Church website is now gay porn

Posted by Johnny at 12:03 p.m.

Muahahahaha. This is what happens when you forget to renew your domain name. (From here.)

DOVER -- Hope Community Church is trying to spread the word about its new Web site and disavow its former domain name.

Because of an error, a pornography company bought the church's old domain name unbeknownst to the church. The church's new Web site is www.hopeacc.org.

Pastor Steve Spearing said Friday the mix-up happened a few weeks ago when the church changed Internet service providers. Spearing said he believed the church could keep its Web site name, which contained the words "life" and "Christ."

But the old service provider put the address up for sale and it was bought by a pornographic Web site.

Spearing said he didn't realize the site had been sold until he got a call from a Massachusetts woman who was interested in moving to the area and was doing research on the Internet about local churches.

"She asked what kind of a church we were and then she said, 'Do you know that your Web site is connected to a porn site,' and I said 'No, ma'am,'" Spearing said.

He said he was aghast, especially because the church had just handed out fliers with the old Web site name at Dover's Apple Harvest Day.

The church has spent the last few weeks trying to figure out how this happened, he said, and recently received a letter from the Internet service provider admitting it made a mistake by selling the domain name.

"They said we could buy it back, but we don't want it back," Spearing said.

He said the Internet company told him pornographic sites often like to buy Web addresses once used by churches.

"They will target ministries as an embarrassment, and they did a good job," he said.

Although the Internet snafu was troubling, Spearing was able to have some sense of humor about it.

"It will be interesting to see who shows up to church now," he said.

If anyone is interested in the old web address it is http://www.life-in-christ.net. I'm not posting that as a link because I just know that someone (Reid) will fail to read the article and click the link without thinking while his parents are in the room.