A car crashed into the side of a San Francisco church Sunday afternoon while there were people inside, sending three to the hospital.

The incident happened around 1:20 pm Sunday at Good Hope Baptist Church, located at 551 Nevada Street at the egde of SF's Bernal Heights neighborhood.

Video from the scene shows a hole in the side of the church adjacent to the church parking lot, suggested that someone in the parking lot may have mistaken a gas pedal for a break, but that is just conjecture.

A photograph, seen below, shows the sedan that crashed through the wall of the building.

The church was occupied at the time of the crash, and the San Francisco Fire Department said that seven individuals were evaluated at the scene, with three taken to the hospital to be treated for minor injuries.

Reportedly, the Department of Building Inspection evaluated the structure after the crash and deemed it safe, turning it back to the church's owner.

The SFFD said the scene had been cleared as of 2:29 pm.

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

A South San Francisco church, Saint Augustine Catholic Church, was struck by gunfire on Tuesday around 1:30 p.m.

Surveillance video showed that 18 shots were fired at the church on Callan Blvd. in broad daylight, per KTVU. Police said that luckily, no one was inside the church at the time, so no one was injured, but several windows apparently had bullet holes and its front doors were shattered.

Police immediately responded to the scene and launched a search for a male gunman in a dark-colored car, according to KNTV. They reportedly found and arrested a 22-year-old man, Debari Charvel Augustine from San Francisco, in connection with the shooting a few hours later.

Augustine faces charges including attempted murder on the first degree, shooting at an inhabited dwelling, and possession of an assault weapon, per KRON4. He’s currently booked in San Mateo County Jail.

The shooting prompted a lockdown at nearby Westborough Middle School. One student, eighth-grader Gyan Robles, told KTVU, “This feels so frightening, and like, I’m honestly shocked about how this happened … It feels like a hate crime."

St. Augustine’s cancelled its Wednesday mass and catechism classes for the rest of the week amid the police investigation. The South San Francisco Police Department is asking anyone with information to get in contact at 650-877-8900 or anonymously at tips@ssf.net.

An East Bay Pentecostal pastor, Victor Hernandez Pineda, has been arrested on charges of sexual assault, apparently involving an underage member of his congregation.

Hernandez Pineda is facing multiple counts of "aggravated sexual assault of a child under the age of 14" and kidnapping, per ABC7.

He has reportedly led the congregation at Iglesia Pentecostes Movimiento de Gloria in Richmond, largely for immigrants from Central America, for the past few years.

The church community is grappling with the allegations. One of the alleged victims’ fathers told ABC7 that he was “so, so angry,” after learning that his daughter was allegedly victimized five times over a span of three years in her adolescence. Other alleged victims also described their experiences to ABC7, with one saying that the pastor had taken advantage of her at the church, and another said that he had taken her out of school and to hotel rooms in the middle of the day.

Richmond police are urging other potential victims to come forward, suspecting that there may be more cases of abuse, according to KNTV. As Richmond Lt. Patchin told the outlet, “We’re here to give you the resources you need so we would always encourage them to step forward so we can ensure that if this did occur that he’s held accountable to the fullest extent of the law and this doesn’t happen to anybody else.”

Many members of the church have left since the abuse came to light, as ABC7 reported.

Now, Hernandez is reportedly in custody and being held on $7 million bail.

Feature image of Iglesia Pentecostes Movimiento de Gloria via Google Street View.

Just before the weekend, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a heavy-handed letter to Mayor Breed criticizing the City's constraints on places of worship. Furthermore, the DOJ threatened to take "further action" if those restrictions weren't loosened up accordingly.

If there's anything the past few months have shown us... it's that prematurely lifting or intentionally side-stepping pandemic safety measures — like, say, attending an illegal church service — will simply result in more COVID-19 cases. (As it stands right now, San Francisco is also doing far better than any other large metropolitan in the United States at mitigating active COVID-19 cases, by and large because of our tight coronavirus policies.) But for some: reopening places of worship seems to outweigh protecting the human lives those very institutions are meant to serve, as evident by the DOJ's wording in a letter to Mayor Breed.

