First Baptist Pastor says Silicon Valley is a shithole of elitist scum
Hates Palo Alto!
City Council in an UPROAR!
Will Powers Tue. May 15, 2018
After four hours of debate and hearing testimony from the community on a single issue, whether or not to grant First Baptist Church a permit to operate as a community center, when the neighbors found the noise levels, that went on after 9 p.m. intolerable, Palo Alto City Council decided to extend the deadline for renewal out five years late Monday night.
First Baptist church at 305 N. California Ave. rents rooms to nonprofits, including a dance group, leading to complaints by the neighbors about loud noises and insufficient parking. The New Mozart School of Music had to move its operations out of First Baptist due to all the complaints and violations in their terms of agreement. After 50 testimonials from the public, addressing the loud noise and describing it as “torture” and effectively denying them a "peaceful sanctuary,” First Baptist Rev. Rick Mixon addressed the council on the issues and defended the church, saying he tried to get approval from council for additional parking and was declined the permit. However, this time the church permit was approved on the condition the facility is closed by 7:30 p.m.
At the center of the controversy are inflammatory tweets by the divisive assistant reverend Gregory Stevens, putting the church and Rev. Mixon on the hot seat. City councilwoman, Karen Holman was particularly appalled by what she regarded as defamatory comments and not something she “would expect to come out of a minister’s mouth or a minister’s fingertips.” (1)
Mixon tried to explain the derogatory tweets by saying, Stevens told him the tweets weren’t meant to be public, garnering a laugh from the audience. The question remains, if Stevens’s expressions of discontent with Palo Alto were meant to be private then why did he use a public social media forum like Twitter?
Holman wanted to know what the church was going to do about Stevens, and what the reverend personally thought of the salacious material.
Mixon said he had just learned of the tweets on Monday morning and that he had to go before church council to discuss it before reaching a decision, however he personally found Stevens tweets appalling. This was after he tried to explain how he has known the young reverend for some time.
According to Stevens Linkedin account, he has been Pastor of Faith Formation and Family Life since Sep. 2015 and he was Associate Pastor at the Mission Hills Christian Church. (2)
Councilwoman Holman found it particularly troubling that Stevens should be allowed near children and that a man that displays such poor judgement should be put in charge of a family life organization.
A Florida native and a graduate of the University of South Florida, Stevens received a Master of Divinity degree from Claremont School of Theology in southern California in May 2015. On the Palo Alto First Baptist church website, Stevens is praised for his “vision, hard work, and ability to relate to people…” (3)
The Twitter account has since been deleted, however the tweets are forever preserved on Palo Alto’s own website.
His user-name was “hellogregory’ and he believes “Palo Alto is an elitist shit den of hate.” (4)
And on April 6, he wrote: “in the nicest way possible: I hate palo alto” (5)
If he finds Palo Alto so “disgusting”, then it is true irony, because most of Palo Alto finds his scatological references also disgusting.
Gregory Stevens @hellogregory 3/14/18
Stood in line behind two people who pooped. I just wanted a quick pee. Now I
want to die. (6)
And what does he hate about Palo Alto? Well, let him count the ways. He hates the police. He hates the “police in general” and he hates “the violence of the police state.” Whether he means the state of California or the United States, I’m not sure. (7)
And most of all, he hates “‘social justice’” in Palo Alto. What a fucking joke.” (8)
On March 15, hellogregory tweeted, “Church Ordaining bobies (sic) want queer, anarchist, revolutionaries to join their (white supremacist, heteronormative, elitist-moralities) institutions.
The man has a large vocabulary, and this author noticed he likes to use big words, or should I say big pretentious words, like, “balls”. Yes, he liked the word so much, he repeated it three times: “balls on balls on balls”. (9)
However, it is clear from Stevens March 20 post that the man is beset with personal problems. You almost feel sorry for him when he tweets, “I can’t even get 3 people around a table of free food to talk about compost as a metaphor for social/personal change.” (10)
As Mrs. Rooney refuses a ride on Christy’s manure cart to meet her husband at the railroad station, Mrs, Rooney asks, “Why do you not climb up on the crest of your manure and let yourself be carried along? Is it that you have no head for heights?” (11)
However, you have to ask yourself, if old people are falling asleep during his sermons, can you really blame them? (12)
In our church council meeting the old people always fall asleep. Always.
ALWAYS.FALL ASLEEP.
The thing I remember the most about Gregory, from meeting with him in a group with four girls and myself, was how he liked talking on at length, with long complicated explanations, using words like, “theoretical elaboration” to further expound upon the “symbiosis” between divergent groups of people. A tedious argument to lead you to an overwhelming question.
From my encounter with him at the Prolific Oven on Waverly Street, downtown Palo Alto on April 20, 2017 at 7:00 p.m. at his Armed Resistance and Pacifism Meetup, I was impressed with how he used large words to little or no effect.
Furthermore, I believe he was consumed by white guilt. He spoke bitterly of how the capitalist war mongers massacred the native population and drove them from their land, propagating socialist ideas, hating his own white skin.
I think he was on the right track in an interview with him you can find on YouTube, when he said, “I really need to figure out how to love my neighbor,” before anything else, such as the metaphysical relationship of historical concepts and philosophies. (13)
It is interesting that he identifies himself with the poor and the hungry, the homeless, that these people are “his tribe” and he claims that he wants to help these people because God has told him to do it. (14)
He may have to put his socialist principals to the test if he looses his pastorship and joins the ranks of the poor and unemployed. Then we will see if he is so disparaging of capitalist doctrine.
REFERENCE:
1. https://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2018/05/15/first-baptist-church-wins-councils-blessing
2. https://www.linkedin.com/in/hellogregory/
3. http://www.fbcpaloalto.com/about.html
4. NOTE: hellogregory - 3/31/18 Palo Alto is an elitist shit den of hate. https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civicax/filebank/documents/65063
5. NOTE: 4/6/18
in the nicest way possible: I hate palo alto
Ibid.
6. NOTE: 3/31/18
Palo Alto is disgusting.
Ibid.
Gregory Stevens @hellogregory 3/14/18
Stood in line behind two people who pooped. I just wanted a quick pee. Now I want to die.
Ibid.
7. NOTE: 4/3/18
things I strongly dislike;
1. palo alto police
2. the police in general
3. the violence of the police state
Ibid.
8. NOTE: Earth Day EV Ride & Drive Sat, April 14, 10am - 1pm Palo Alto
I hate “social justice” in Palo Alto. What a fucking joke.
Ibid.
9. NOTE: Gregory Stevens @hellogregory - 3/15/18
Another random thought: Church Ordaining bobies want queer, anarchist, revolutionaries to join their (white supremacist, heteronormative, elitist-moralities) institutions.
balls on balls on balls
Ibid.
10. NOTE: 3/20/18
I can’t figure out how to grow a church. I can’t even get 3 people around a table of free food to talk about compost as a metaphor for social/personal change. #bye
Ibid.
11. NOTE: “Why do you not climb up on the crest of your manure and let yourself be carried along? Is it that you have no head for heights?”
A quote from Samuel Beckett, from a radio play entitled: All That Fall.
12. NOTE: CoSM Journal7
(no date)
In our church council meeting the old people always fall asleep. Always. ALWAYS.
FALL ASLEEP.
https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civicax/filebank/documents/65063
13. NOTE: INTERVIEW WITH STEVENS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlhMzhGFhQk
14:30 min. into interview
14. NOTE: INTERVIEW WITH STEVENS: Ibid.
Total running time: 16:23
4:20 min into interview.
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