A viral video of a Texas pastor chastising one of her worship leaders over a hug on Sept. 7 is making the rounds on social media.
Pastor Cassandra Pope of the Macedonia Worship Center in Houston is seen admonishing one of the worship center’s leaders, Mahoganee, and calling her “fake,” and Pope let her know she disapproved.
“God is such a good God. He’s a merciful God, and he is a kind God,” she began. “Where we’re going on this morning is going to be Psalms 23.”
Pope went on to talk about the Lord some more before she began her ill-timed rant about Maghonee failing to give the pastor a hug in her usual manner.
“But, I want to make a correction on this morning,” she continued. “I was speaking with Mahoganee on this morning, and Mahoganee kind of gave me a different hug than she normally does. Amen. And you know what? We’re not going to have that in the body of Christ. The word of God tells us that open rebuke is better than secret love. So we can’t have that up in this house on this morning.”
At this point, Mahoganee cocked her head forward in surprise at Pastor Pope’s “rebuke.”
“Amen. So if you want to just go ahead and do what you got to do today, we’re going to do that,” she continued. “We tried to talk about it, but you didn’t want to talk about it. But I’m just going to expose it and let you know I know how you feel. Amen.”
If you think the good pastor stopped there, you would be mistaken. She continued on “cleaning house” as other church members standing behind the pulpit looked on in shock.
“But if not, you just go ahead and sing for the Lord. Amen. Amen. Amen,” Pope stated. “All right. All right. I just don’t like fake stuff. Amen. And God has told me to clean up his house. Amen. We not going to have that kind of behavior in God’s house because this is the house of the Lord. Amen. And we going to praise God up in here. Amen.”
She then dismissed Mahoganee from singing in the choir, and watched her hug the other members of the congregation before leaving the stage.
The video made the rounds on social media, and after it was shared with The Neighborhood Talk, shocked followers commented on the pastor’s public rebuke.
“Some of the meanest, messiest people go to church,” noted one fan. “This was SO inappropriate,” added another.
“And Mahoganee is never coming back,” wrote another. “She done hugged and told everybody bye!”
Sportswriter Jemele Hill wrote, “Did she just politely cuss her out in the name of Jesus? Amen.”
“Hugging EVERYONE ELSE lovingly as she walked off was some nasty work,” concluded another.
Folks on YouTube also chimed in. “Mahogany needs to find her another church that’s gonna show her some real love. God bless you Mahoganee. Meanwhile. Sista’ Souljah needs some SERIOUS deliverance!”
Pastor Pope’s husband, Pastor Walter Pope, later excused his wife’s behavior and defended her un-Christian treatment of Mahoganee.
“It’s OK to be rebuked, open,” he said. “I personally — I don’t apologize, and I’m going to defend my wife. I’m going to defend the pastor because she wasn’t wrong.”