As described by SFGATE, in a letter (signed by Assistant Attorney General Eric S. Dreiband and U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California David Anderson), the DOJ called SF's restrictions on religious institutions "draconian" and that they were being unfairly treated given how similar indoor activities have been greenlit in San Francisco. The letter went on to add "[San Francisco is] wholly at odds with this Nation’s traditional understanding of religious liberty, and may violate the First Amendment to the Constitution."

“These rules plainly discriminate against people of faith and their ability to gather and practice their faith at churches, synagogues, mosques, and other houses of worship,” the letter continues to read, per the Chronicle.

That aforementioned criticism comes after the City continues to take a more strict approach over allowing congregations inside places of worship. Despite now being allowed to admit groups — that are limited to 25 percent of their original capacity, mind you — inside of them, SF still only permits "one congregant at a time" to worship inside of churches and the like.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who's a vocal and practicing Catholic, also decided to jump into the debate — having earlier opted to advocate for the idea of "[following] science."

“With all due respect to my archbishop, I think we should follow [the] science on this,” she said in response to an archbishop’s letter earlier in September.

Both the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) say that indoor activities that encourage singing, shouting, and close contact with others — all common elements in places of worship — can put people in high-risk situations for contracting COVID-19.

Related: Bay Area Now 78% 'Red' On State's COVID-19 Reopening Map

Illegal Church Service In Butte County Exposes 180 People to Coronavirus

Image: Getty Images via DanHenson1

On the steps at San Francisco City Hall, ten of the Bay Area's leading black ministers held a "socially distanced sermon" Memorial Day afternoon, advocating for churchgoers to uphold social distancing practices — and continue "worshiping in place."

Underneath Monday's blue skies and beating sun, almost a dozen notable African American religious leaders — including Reverend Amos C. Brown, the pioneering civil rights activists and president of the SF branch of the NAACP — urged clergy to keep their churches closed amid the pandemic. Brown also reminded those in attendance (and watching live) that, much like the fight for civil rights, progress doesn't occur overnight, and, as a collective, we need to respect social distancing practices for however long we must.

“You only have to go back a few decades in history to remember the Montgomery bus boycott, when for 381 days not one black person got on a bus, even though that meant walking to work, to shop, to worship,” said Brown. “Yet here we have people who are giving up after not even ninety days in the face of a deadly pandemic, knowing that the animated and celebratory worship in black churches is incompatible with the social distancing we must observe to prevent the spread of the virus.”

Monday’s gathering came just days after President Trump — who one pastor said wouldn't notice intelligence if it "tapped him on the shoulder" — declared houses of worship “essential,” calling for thief swift reopenings.

"Don't let our stupid president endanger our lives, " Brown remarked from the podium. "Listen to the scientists, listen to the medical workers, listen to the people who know this virus the best. Only when they say it's safe to open our doors again is when we should start to think about going back into our churches."

“We reserve the right ourselves, to determine the things we should do to that would be in the [best] interest of our people,” Brown continued, lambasting the circulation of “alternative facts” and other misinformation.

Brown, too, made it a point to explain that worship is not regulated to any one physical place or institution: “Pastors of all faiths and in all communities should take advantage of technology to keep in touch with their members [...] continue worshiping in place."

Among the pleads for churchgoers to worship inside their homes, with many of the in-attendance pastors even citing growth in their congregations since going virtual, cases were made to expand COVID-19 testing in predominantly black and brown communities.

"The black and brown communities have been disproportionately affected by this pandemic," said Dr. Jonathan Butler, the minister of health and social outreach at Third Baptist Church.

Currently, 20,000 African Americans have already died from the disease — dying at a rate three-times faster than white Americans.

"We need more accessible, widespread testing to determine who this virus has infected, so we can provide the appropriate medical care and preventive measures," another speaker suggested.

But the pandemic hasn’t just exposed the cracks in our nation's healthcare system, either. It’s also laid bare the disparities in how we educate children and young adults in this country.

Per a press release for the event, black students in the Bay Area’s public school system are already behind their peers due to long-standing issues of inequality, poverty, and systemic racism. With in-person classes canceled for the perceivable future, the group advocated for online tutoring and virtual educational programs — and the equipment and internet connections need to access them — to be made easily available to black and brown students, so they don't fall further behind.

