#USA #TX #CedarHill – Pastor Jonathan Shelley of Stedfast Baptist Church led children in a Bible drill on October 11, 2026, during a service focused on the Ten Commandments, with winners rewarded by smashing small statues of the Virgin Mary and angelic figures on the stage.
In video footage from the independent fundamentalist King James Only Baptist church, Shelley stood near the pulpit holding a plastic bag of the objects. After a child recited a verse, he directed the youngster to take a swing at a statue while referencing the Second Commandment’s prohibition on graven images. He then offered options to another participant, stating, “We got a Mary, for all the Catholics,” before the child struck the figure. Additional statues, described by the pastor as angelic or “demon” forms, were also destroyed during the activity. Audience members, including other children, watched from the pews as the smashing continued.
The church, located at 332 Texas Street in Cedar Hill in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, described itself on its website as an old-fashioned congregation committed to soul-winning and the King James Bible as the preserved Word of God. Shelley had served as pastor since 2019 after earlier work with Faithful Word Baptist Church. The congregation had drawn previous attention for its strongly anti-homosexuality preaching, which led to protests, lease disputes, and designation as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The October 11 service was titled “The Ten Commandments,” according to the church’s posted sermons. Shelley framed the statue-smashing as consistent with biblical opposition to idolatry. Footage circulated online prompted widespread discussion and criticism. Both Catholic and Protestant commentators described the event as an inappropriate desecration involving children and an attack on a figure they venerate. Catholics specifically called the exercise an attack and grave disrespect against the Mother of Jesus. Evangelicals defended the act as a literal obedience to the Second Commandment.
Stedfast Baptist Church continued its regular schedule of services and outreach activities in the days following the event. No official statement from the church responding to the online circulation of the video and criticism was immediately available.
Cover Image: A still image from the video that is circulating online depicts a child raising a hammer to a statue of the Virgin Mary, beloved mother of Jesus Christ.
