Pastor's Foul-Mouthed Tweets Lead to His Resignation

A California pastor has resigned in the wake of controversy that followed his use of some foul language while bashing his city on social media. In Twitter posts that wound up on the desks of Palo Alto city council members, Rev. Gregory Stevens, associate pastor at First Baptist Church, reportedly called the city an "elitist s--- den of hate." Per SFGate, Stevens also called the city's social justice a "f------ joke" before turning his ire on Palo Alto's elderly community. According to the Palo Alto Daily Post, the tweets, which were deleted but not before they were placed in a publicly viewable document, became an issue during a hearing that was set to determine if the church could lease space to outside groups. The city's vice mayor, Eric Filseth, reportedly called Stevens' tweets vile as the council questioned head pastor Rev. Rick Mixon.

In a statement regarding his resignation that was sent to news outlets, Stevens called his tweets "unprofessional" and "hurtful." However, he appeared unrepentant as he took the opportunity to again criticize Palo Alto, only this time without the foul language. "I believe 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,” he wrote. Stevens said he chose to resign in order to minimize the scope of the controversy. (More Palo Alto stories.)