As the gathering began to wind down, Brown again took to the podium, reminding everyone to support and respect each other's health during this global health crisis.

Last week, on May 17, marked the 66th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v Board of Education ruling that ended segregation in public schools.

Related: Illegal Church Service In Butte County Exposes 180 People to Coronavirus

Image: Matt Charnock/SFist

Good news for fans of the goat-headed Baphomet! The children of at least one Portland, Oregon elementary school will now have a few more options in their after-school programming choices with The Oregonian reporting that The After School Satan Club just won approval to begin indoctrinating Beaver State children with messages of "science and rational thinking."

Sacramento Elementary School — a 420-student public school in the Parkrose Heights neighborhood of Portland — will be the first to welcome the Satanists in, with the promise that they will "focus on free inquiry and rationalism, the scientific basis for which we know what we know about the world around us." They add, "We prefer to give children an appreciation of the natural wonders surrounding them, not a fear of everlasting other-worldly horrors.”

Finn Rezz, one of the chapter heads, told the Oregonian that the club will focus on promoting "benevolence and empathy for everybody," and will gather once a month on the same day that The Good News Club meets in the school. The Good News Club, for those who don't know, bills itself as "a Bible-centered organization composed of born-again believers whose purpose is to evangelize boys and girls with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and to establish (disciple) them in the Word of God and in a local church for Christian living."

After School Satan was thus formed as a counter measure for the anti-religious, and they note in their FAQ that they're allowed to do so because Satanism is a recognized religion, and a 2001 Supreme Court Case, Good News Club v. Milford Central School, allows such after-school clubs as "limited public forums." It's trying to balance out the evangelicals, you see, not about devil worship, per se, but it's likely to spark some lively debate about the issue of evangelizing in schools.

If the Satanic Temple has their way, Sacramento Elementary School will just be the first of many. "School districts across the nation are now receiving letters from The Satanic Temple explaining that we will be offering our clubs in their schools this coming school year, and parents in those schools can expect to be presented with a permission slip from their children in the first weeks of the Fall semester," explained Satanic Temple spokesperson Lucien Greaves. "All of the districts we’ve approached are nearby to local chapters of The Satanic Temple, and each school district has hosted, or is now hosting, Good News Clubs in their schools. This being the case, we are sure that the school districts we’ve approached are well aware that they are not at liberty to deny us use of their facilities, nor are they at liberty to deny us any level of representation in the schools that they afford to other school clubs — such as fliers, tables, brochures, and school-wide announcements."

Below, the group's catchy little teaser video.

Related: 666 — The Taxi of the Beast

We're streaming our service now! Join us for worship and a message from Ps @BrianCHouston at https://t.co/UD41BxjvCU pic.twitter.com/UcORbvSaUC

— Hillsong Church (@hillsong) February 6, 2016

Now that the allegedly dystopian vision of San Francisco is all but complete, all we need is a Pentecostal megachurch to really cement the deal. Enter the Hillsong Church. The massive song-and-dance church is headquartered in Australia, with boutique congregations in France, England, South Africa, and Brazil. Now they could be coming for you, you heathens.

The basics: Hillsong Church was founded in Sydney, New South Wales in 1983 and is giant, theatrical, and influential in Pentecostal/Charismatic church circles. Best known for the music they produce, Hillsong-penned tunes are sung in other churches of varying denominations around the world. Being a Pentecostal church, yes, they do believe in such traditions as speaking in tongues and Gifts of the Spirit, but they're also comparatively progressive to their contemporaries. For example, they're have women in leadership positions and proudly count heaps of hipsters and young folks as part of their congregations. They also hold spectacular concerts every week. (The photo above looks like a revival of Starlight Express, which we mean in the most wonderful way possible.) Hillsong is also a champion of the pastor-turned-celebrity, with Carl Lentz being a notable example.

The church has also fallen to controversy. Pastor Frank Houston, father of Hillsong co-founder Brian Houston, confessed to sexually abusing children. Their stance on LGBT rights is curious. And, irresistibly, the church was accused of helping stack Australian Idol votes by encouraging members to vote for Christian contestants.

