Former UFC strawweight champion Rose Namajunas went public with a detailed account of her reasons for stepping away from Kayla Gabbard Ministries, citing a series of troubling incidents that accumulated over time and ultimately led her to speak out.
Namajunas opened by acknowledging her role in the ministry’s growth, explaining that she had been the catalyst for its baptism work.
She stated: “Her baptism ministry basically kicked off after I was kind of the catalyst, which is why I kind of feel responsible to bring this up and give you guys this information about my experience with her.”
Among her earliest concerns was Gabbard’s response when Namajunas encouraged her to rest before an event, comparing the situation to the biblical story of Elijah. Gabbard responded by invoking Jesus’s rebuke of Peter, which Namajunas took as a personal insult.
“Wait, are you calling me Satan?” She said the moment was later resolved through apologies on both sides.
Namajunas also raised concerns about how Gabbard handled a new member of the ministry group who expressed self-doubt and asked for prayer. Rather than offering support, Gabbard removed the woman from the inner circle, calling her behavior a “spirit of manipulation.”
Namajunas disagreed: “I don’t see what’s wrong with asking for prayers.”
She took particular issue with how Gabbard framed baptism testimonials, pointing to a video of a man with Parkinson’s disease that was labeled a miraculous healing.
She said, “To advertise it as miraculous healing when if he could physically walk before that and then he gets carried in and walks out, it’s a little different than somebody being paralyzed from head to toe.”
She described this pattern as sensationalizing, and noted another video where a man floating in the water was described as levitating. “He was just floating in the water but they were holding him,” she noted.
When Namajunas brought all of these concerns to Gabbard directly, Gabbard asked whether she thought “the bad outweighs the good of her ministry.”
Namajunas pushed back firmly: “That’s the wrong question to be asking. That’s a Buddhist mentality as far as if you’re going to apply the yin and yang balancing the good and the bad to morality.”
Gabbard later came back saying she had fasted, prayed, and decided she would not publicly address any of the issues. Shortly after, accusations emerged involving a young man named Luke who had been living at Gabbard’s home after being baptized by her.
Namajunas said Gabbard’s apology video struck her as off. Rose note, “She starts off the apology by saying you have to forgive me otherwise you’re not a Christian.”
The apology also included a personal note to Namajunas comparing Gabbard’s situation to Jesus being abandoned at the crucifixion.
Namajunas responded plainly: “Not my Jesus. Not the Jesus that I know. I don’t think you’re experiencing that.”
She closed by urging her followers to use their own judgment. She stated, “I don’t want to be casting stones in the glass house. I’m not trying to bring nobody down, but I think this needs to be shared.”
