Brut America
  • 3 years ago
"We call ourselves "church nerds."

Welcome to NunTok, where nuns hop on the latest TikTok trends to evangelize people on the app ...
Transcript
00:00Somebody once told me Tiktok would control me
00:05This bish is my recital
00:07My bestie and your bestie sit down by the fire
00:33People either see us as these psychotic, abusive people
00:37or they see us as these cardboard cutout saints
00:41and there's nothing in between
00:43and what I think we would like to convey through social media
00:47is that we're just people, just like anybody else
00:49Nontalk in particular is showing people how quirky and nerdy and funny nuns are
01:09because that's the sort of demographic that likes to enter a convent
01:14we call ourselves church nerds
01:16and I think nerds are popular on Tiktok because it's a very authentic platform
01:20I never in my whole life thought that I would be doing a hair tutorial on Tiktok
01:25We have jobs, we have ministries out there in the world
01:28we have cell phones, we have computers
01:32we interact quite a bit with the outside world
01:35because in our community we say we pray with the newspaper in one hand
01:39and the Bible in the other hand
01:40because we want to meet the needs of the actual world out there
01:45and to also remind people that we exist
01:49I got a pullover for the first time
01:53my first ticket
02:15A lot of us have been on social media for a while
02:18and we've gotten pretty savvy as to the language and the customs of social media
02:24at first social media was not acceptable for nuns and monks and friars
02:28we were told the whole time that we're supposed to live a hidden life
02:32that's part of the vows, is that you have a hidden life in Jesus
02:35but then the Roman Catholic brothers and sisters very early on started using social media
02:41and they became really savvy and started having fun with it
02:45I think that was what was missing from our public image
02:48was the sense of fun, the joy that we have in our life
03:07I got on Tiktok because one of my friends who used to be
03:10I used to work in advertising
03:12and one of my co-workers kept texting me and saying
03:16are you on Tiktok yet?
03:18and I was saying what is Tiktok?
03:19like I didn't understand it
03:21I started watching the videos
03:22I started realizing there is a lot of really helpful information on there
03:27and I thought well maybe people might want to know about the religious life
03:32because people are always asking me questions
03:34much to my surprise people who are agnostic, who are atheists
03:38people who are sort of struggling with organized religion
03:42really responded to those as well
03:44I couldn't believe the Gregorian chant video got one and a half million views
03:49I never thought anybody except church nerds would be interested in Gregorian chant
03:54but people are curious
03:56they're very curious because we've had a hidden life for so long
04:00and the stream of questions is just endless now
04:07women kept direct messaging me asking me
04:12how in the world are you 55 years old because your skin looks so great
04:16nobody in my life has ever said anything about my skin or my looks or anything
04:20and I thought should I address this?
04:22a bunch of really nice ladies have left comments on here
04:25saying that they think I look a lot younger than I am
04:28and I just want to say thank you
04:29so I made a video about the fact that I really don't have a skincare routine
04:34I just don't go out in the sun
04:35I haven't drank alcohol since I was in my early 20s
04:38and I don't eat sugar
04:40you know things like that
04:41the other thing is I used to work in the photography business
04:44so whenever I shoot these videos I shoot them in really good lighting
04:47that's why I usually stand here
04:49and in low lighting because low lighting is a girl's best friend
04:53trust me on that
05:06denominations like mine that are really inclusive of LGBTQ plus people
05:12it's always been one of my main ministries
05:15is to help people who've been traumatized by organized religion
05:19and particularly LGBTQ plus people who have been told that God doesn't love them
05:29we have always historically operated sort of under the radar of the church
05:34and I think that nuns in particular have been pretty quiet in the media
05:39pretty quiet in the the whole church debate area
05:44so it's nice to have a voice where we can speak directly to people