Two Fayetteville churches targeted with hate incidents, bomb threats & racist graffiti

Two Black churches in Fayetteville have been the targets of hate-related incidents during the past week.

One was sprayed with graffiti so vulgar that WRAL News had to blur out almost all of it. The other church was subjected to a bomb threat just before service was about to begin.

Cordelia Challenger, pastor at Greater Unity Tabernacle Christian for ther past 24 years, has some very serious security concerns.

On Thursday she received a call from a church member who told her someone had sprayed graffiti outside on the church wall:

The word Hamas. The letters KKK. The N-word.

"This is an attack on the body of Christ," she said. "Whoever did this didn't care that we're right across the street from the Cumberland County Detention Center."

She said she believes the messaging was about Israel and Hamas.

"We have to pray," she said.

A second incident involving a Black church in Fayetteville happened Sunday morning. A bomb threat was called in to Simon Temple AME Zion Church on Yadkin Road. Bomb sniffing dogs from the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office didn't find anything. The Pastor didn't want talk about the incident. He says his church is ready to move on.

Challenger says if she could look into the eyes of the person who spray-painted the church, she'd have a message.

"Jesus loves you. God loves you. And I have to love you," she said.

Police still don't have a suspect. Anyone with information is asked to call Fayetteville police.

WRAL News has been told officers from the Fayetteville Police Department and Cumberland County Sheriff's Office will be paying extra attention to all churches in the area.