TikToker Nikalie has been calling churches all across the country. Her call is simple. She plays a recording of a baby crying and asks if anyone can help her get a can of milk. That’s it. A can of milk for a hungry baby.
You would think that would be the kind of call a church would rush to answer. You would think someone who claims to serve God would jump at the chance to help a mother in distress. But most of the people she called didn’t.
Some told her they didn’t have the “resources.” Others said she needed to be a member. Some referred her to a dead end and then hung up on her. Most didn’t even try.
Of the 30 churches she called, only 3 offered real help. One of those wasn’t even a church; it was a mosque. That says a lot. The very place that so many in this country stereotype or fear was one of the few that actually acted out of compassion. The rest either passed the buck, quoted scripture, or hung up.
What the fukk is going on?
We are living in a time where people are struggling more than ever. SNAP benefits are being cut. Inflation has made food almost unaffordable for everyone. Mothers are fighting to keep their babies fed while politicians sit in air-conditioned rooms arguing about who deserves help. And yet, when someone reaches out to the church, the same place that preaches about feeding the hungry and caring for the poor, she gets rudely dismissed.
After her social experiment went viral, the backlash was disgusting. Pastors and church folks jumped online to defend themselves instead of listening. Some said, “The church isn’t obligated to do that.” Others accused her of being manipulative for testing them.
What stands out most is not just the silence, but the venom. Some pastors and church members jumped online to drag her publicly, calling her names and questioning her motives. They used their platforms to demonize a woman who simply asked for help to feed a baby. That kind of pride and cruelty is the exact opposite of what they claim to stand for. It exposes a sickness that’s been festering in organized religion for a long time: ego dressed up as holiness.
But here’s the thing: if the church isn’t obligated to help people, then the people aren’t obligated to fill your offering plates either. You can’t beg for tithes every Sunday, brag about your outreach program, and then tell a mother with a crying baby that you’re not “obligated.” That’s not ministry. That’s marketing.
Let’s talk about obligation. Churches get tax-exempt status in this country. That means no property tax, no income tax, no accountability. They are supposed to serve the public good in exchange for that benefit. Somewhere along the way, that got twisted. Now it feels like too many of them serve themselves instead.
When did God’s house become a business model?
I grew up around people like that. I had a great aunt who used religion like a sword. She’d sit on her porch with a bonnet on her head, blasting gospel music, doing her puzzle book, and telling everybody who didn’t live exactly like her that they were going to hell. She told me that as a little girl. She told me I would burn if I didn’t “get saved before the rapture came.” That fear lived in me for years. The same kind of fear the church still uses to control people today. They guilt you, they shame you, and they convince you that your suffering is your fault.
So when I saw that video, it didn’t shock me. It just reminded me of what I already knew: too many of these churches stopped doing God’s work a long time ago. They care more about appearances, titles, and offerings than they do about the people they’re supposed to serve. This is not to say every church is bad. There are still good-hearted people out there who will give you their last. But the pattern we’re seeing now? It’s ugly. It’s the same kind of hypocrisy that makes people lose faith altogether.
You can walk into a church service today and see a full production: lights, cameras, stage smoke, digital giving screens, and a “building fund” that’s been active since the Clinton era. Meanwhile, there’s a mother outside crying because her baby is hungry. How do you preach about miracles when you can’t even buy a can of milk?
The woman behind that TikTok experiment didn’t just expose stingy churches. She exposed a truth that a lot of people don’t want to admit: most of these institutions no longer practice what they preach. They talk about faith, but they don’t walk with compassion. Let’s be real, Jesus would’ve bought that woman a whole case of milk and never posted about it.
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but prayer is not enough. Faith without works is dead. You can’t praise your way out of accountability. The modern church has become addicted to performative faith, and it shows.
So yes, it’s disheartening to see this woman beg for help and be ignored. However, I’m glad she did. Because now it’s on video. Now we can’t unsee it. Maybe God stopped showing up in those buildings a long time ago because He’s busy helping the people they refuse to see.
Leave a Reply