What Happens When These People Witness A 'Pastor' Trying To 'Pray Away The Gay'?

A popular reality television show recently tested people’s reactions to seeing an evangelical pastor interacting with a teenage boy in hopes of “praying the gay” out of him.

ABC’s hit “What Would You Do?” stages controversial scenarios using actors and gives onlookers the chance to either intervene in the situation or stay silent in the face of injustice or hardship. In this segment, which takes place at an Atlanta restaurant, an actor playing a young gay man is told by two other actors playing his parents that a pastor is coming ― and eventually shows up ― to “pray away the gay.”

The results are, for the most part, inspiring and heartening. The first reactions come from a group of women who speak to the young man after he is left alone at the table. Once the women discover they’re on “What Would You Do?” one of them shares some powerful thoughts about the way sexuality intersects with religion.

“The church plays a very big part in our community as African American people,” the woman says. “And when your pastor doesn’t speak about homosexuality or quotes you parts of the Bible that tell you that it’s wrong, we really, really believe this and it further increases low self-esteem. And it makes us feel even less than and we don’t even really talk about it.”

Check out the video above to see some more responses and tell us what you would do if you were in these unsuspecting witnesses’ shoes.