Hacker yelling racial slurs disrupts Easter service on Zoom, California pastor says

A California church’s Easter Sunday service was disrupted when a hacker began yelling racial slurs.

Grace Baptist Church in San Jose was livestreaming its Easter service over Zoom when a man began shouting racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic slurs during the event — the church’s first outdoor service during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Today was Easter and Grace Baptist Church is probably just about the most Progressive Baptist church in San Jose. So to subject my members to this, several of them African-American, many of them Senior Citizens worshipping safely from home, during our first outdoor service, is outrageous and egregious,” Rev. George Oliver said in a Facebook post.

Oliver began his role as senior pastor on March 1 and told KGO that the hacker’s five-minute rant “had a purpose.”

“This church hires a gay, Black pastor... They come and spew profanity about Black people and LGBTQ persons,” Oliver said. “And on the last day of Passover, talk about gassing Jews? So, I don’t think this is some kind of coincidence.”

“To have someone come in and say the n-word more than 40 times, in five minutes is something that’s just... It’s beyond belief,” he continued, according to KGO. “And in some ways, I don’t believe it.”

Oliver, who said he is filing a police report, has called on Zoom to ban the people who hacked the service, NBC Bay Area reported.

Zoom said in a statement that it “takes disruptions seriously” and “works closely with law enforcement” when appropriate, according to the TV station.

Barbara Taft said she heard the rant over Zoom, KTVU reported.

“It was upsetting,” Taft said. “I’m old enough to have seen and heard about everything in my life. I felt sorry these young people had this kind of an attitude.”

This story was originally published April 7, 2021 at 11:37 AM with the headline "Hacker yelling racial slurs disrupts Easter service on Zoom, California pastor says."