In June 2023, a message spread on social networks that in the United States, a temple where an LGBT wedding ceremony was taking place was struck by lightning and, as a result of a fire, the building collapsed. We checked whether such publications are justified.

Roller with signatures like “In Boston, lightning struck a church after an LGBT “marriage”” began to gain popularity on the Russian-language Internet on June 6. On video lasting just over 20 seconds. All that is visible is the already burning and then collapsing building. Users sharing the post report that lightning struck the church either right during a same-sex marriage or immediately after, and some Facebook users called her “church of LGBT supporters.” In the Russian-language Telegram the story is also received some popularity - publications in several dozen relatively small channels received about 200,000 views and thousands of homophobic comments, which conveyed the idea of God's punishment of the LGBT community. A little earlier, this story spread to other languages, for example French And English.

In most cases, the video of the fire was published in poor quality, but in one version the Boston 25 News logo is visible. This channel, like other media outlets, covered a fire in a church in the town of Spencer near Boston in early June. On Friday, June 2, 2023, by message The Spencer Police Department caught fire at a Worcester County church building where a congregation of local Christians belonging to the First Congregational Church met. Fire extinguishing details can be seen in report by photographer Paul Shea, which was shared on the Spencer Fire Department's Facebook page.

Boston 25 News and USA Today citing experts, they claim that the fire actually occurred as a result of lightning striking the bell tower. This confirmed and Bruce Parsons, chief of the Spencer Fire Department, adding that no one was in the building at the time of the fire. Pastor Bruce MacLeod also reportedthat the church was empty on June 2. The building, built in 1772 and restored after a fire in 1862, was made of wood, a design feature that firefighters and the pastor himself cite as the main reason it burned down so quickly.

Regarding support for LGBT people, publications on the temple's Facebook page confirmthat the congregation is truly gay-friendly, as is the Congregational Church as a whole, welcoming members regardless of their sexual orientation or gender. Same-sex marriage in Massachusetts allowed, but information about the conclusion of such unions in Spencer’s church could not be found either on the day of the fire or earlier. Judging by the temple's Facebook page and its operating schedule, available on web archive, on that day no wedding could take place in the church at all: on Fridays, services are generally not held, and the parish office is closed.

Thus, the First Congregational Church in Spencer (not Boston) was indeed destroyed by lightning on June 2, 2023. However, no one died in the fire, and there were no weddings (neither same-sex nor opposite-sex) or any other services held at the temple that day - Spencer police and firefighters confirm that the church was empty.

Cover photo: Spencer Police Department