The post from a group called Cross Brand Ministries showed up as a black box with the warning "Sensitive Content: This photo may show violent or graphic content." Users who clicked through braced themselves to see a cowboy on horseback carrying a calf to safety with 1 Peter 1:32 spelled out over the picture:
"For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps."
When Cross Brand's Brad Pryor reposted the censored image, it went viral.
"I don't know if it was a bot, a particular person, or just one of their algorithms," he tells AFN. "I don't know how that all works, but I shared that one year and one day old post, and then before I knew it, that censored post had reached over 8 million people."
The ministry's Facebook page exploded as well.
"I went from 6,680-something page likes, and in a 24-hour period, we [were] well over 11,500 page likes," he relays.
That figure continues to rise and is currently at 14,294.
In 2011, Brad and his wife, Wendy, who are farmers in real life, began sharing meals and Bible study with the rodeo team at Western Oklahoma State College. Since then, their Tuesday night meet-up has hosted kids from almost every state in the union.
Pryor is still unsure why the post was censored, but he is not complaining.
"That particular verse has now reached, last I looked, almost 12 million people," he tells AFN. "If we can sprinkle a little bit of salt and light here and there, and it happens to come across 12 million people's Facebook feed, I don't see how that could be a bad thing."
Facebook has since lifted the "sensitive content" warning from the post.
