'Shooting the devil' skit at Kentucky church reminds me of how people got hysterical about drag queens reading to children

A disturbing video featuring a skit in a Kentucky church involving church staff "shooting the devil" has gone viral.

From The Lexington-Herald Leader:

A Lexington church is being criticized after a video went viral depicting church staff shooting the devil in front of several children during the church's vacation Bible school program. The video shows a room full of young children and adults at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church. Soldiers armed with air-soft rifles march down the center aisle while a character representing the devil is laying on the steps to the church's altar as the children chant "take him out, blow him up." 

 The soldiers eventually "open fire" on the devil for several seconds. After seemingly shooting and killing the devil, the soldiers drag the devil outside the room through a side door. Pastor Dewayne Walker then starts counting up and at the eight-second mark, an explosion can be heard followed by loud cheers from the children.

 On Monday, Walker posted a video on the church's Facebook page and apologized to anyone who might have been offended by the video, but said what's being shared online contains a lot of misinformation. 

 . . . Walker said the church has been putting on vacation Bible school for 32 years, and every year they feature a skit highlighting the difference between evil and good. In the last several years, the skit has included "commandos for Christ," using "the gospel gun." Walker said the skit was included in a message intended to teach kids to hate sin and hate the devil.

You can see the video here:

Have ya'll seen this yet?
Mt Olivet Baptist Church of Lexington, KY Vacation Bible School. These are going to be my children's classmates. 😒 "Take him out, blow him up." Violence is ok when it's in church. 🤷🏾‍♀️ #LexingtonKY #Kentucky #ICE pic.twitter.com/iFkPzlDeUz

— Fae Moor (@missjazziefae) June 29, 2026

By "misinformation," Walker is talking about how some on social media claimed that the church was targeting immigrants instead of the devil.  Personally, I don't think the church took it far enough. Why not have the children gang up on the devil and beat his ass?

I also think the entire thing is ironic in light of the hysteria a while back regarding drag queens reading to children. Perfectly innocent events of drag queens reading to children in public settings - with parental supervision - got deliberately spun out of proportion by bigots and enterprising wannabe social media influencers as examples of the LGBTQ community supposedly "grooming" children. What drag queens were supposedly grooming children to be was left up to lurid individual interpretation because some believed the old but reliable lie that drag queens were grooming kids for sex. Others believed that drag queens were grooming the kids to become transgender.

I know that none of it makes sense, but as I have said on numerous occasions, it doesn't have to. Maybe there would have been less opposition if the drag queens had pistol whipped each other in between readings.