Video of UM church incident goes viral, causes fallout

Canceled worship services. Closed Face­book accounts. Extra security at churches.

That’s some of the fallout from a viral video showing a Hispanic woman being told to leave a United Methodist church that focuses on prison and addiction recovery ministry.

Staff and volunteers at Oklahoma City’s Penn Avenue Redemption United Methodist Church suspected that Ashley Ontiveros—a visitor whose sister is incarcerated in the Oklahoma Depart­ment of Corrections and attends worship there—was trying to bring in marijuana during a November 14 service. In the video, she tearfully denies it.