As Christians turned their attention to Easter this week in marking the start of Lent, social media users noticed a religious message spreading like crazy across TikTok, Instagram and other apps.
For the past several days, comments about Jesus Christ’s sacrifices have appeared among the top comments on all sorts of posts, and there’s been no clear connection between the accounts sharing very similar quotes.
“Jesus died on a cross for you. He defeated death, he defeated your sins. He did this for you, and he gave us the Holy Spirit. Spread the word,” says one version of the popular comment.
The trend has raised questions and sparked satirical responses, including an edited version of the comment that references NBA superstar LeBron James instead of Jesus Christ.
Social media users have tried to solve the mystery by crowd-sourcing possible explanations, but no one is certain if the religious messages come from bots, real-life Christians, well-funded religious organizations or a combination of all three.
Religion on TikTok
Although the surge in comments about Jesus Christ is new, it’s not unusual for social media users to share their faith.
TikTok, in particular, has inspired countless religious discussions, as Catholic nuns, passionate Wiccans and everyone in between uses the app to share their beliefs.
“Using tags like #religion #interfaith #faithtok — which have over 6 billion views combined — millions of content creators from across the globe upload daily Q&As, explainers, skits, and music videos to inform people about their faith, dispel myths, and build community,” Interfaith America reported in 2022.
A Pew Research Center survey from the same year found that 17% of U.S. adults said they shared things about religion on social media and 20% watched religion-focused videos on sites like YouTube and TikTok.