This week, Melissa McCarthy and the team behind her upcoming HBO Max movie Superintelligence announced a new "20 Days of Kindness" campaign. They're giving $20,000 to 20 different charities, and encouraging fans to donate as well.
One of the charities on Melissa's list was Exodus Cry, a Christian organization that bills itself as an anti-sex-trafficking group. But as the Daily Beast reported, the group is actually trying to end all sex work, even from consenting adults — and the organization's founder has described abortion as a "holocaust" and said that homosexuality is “an unspeakable offense to God." The charity also has links to a pastor who once described Hitler as a "hunter" that God sent because Jews did not accept "grace."
So basically, not a charity Melissa McCarthy should be promoting. And after being called out by the Daily Beast and several people on social media, she just responded in a video on Instagram.
"Hi there. It has come to our attention that our 20 Days of Kindness, which is a kindness hub that we started to shine a light on 20 great charities, had one in there that…there's no other way to say it, we blew it."
"We made a mistake and we backed a charity that, upon proper vetting, stands for everything that we do not."
Melissa took a moment to thank everyone who called out her mistake:
So I want to thank everyone on social who said, "What are you doing? Are you sure you want to back this?" Because the answer is no, we do not. We have pulled it. We are so incredibly grateful for you ringing the bell and helping us be better. We're sorry for our mistake. Oh boy, are we sorry for it. Can't believe that we missed it.