Black church’s virtual service hacked with racist threats, North Carolina pastor says

A group of hackers interrupted a church’s virtual service in North Carolina over the weekend with racist language and porn, according to the pastor and local media reports.

The church, Sharpe Road Church of Christ in Greensboro, is predominantly Black.

“It’s difficult, and it’s discouraging that we’re at a place like this in 2020,” Pastor Nicholas Glenn told The Christian Chronicle. “During these times, we need to be positive, and we need to be unifying. It’s just real discouraging that we have to deal with this type of hatred.”

Glenn said four or five unknown people logged into the Sept. 27 service on Zoom — the code was shared on the church’s Facebook page — and began posting “hate speech” and “derogatory” messages in the chat box, according to the newspaper.

They also shared pornographic pictures “that would play on top of the actual worship service broadcast,” he said.

Glenn reported the incident to the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office, The Greensboro News & Record reported. Spokesperson Lori Poag told the newspaper the case was “turned over to an internet crimes detective.”

A representative from Zoom called the incident “truly devastating and appalling” in a statement to the News & Record.

The company has since traced the accounts and removed them from the platform, Glenn told the newspaper. Their identities, however, were not released.

“They made death threats,” he said, according to the News & Record. “We want to know who these people are, but we have no indication who they are yet, and why they picked us. It was just a horrific experience and we don’t want anybody to go through this.”

Sharpe Road Church of Christ has been holding services virtually since March, when the coronavirus pandemic forced houses of worship to close, WFMY reported. About 400 people typically attend.

According to the church’s Facebook page, those services are streamed on Facebook Live and Zoom.

Glenn told The Christian Chronicle the broadcast is split in different feeds for the two platforms, meaning the entire congregation didn’t see Sunday’s disturbance.

“But more than 100 members were watching on Zoom,” the Chronicle reported.

Photos of the stream during the hack have been shared on Facebook by a parishioner. The messages posted included “MAGA 2020,” “White Lives Matter” and frequent uses of the n-word.

The zoombombers also repeatedly told congregants to “get off church and go pick your cotton.”

Glenn told Fox 8 his wife noticed the messages first and asked him to stop the broadcast. After pausing the service to remove the hackers, “church picked back up where it left off,” the TV station reported.

In a Facebook post Tuesday, Sharpe Road Church of Christ called it an “act of hatred” but said “we are not discouraged from our work in the kingdom.”

“We got the memo a long time ago. You hate us. You think you’re better. You don’t want us here,” Glenn said in a Facebook post on his personal page, The Christian Chronicle reported. “I want you to get our memo. We love you despite your hatred towards us. You’re not better…. You’re equal. The same God that made you and called you good, is the same God who created me and called me good. FYI, we aren’t going anywhere.”