
Palo Alto pastor resigns after tweets about city: 'An elitist shit den of hate' - spking
https://m.sfgate.com/local/article/palo-alto-pastor-tweets-gregory-stevens-baptist-12928428.php
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a-dub
It's actually a pretty fascinating read...

[https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civicax/filebank/documents/65...](https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civicax/filebank/documents/65063)

Apparently some NIMBYs in Palo Alto got upset because there are too many
cars/buses picking up/dropping off kids to sing at a church or something, so
it's gone to a fight with the city council.

The complainants appear to be of the trophy-wife variety with lots of
resources and time on their hands, so they did some digging around on the
Internet. Amazingly, one of the NIMBYs discovered that one of the young
pastors at the church appears to be (a: homosexual, b: completely disgruntled
and c: vocal on twitter).

Since the army of trophy wives aren't particularly bright, they add this to
their complaint packet which ends up in public record, of course the press
picks up on it because some of the tweets are funny and in effect the whole
thing will likely cause more damage to their home values by highlighting to
the world what an "elitist shit den of hate" Palo Alto is than any busloads
full of kids in the afternoons ever could...

~~~
ac29
Another choice bit: one of them wants to stop "mental health professionals"
from using the church (presumably to provide services to the community),
because its allegedly a zoning violation. How petty is that?

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api
His frustration is justified. He's calling out the massive hypocrisy of
claiming to be liberal and about "social justice" while doing everything
possible to exclude people from housing even to the point of forbidding a
church from housing people.

This is a problem across the state. Here in SoCal they talk about wanting to
be a sanctuary city/state while also opposing any new construction or any
other measure to address housing. I suppose all these sanctuary seekers will
live up unicorn butts. I don't have a problem with immigrants but we must
build housing to meet demand.

~~~
whatyoucantsay
I think there are two issues they have, one of which I agree with:

1) We should support and rely upon state assistance, not charity.

2) Religious organizations present an inherent level of risk, have a special
tax status and must be constrained.

~~~
api
These are valid points in isolation, but they ignore the meta problem which is
that policies backed by communities all over California have created an
unprecedented housing affordability crisis. Without this crisis this just
wouldn't be happening at all.

I think it is deeply and systematically hypocritical to claim to be "liberal"
and for "social justice" while supporting a restriction of housing
availability that amounts to stealth red-lining.

~~~
whatyoucantsay
I agree. Many who don the mantle of being "liberal" are anything but.

A small percentage of people have genuine ideological commitments, but most
are driven by self-interest.

------
nailer
> Stevens said. "If the same energies used to organize neighbors around minor
> parking issues, young girls choirs, and 'nasty tweets' were honed to fight
> actual injustices, Palo Alto would be a very different city. Palo Alto needs
> more action, less lip service."

That seems accurate.

~~~
jessaustin
Probably so, but fellow pastors should have counseled him that if he spent as
much energy at prayer as he did tweeting at "a small group of progressive
ministers and Leftist political activists to whom my rants were geared" (haha
wut? that's not how online works) he would never have had these difficulties.

~~~
zeth___
Calling 'Christians' out for being hypocrites is a thing that all good clergy
has done since before there were Christians.

~~~
jessaustin
Yeah that would have been great if he had communicated that to his
congregation directly. Instead he was badmouthing them to his buddies. Except
he was doing it online, where it was guaranteed to bite him in the ass
eventually.

Apparently HN isn't big on the power of prayer, but even if it doesn't change
the universe it can still improve our thinking. All of this is obvious with
even a little reflection.

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jjtheblunt
Yeah, god forbid a pastor speak some truth.

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humanrebar
Why is this news? I guess I'm not seeing what's interesting about the story.

The broader discussion about culture and justice is interesting. A associate
community organizer (it sounds like that's the kind of pastoring he's into)
putting his foot in his mouth? Not as much.

~~~
zasz
My guess would be because Palo Alto's right next to Stanford and an important
part of Silicon Valley, esp since Palantir HQ is in Palo Alto.

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zizek23
There is a bug in human beings, and this is universal. Our expectations from
the rest of society and others on ethical and moral issues are gigantic but we
just can't give.

We 'empathize', we relate, we cry about suffering in the movies and in the
arts, we root for the victimized, but on a day to day basis it all breaks down
and we simply do not want to make any sacrifice to make a more humane society
come true.

The worse we become the more shrill and desperate our posturing, to try to
convince others, but maybe ourselves.

------
gaius
It’s a shame he allowed his language to overshadow the truths he spake. He
left himself open to the “think of the children” gambit.

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himom
Everything he said was true. Residents love having a few extremely desperate,
homeless people living in old vans around to look down upon, sneer at and
change sides of the street while walking on the sidewalk. It’s not like any of
the residents would ever talk to, much less ever help, anyone whom were on the
street... that would require actual interaction with the “little” people. If
anything, residents would find passive-aggressive ways to harass the homeless
like leave them cleaning supplies, bags or soap. Oh and gotta love the
teenagers and elderly of Palo Alto whom feel entitled to directly harass the
homeless people at all hours of the day or night... because after all, what
would the police do? Nothing but arrest the homeless for being poor.

PS: I’m curious what Chuck Jagoda will say about this.

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grizzles
Imagine how pissed he'd be if he lived in Birmingham:
[https://twitter.com/WoodfinForBham/status/996412005199249408](https://twitter.com/WoodfinForBham/status/996412005199249408)

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RickJWagner
"Palo Alto is a ghetto of wealth, power, and elitist liberalism by proxy,
meaning that many community members claim to want to fight for social justice
issues, but that desire doesn't translate into action,"

Seems like a smaller version of the brand of liberalism that emanates from
Hollywood / media world.

