The Hope Community Church recently changed Internet service providers and changed its web address. An adult entertainment company purchased the discarded domain through an auction, without the church’s knowledge.
Spearing received the news from a woman who was moving to the area and doing research on local churches. He was especially disturbed because the church had passed out fliers with the old website url as Dover’s Apple Harvest Day.
“She asked what kind of a church we were and then she said, ‘Do you know that your website is connected to a porn site,’ and I said, ‘No, ma’am,’” Spearing told the Associated Press.
Spearing declined an offer to buy back the old domain name when offered by the ISP.
“[Adult webmasters] will target ministries as an embarrassment, and they did a good job,” Spearling said. “It will be interesting to see who shows up to church now.”