GREENSBORO, N.C. — Imagine sitting in your living room watching your Sunday morning church service.
Suddenly sexual photos and racial slurs appear on your screen.
It happened during a Greensboro church's service.
Every Sunday since March about 400 Sharpe Road Church of Christ members log on to zoom for Sunday service.
Set up so they could worship together, like they had before the pandemic.
With praise and worship, and the word, but this Sunday was much different.
“There was a picture that was posted of a woman in a compromised position with an animal behind her," said Dr. Nicholas Glenn, a minister at the church.
Members said the posts in the chat called members a racial slur, said their lives don't matter and told them to go pick cotton.
“Initially I was extremely angry,” Darien Norman, a church member said.
Norman was watching the service with his wife and 13-year-old daughter.
“It was wrong for them to do what they did and disrupt a service they’re not even apart of,” Norman said.
“Only thing we could do was apologize for what happened,” Glenn said. “It was just sad that people would take the opportunity to disrupt that sacred time with the Lord and our church family.”
Dr. Glenn was streaming the service.
He said the messages came in back-to-back for a few minutes from several usernames before he was able to remove them from the chat.
“Everyone’s saddened that in 2020 we would be going backward instead of forward and that’s the way it feels right now,” Dr. Glenn said.
Dr. Glenn has this message for the hackers.
“I would tell them that we forgive them, we love them, we harbor no hatred and we want to be respected loved and treated fairly,” Dr. Glenn said.
A report has been filed with both zoom and the sheriff's department.
The congregation isn't sure if they'll continue with zoom services, and are looking at ways to keep this from happening again.
OTHER STORIES: