Viral 'NAYC21' Facebook Post About Christian Event Lacked Context | Snopes.com

On Aug. 22, 2021, a Facebook user posted a photograph that purportedly showed a large Christian gathering in an arena in 2021. The text, which included the hashtag #NAYC21, claimed that it wasn’t widely covered by the news media. It mentioned that the North American Youth Congress (NAYC) event purportedly only made it into local reports in the St. Louis, Missouri, area, where the picture was captured. According to the NAYC Facebook page, it is “a semi-annual youth conference sponsored by the United Pentecostal Church International.” Six hours after the post was made, the user added “#repost” to the end of the text. The truth of the matter is that it was copied and pasted from the WKRN Jerry Barlar Facebook page, where it was originally posted on Aug. 5, 2019. The picture did indeed show a NAYC gathering in St. Louis, Missouri. However, it was captured in 2019, not 2021. And in 2021, the in-person portion of the gathering was canceled due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. While the repost may have been somewhat misleading, the sentiments expressed in the original text appeared to be true. We only found reporting from Fox News, CBN, Texarkana Gazette, St. Louis-based TV…
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