WWJD

Fury as Mississippi Reverend Refuses to Baptize Unmarried Parents’ Baby

A now-viral letter written by the man of God accused both Mississippi parents of “living in sin.”

A Mississippi reverend caught the internet’s ire this week after he refused to perform a baptism for a pair of unmarried parents—penning a viral letter that accused them of “living in sin.” Rev. Dewayne Warren of Hickory Grove United Methodist Church also criticized their irregular attendance of the church in his screed, which was written last month and subsequently posted to Facebook by the child’s mother, Kamri Mclendon. “Instances like this are why young people are scared to go to church,” she wrote. It was a message that didn’t go over well online—inspiring hundreds of angry comments on Mclendon’s original post. “This is not Christian behavior... we are called to love everyone,” one person wrote. “If he truly was a man of God he wouldn’t turn you and your family away,” another added. Mclendon later updated her post to say the church’s superintendent had spoken to the reverend and “rectified the situation.”