Munger, who had been fighting body image issues herself, told the woman exactly what she thought about it.
A church elder followed a teenage girl to the bathroom to fat-shame her for wearing shorts.
Jenna Munger, 19, is a regular at Swansboro United Methodist Church and a member of the choir. When Munger went to the bathroom, an elderly woman followed her to try to shame her by telling her she was too fat to be wearing shorts. The woman was identified as Bonnie Bihary via a letter, reported JD News. If Bihary thought she could get away with it, she was mistaken. Not only did Munger stand her ground, she told Bihary to "get the f*ck out of my face" and recorded the elderly woman trying to moral police her. The video that was first posted online in 2019 resurfaced this week, highlighting the issues of moral policing and fat-shaming.
"She had gotten up from her seat in the audience," Munger told Inside Edition. The incident happened during church. The elderly woman told she was a "chubby girl" to be wearing shorts and Munger responded, "So you’re sitting here calling me fat?” In the video, the elderly woman can be heard condescendingly asking, "You don't think you are?" Munger fired back, “No, because I f****** love who I am.”
Munger asks the woman to back off, but she doesn't. "Don't come back on that stage with those shorts. I'm warning you," she threatened the teenager. Munger was already struggling with her weight and was upset at being targeted. The elderly woman told her to lower her voice. Munger responded by telling her "to get the f*ck out of my face." As the elderly woman exited the bathroom, Munger held up her phone and revealed to her that she filmed the entire episode.
The senior pastor of Munger's church said the elderly woman didn't represent the Church's message, adding in a statement, "We are shocked and saddened by this act. The church is supposed to be a place of safety, love, and acceptance." The elderly woman voluntarily resigned as the lay delegate to the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church and agreed to step down from any committee leadership roles she has volunteered for within the church. Munger said she had received a letter of apology from Bihary but didn't meet her. Munger urged others to not direct their hate toward the elderly woman. “I want everyone to understand I do not hate her, I do not hate that woman and I could never hate her because that’s not what God told us to do,” she said.
Munger also opened up about her struggles with her body image and acceptance. She said she had recently lost more than 30 pounds after struggling with depression, ADD, and a thyroid condition. "I was having a bad time at college, I gained a lot of weight," said Munger, who added that the woman had previously complained about her wearing shorts. "I have always struggled with my weight for the entire time I've been alive, it's always been up and down, up and down, and so hearing that from someone who is either the same weight or even a little bit bigger than me looking at me and saying you're fat ... it's like, what?"
She also had a message for others struggling to come to terms with their body image. "I wanted others to know they are not alone," said Munger. "Other people are experiencing the same thing and you can't let it shake your faith."
References:
https://www.jdnews.com/story/lifestyle/faith/2019/07/03/swansboro-church-addresses-body-shaming-video/984720007/
https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/tzd0sf/church_leader_follows_a_teen_girl_into_a_bathroom/
https://www.insideedition.com/north-carolina-teen-says-she-was-fat-shamed-wearing-shorts-church-54242
Cover Image source: YouTube/Inside Edition
