Popular TikTok star, Sister Cindy, has made her way to multiple college campuses to preach and encourage students to be a “Ho No Mo”. Her satirical demeanor and persona has allowed her to acquire a large following and create a business surrounded by her narrative. During her “Ho No Mo” tours Sister Cindy made her way to the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus; she managed to accumulate a slew of students to  listen to her hour-long preaching outside of Walter Library. Additionally, Sister Cindy is accompanied by her friend and her husband Brother Jed, who has also familiarize himself with campus ministry.

Between her bedazzled bibles and signature catchphrases Sister Cindy has managed to cement herself within popular culture. Sister Cindy made it clear that her primary goal is to insight controversy amongst her crowd; she is a very reactionary individual, and to no surprise the campus community did not take what she had to say seriously at all. With her common sayings such as: “Be careful of getting Titty Whipped” or “Be weary of the penis pounce”. Additionally, she made claims that the female students at U of M, are far too promiscuous and drink too much, which clearly did not go over too well with the student body.

From a marketing and business perspective, in-sighting such controversy and creating such a high demand for her attention was a smart ploy conducted by Sister Cindy. Sister Cindy also encouraged audience participation in her talks, by handing out buttons, shirts and bibles. Creating such a high demand ultimately led to her having a cult-esque following within the university. She was able to command the attention of her audience through these antics, unlike any other speaker that has come to the university, Sister Cindy, managed to have such a unique and polarizing effect on the student body. While there were students who wrote provocative signs trying to protest against her presence, a majority of students simple sat and watched in awe.

The crowd was left speechless, when she revealed that in her younger years, she too was a “hoe” and that it was solely through prayer she managed to remain in touch with religion. She talked about how living in Florida, she was quite promiscuous and was an alleged “sex addict”. Within her story, we learn that Brother Jeb was her savior, and it was he who helped her become a “Ho No Mo”. Jeb, was a legitimate campus minister who has preached across many college campuses, thus him working with Sister Cindy, in a less legitimate manner is quite interesting. The direct contrast between Sister Cindy and her husband, Brother Jeb, was quite comical, the quiet and older guy contrasted, by his louder more eccentric wife led for such an interesting performance.

 However, the irony lies in that, despite her coming to campus to preach, and engage in legitimate campus ministry, she rarely did talk about religion. The entirety of her spiel was centered around her brand and her story; it was more like a “Sister Cindy Show” rather than someone who was committed towards campus ministry coming to engage with our campus community. She embodied the idea that no publicity is bad publicity, choosing to film a TikTok in the middle of the event rather than actually tell inspiring stories of trying to discourage students from being too sexually active.

At one point during her speech, she and brother Jeb proceeded to give a brief sex ed talk, which seemed like an improvisation to simply fill time, many students made it clear that it made them uncomfortable and they were quite confused as to how this related to the topic at hand. At that point the discourse took a complete turn, the legitimacy and severity of the topics that were discussed lost all validity after the “sex-ed” conversation. They used extension cords as metaphors and imagery for what sex looks like, which to a bunch of college kids, felt condescending, particularly if the entirety of her event was to discourage college students from having as much sex. 

As someone who was front and center for a majority of the event, I was quite disappointed with the content, overall it did not feel like a good use of time. None of the content that I was anticipating on hearing, was actually presented; which again it truly did feel like I attended a “Sister Cindy Show” rather than a legitimate campus ministry.