Roy Moore sparked 'a firestorm' when he showed up unexpectedly at a Birmingham church

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Charlene Cannon said she was having a good time at church this weekend until an unexpected guest made an appearance.

"I was enjoying the service. The choir was singing. And then the bishop said he had a special guest and he introduced Roy Moore," she told As It Happens guest host Jim Brown. "And I was looking around like, what?"

Moore, the Republican Senate candidate who stands accused of sexually assaulting several teenage girls when he was in his 30s, took to the stage at the Guiding Light Church to read a Christmas poem.

"He recited the poem and I was trying to find a way to get out of there right then," Cannon said. 

"I made eye contact with several of the women. They were kind of, as we call it, giving him the side-eye. Some were looking away."

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Moore has repeatedly denied the stories of five women who told The Washington Post last month that he pursued them when they were teenagers. One woman said he touched her sexually when she was 14.

Four more women have since come forward to say he made unwanted sexual advances against them.

"Nine women coming forward? As I always say, where there's smoke there's fire. And you not answering these allegations, there's a problem there," Cannon said.

Many national Republicans have called on Moore to step aside in the wake of multiple sexual assault and harassment allegations.

But on Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump formally endorsed Moore in the Alabama Senate race.

Moore's appearance at the historically African American church also comes after years of suggesting, without evidence, that former president Barack Obama was not born in the U.S. — a conspiracy theory known as the "birther" movement.

Social media 'firestorm'

Cannon was so incensed at Moore's appearance at her church, she went home and posted a picture of the Republican candidate on Facebook with the caption: "I was enjoying the service until...."

"It started a firestorm," she said.

The post has since been deleted, but according to AL.com, it garnered more than 100 comments, including Birmingham City Councilman Hunter Williams, who wrote, "I'm so glad I didn't go. Disgusting," and Alabama representative Rolanda M. Hollis, who wrote "Me too."

The controversy prompted Guiding Light Bishop Jim Lowe to issue the following statement:

"We have a standing invitation to all people, and that includes politicians. If they're a sitting politician, I will give them an opportunity to speak. If they're a candidate I'll give them a few seconds to let people know who they are and what they're running for.

"Roy Moore asked to come worship with us, but not campaign, so I gave him a few moments to speak."

'He's being crucified'

While Moore abided by the rules not to talk politics during the service, Lowe made supportive comments about the politician's stance against same-sex marriage and the 2003 battle to keep a granite Ten Commandments monument outside the Alabama Judicial Building — a move that saw him removed from the bench for judicial misconduct.

"The law said he should remove them," Lowe said.

"He said, 'No, this is the word of God.' He wouldn't support same-sex marriage. The law says support it. He said, 'But the law of God is supreme.' He's on a cross. He's being crucified for that now."

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Cannon, meanwhile, said she's still processing the whole thing.

"I still don't know what to think," she said. "I'm still disappointed he came to the church."

She has long been a volunteer for the Democratic Party, but says her outrage is non-partisan. 

"I have a daughter and if my daughter came home and said something like that I'm going to listen to her."

— With files from Associated Press