Beginning in June 2022, readers may have seen a meme that claimed to show a picture of a couple who were unable to conceive a child having sex onstage in the middle of a church service. The meme read, "Couple unable to have children has intercourse in the middle of an evangelical worship service to receive God's blessing."
However, despite the more than 99% of Reddit commenters who appeared to instantly believe the meme, no, this was not an accurate caption.
Source: iFunny.co
The meme may have been based on a tweet from May 30, 2022. It read, "Pastor asked married couple struggling to conceive to have sex inside church, and in full view of congregation so that they can also pray for them to conceive." This was not true.
According to reporting from KanyiDaily.com, Facebook posts and comments from people associated with the church provided an explanation of what the two people were doing onstage. The website published that the picture showed two women, not a man and a woman, at a church named Alianç Restaurada in Belém, Brazil.
In the photograph, the woman on the bottom apparently fainted, which prompted the church to reenact something that was described in the Bible. The verses referenced in the reporting were 2 Kings 4:32-35:
When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch. He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the Lord. Then he got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out on him, the boy's body grew warm. Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out on him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.
On the Facebook page for the church, we found at least three other examples of the red cloth appearing in pictures, apparently being used for this same purpose: