A Kentucky pastor is defending a controversial Bible school skit in Lexington, Kentucky, after a viral video showed children watching a staged firing squad, with the Kentucky pastor insisting on Monday 29 June that it was simply about ‘killing the devil’ rather than glorifying violence.
The news came after TikTok footage from Mt Olivet Baptist Church’s vacation Bible school on Sunday 28 June spread quickly across social platforms, drawing sharp criticism from viewers who said the visuals looked disturbingly like an execution. In the short clip, shared by a user identified as Jedidiah, children sit and watch as adults in what appears to be military-style clothing point fake guns at a person lying on the ground and repeatedly fire, while voices in the room chant, ‘Take him out, and blow him up!’
Kentucky Pastor Says Firing Squad Skit Was About ‘Killing The Devil’
For context, Mt Olivet Baptist Church in Lexington has run its vacation Bible school for decades, pitching it as a place where children can learn Bible stories in a fun, high-energy environment. According to pastor Dewayne Walker, part of that has long included theatrical skits with recurring characters that symbolise good and evil.
In a lengthy response posted to the church’s official Facebook page on Monday, Walker pushed back at what he called a wave of ‘misinformation’ around the TikTok clip. He said the sketch in question was a ‘small part of our vacation Bible school for 32 years’, and that each year the church uses different characters to represent ‘good and right’ and others to represent ‘evil and wrong’.
‘We make church a fun place, a happy place, a place where we hate sin,’ Walker told viewers. ‘A place where we exalt Jesus, and we hate the devil. I think you’d be in agreement that we shouldn’t love the devil.’
He then addressed the moment that had so many people online calling the whole thing sick. ‘The clip you saw was simply killing the devil,’ he said. ‘I’ll be honest with you, if I could kill the devil every day and raise him up and kill him again, I’d do it. He’s the one we hate.’
That is the line that has stuck to him, and to the church. On one level, it is just classic pulpit fire. On another, it is an adult religious leader calmly talking about repeatedly shooting a figure in front of a room full of kids, even if it is only a character in a skit. The tension between those two readings is exactly what has made the video blow up.
Viral Video Of Kentucky Pastor’s Church Divides Social Media
In case you missed it, the original TikTok clip is only a few seconds long, and like most viral outrage fuel, it offers no explanation, no sermon, no labels, just the shock of the imagery. Children are visible watching as the person on the ground is surrounded and fake-shot. The crowd sound is light, almost playful, with some attendees appearing to smile and chat as the body is dragged away.
In the comments beneath the TikTok, many users demanded to know why such a scene was being staged for children at all. ‘This is absolutely sick. You all need help,’ one person wrote. Another viewer was even more blunt, saying: ‘You think the devil is fun? Because that’s what this is. Satan’s work.’
Others, perhaps used to how often context is stripped out of religious content online, asked for more information before weighing in. That nuance did not exactly dominate the debate, though. The idea of a Bible school apparently cheering ‘take him out, and blow him up’ was enough to set corners of TikTok and Facebook on fire.
Walker’s Facebook address was an attempt to put out some of that fire. He stressed that the guns were not real firearms, describing them as ‘air rifles’ and ‘basically paintball guns’. The goal, he argued, was to ‘paint a real picture to kids, visibly, what’s going on invisibly’ in Christian teaching about the battle between good and evil.
‘You may not like how we did it,’ he conceded. ‘And maybe you’re right, maybe we’re wrong.’ That is about as close to an apology as he offered, choosing instead to frame the controversy as a misunderstanding of symbolism and intent.
He also reminded viewers that the ‘person’ being shot was just a character meant to represent the devil, something he said many of the local children have seen played out in similar fashion at Mt Olivet events over the years. Still, even he admitted the way it landed this time has made him ‘sad’ that the skit was ‘misunderstood’.
Critics Say Kentucky Pastor’s Skit Glorified Violence, Supporters Say Church ‘Loves On The Broken’
The Kentucky pastor’s explanation did not convince everyone. Under the Facebook video, the criticism kept coming, this time aimed directly at Walker and his leadership rather than at an anonymous church in a TikTok.
‘WWJD? He certainly would not condone this,’ one commenter wrote, invoking the well-worn ‘What would Jesus do?’ slogan. ‘Your “skit” perpetuated hate and violence, and what is wrong with the world. SHAME ON YOU!!! I FEEL SORRY FOR THOSE POOR CHILDREN!’
That reaction speaks to a broader discomfort that has been brewing online for years, around how some churches use militaristic language, props and imagery with very young audiences. In a country where real school shootings are grimly routine, watching kids cheer on what looks like a firing squad, even metaphorically, is always going to hit a raw nerve. That is not hypersensitivity, it is lived reality.
Not everyone joined the pile-on, though. Members and long-time attendees of Mt Olivet Baptist jumped into the comments to defend their pastor and their church. One supporter wrote: ‘I been part of mt olivet church over 16 years, and I know that this church loves on the broken. I know the intentions of members is this church is helping those who are lost and the broken.’
To them, the viral outrage missed the point entirely. In their view, the skit is just one small, overly dramatic piece of a much bigger programme focused on faith, community and care, not a recruitment video for violence.
What the clip does prove is how quickly local church theatrics can crash into national conversations about trauma, guns and the kinds of images children are asked to process. Walker says he would ‘kill the devil’ every day if he could. A lot of people watching that TikTok seemed to be wondering if there might be less brutal ways to make that point.
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