty deed” and said she has the “spirit of a witch.” At the same time, he was bragging about all the times his church helped people before.
Monroe has said a few times that she feels bad about how much embarrassment this caused. She really wants people to pay attention to the places that did help her instead of just the ones that didn’t. The good news is that the churches and temples that helped have been getting a lot more donations.
One church got more than $75,000 in donations after they helped Monroe. Their pastor was so moved that he cried in a video that went viral.
A lot of people think this whole thing shows how fake some churches are being. Christian churches have gotten really involved in politics during the Trump years. The fact that so many of them wouldn’t help someone during a Republican government shutdown, especially when abortion has been banned in so many places, really bothered people.
One X user, Leah Carbonneau, commented: “Wtf is wrong with these churches??? I thought every church would feed a baby. There is something wrong with the South. Too many Christian Nationalists, too little true Christians.”
Another user, Stephanie Rader, noted: “The fact that black churches, Buddhists, and an Islamic faith center offered help makes perfect sense to me because the oppressed are open hearted people because they know and have lived it.” Meanwhile, others simply expressed admiration for Monroe’s work, with one user writing: “Damn! I respect this woman and her fierce energy. She’s awesome!”
Pretty much everyone who heard about this said they weren’t shocked by what happened. The whole thing has got people talking again about whether churches can really replace government programs that help poor people. Stories of regular people helping each other out keep inspiring people online, even when big organizations let them down.
Published: Nov 12, 2025 04:45 pm