Travis A vs. Teena G -- The News Press and the Clergy

For some reason Travis Armstrong doesn't like clergy. He regularly harps on clergy who stand up for the poor and the homeless. He accuses us of being in bed with developers when we advocate for affordable housing. We advocate for affordable housing because that's a great need in our community of Santa Barbara.
He wants us to stay in our churches and keep our mouths shut -- apparently this is especially true of "left leaning" clergy who speak on issues that really affect the people of the community, at least those who don't have six figure incomes. More recently, after the Greater Santa Barbara Clergy Association, a group that I'm pleased to say I once led as President, offered a safe haven for a discussion of the newspaper's issues -- instead of showing up, Armstrong blasted the clergy for meddling in private business while they should be dealing with the "gang problem."
The day that this editorial appeared the Clergy Association sponsored a service to draw attention to the gang situation and to call people to action -- but the News Press didn't cover that event, though other media outlets did. When Teena Grant, the current GSBCA president sent a letter to the editor, Armstrong blasted her for her "snarky" letter that he apparently refused to print. Fortunately, we have Craig Smith's blog to get the word out. He has covered the issue and printed the e-mail -- which as Teena's friend and colleague, I will print below myself -- with due credit to Craig.

Dear Mr. Armstrong,

This letter is in response to your editorial of March 29, 2007

It was quite ironic that the same morning that your editorial blasted the local clergy for not doing more for the gang problem, the Santa Barbara Daily Sound ran a front page photo and article about the service we did for the community on March 28th in response to the gang situation. The purpose of the service was to express our grief, to reflect as a community, and to make a personal commitment to serve our youth in a concrete, specific way.

Approximately 100 people made that commitment. Various media covered the event. The News-Press was not there. In fact, you have not covered faith community events since the News-Press fired Melissa Evans, your former religion writer. How can you say what we are, or are not, doing since you have never contacted me or anyone else in the Greater Santa Barbara Clergy Association, nor have you ever attended any of our meetings or events. If you would have attended the service the other night you could have learned about some of the helpful things that faith communities and other organizations are doing to help at-risk youth.

I invite you to contact me if you ever decide to mention The Greater Santa Barbara Clergy Association in your editorial again so you can know what is actually happening in the faith community. You are welcome to come to our meetings or you can read or hear about our activities in the other media sources in the community.

Reverend Teena Grant President, Greater Santa Barbara Clergy Association

Thanks Teena for taking this stand! If this is being snark, then let's all be snarky!!

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