A church in Salem, Massachusetts, was victimized by racist "zoom-bombers" during Mass a few weeks ago. Authorities said that multiple people joined the online service, which was being hosted on Zoom by the Tabernacle Congregational Church, and began sharing videos of a burning cross. Others who joined the meeting took over the audio and started blasting music with racist and offensive lyrics.
The Salem Police Department and the FBI are investigating the incident as a hate crime.
Reverend Joe Amico told the Christian Post that while he wanted to keep the services open to the public, the church decided they will only send the link to members of the congregation going forward.
"We have removed links for our services from social media and only give the links to our email list. We feel badly because we had been having visitors join our worship. Now folks have to contact us for the link and be vetted by how they know us," he said.
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