Video doesn't show Tucson church worshipping Pride flag, despite claims

In late June 2026, people alleged a video showed a Tucson, Arizona, church congregation worshipping a Pride flag. That clip features parishioners raising their hands in the air and singing a "Hallelujah" hymn. During the song, they face in the direction of a Pride flag hanging on a wall under a cross. For example, on June 29, an X user posted (archived) the video with the caption, "A church in Tucson, Arizona worships the Pride flag.. what kind of church is this..!?" Other users reposted the video, or a screenshot from the clip, with similar captions on Facebook (archived), TikTok (archived), Truth Social (archived) and X (archived). In short, users miscaptioned this video. The clip was genuine in the sense that users did not alter its contents with artificial intelligence or other digital editing. However, users falsely claimed the church worshipped a Pride flag and omitted context. The video shows part of a June 28 Sunday service at St. Francis in the Foothills United Methodist Church in Tucson. The church's YouTube videos confirm the house of worship displayed a Pride flag and celebrated Pride Month in June 2026, with people speaking in front of the congregation professing love and acceptance of LGBTQ+ people. However, they were not worshipping the flag in the video that spread online. The in-question clip features parishioners singing "Hallelujah" after honoring an outgoing pastor, Mike Wilkerson, on his final Sunday before We contacted the church to ask if someone could speak about the misleading rumor and will update this article if we receive more information. Looking for the truth A reverse image search for the first frames of the video users shared helped to identify the church's name and location. The church's website specifically mentioned classes and services focusing on the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Holy Trinity — representing God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. The church's YouTube channel, hosting videos from past services, confirmed the congregation truly displayed a Pride flag during Pride Month — a celebratory month of LGBTQ+ people falling annually in June — behind the lectern, as well as a ribbon with similar colors on the front of the lectern. Those videos also provided evidence the church does not worship the symbol, but rather displayed it temporarily for the month of June. A video on the church's Instagram page shows the church had not yet displayed a Pride flag for the May 31 Sunday services. Seven days later, on June 7, a video from one of the Sunday services featured the Pride flag starting around the At the end of the June 7 service, the video shows Wilkerson offering a prayer mentioning God, not a flag: As we go forth from this place, may you receive compassion, love, kindness, empathy, all that we all need. May you be channels of this as well to those who you come across. May we all find those in the greatest need and be able to pass the love of God that we've received to them as well. Amen. The video social media users shared originated from the church's own Facebook and Instagram pages, featuring one of the services from June 28. The church's YouTube channel hosted a video with an alternate angle of the same moments, providing context for what was happening during the singing. At the 55:30 mark, a person speaks near the end of the service in honor of Wilkerson, the outgoing pastor, as he attends his final Sunday before moving to work with a Phoenix church. The video (at the 1:07:24 mark) then features the moment shown in the misleading social media clip, showing parishioners singing "Hallelujah" and raising their hands to bid farewell to Wilkerson, who was wearing a rainbow lei for his departure. For further reading, we previously investigated another church video allegedly showing actors pretending to fatally shoot a man with children looking on.