Now they want to come to San Francisco, a fresh territory busting at the seams with new money and young minds. The idea to set up shop in the city came to Hillsong Pastor Ben Houston while he was in West Hollywood "dreaming and strategizing" about where else in the West he could go. "San Francisco is an amazing city! And the surrounding areas of Oakland, San Jose and beyond all combine to create a city of millions of people filled with so much potential," says Houston."The Bay Area is similar to LA in that you see the full breadth and diversity of humanity."

But not everyone is having it. Christian Nate J. Lee tells Gospel Ministries why.

"There is a war going on here that can't be seen or understood through the eyes of a naive, idealistic pastor. So when Ben Houston shows up in his overly-produced video saying, 'San Francisco is a city where we see great potential,' it's painfully clear that he has no idea of the context onto which his words fall," stated Lee.

"Guess who else saw 'great potential' in this city? The real estate agents, developers, and city officials who have destroyed neighborhoods, broken up families, and displaced poor people of color for their own idealized, dystopian visions for San Francisco."

Ouch.

But the realization of Hillsong SF remains a pipe dream for the megachurch. At least for now.

"As excited as I am about all that is ahead, I know that there is nothing that is going to be easy about this venture," says Hillsong pastor Ben Houston. "[San Francisco] is up there with the most expensive cities in the world. I sense that there could be a lot of spiritual opposition to The Church."

The survey results are in, and the views of neighbors and business owners have been neatly tallied. And now, in classic San Francisco style, it's time to dismiss all of that and come up with solution that is bound to make no one happy. Today the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is set to hear the final recommendations of a committee tasked with coming up with a solution to the problem of illegal Sunday double parking by churchgoers on Dolores and Guerrero Streets. The recommendations, while nonbinding, are sure to influence the SFMTA as they decide whether or not to ban the practice entirely, continue to tacitly allow it, or formally regulate it.

The Median Parking Advisory Committee, the organization behind the nine-question survey we wrote about last month, has attempted to get a read on the practice that turns Dolores and Guerrero Streets into de facto state-sponsored free parking lots for churchgoers every Sunday.

The survey results were unambiguous, with 75 percent of survey respondents opposing the current state of affairs, and 74 percent of residents living the area supporting banning median parking on Sundays altogether.

SFMTA planner John Knox White told the Examiner what he expects to hear from the committee. Which is to say, whatever the hell they feel like saying.

“We asked them to recommend anything they want,” he explained. “We’ll take that recommendation and within 90 days get back to them.”

The committee is set to give its recommendations starting at 1 p.m. today in the SFMTA offices at One South Van Ness.

While we eagerly await hearing what they propose, and the following decision made by SFMTA, sources tell the Examiner that the final "decision may be a major compromise between faith and secular groups," suggesting that the committee will recommend expanding the illegal double parking to all — shoppers, neighbors, parkgoers, and churchgoers alike.

If that is indeed the outcome, if may just prove once and for all what the observant citizens of San Francisco worship most dearly: free parking.

Previously: No, Most Mission Residents Are Not OK With Median Parking On Sunday
SFMTA Wants To Talk About Illegal Church Double Parking On Sundays

Last month the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency launched a survey with the goal of determining how San Franciscans feel about illegal double parking on Dolores and Guerrero Streets by churchgoers (and whoever else gets there early) on Sundays. The survey results are in, and they could not more clear: 75 percent of survey respondents oppose the current state of affairs, while 74 percent of residents in the area support banning median parking on Sundays altogether.

On the other side, 95 percent of "[congregants] who worship in the project area" oppose banning the double-parking status quo (surprise!).

The contentious practice of Sunday median double parking has been tacitly permitted by SFPD and SFMTA for years — though there have occasionally been some late-afternoon waves of ticket-writing — and the city agency now hopes that information gleaned from the survey will contribute to a community-supported plan to address the chaotic weekly scene that poses a danger to drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists alike.

Just in 2013, the SFMTA's Lea Millitello told Streetsblog SF that double-parking for church on Sundays was "part of San Francisco’s history," even though District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener quipped, "I'm pretty confident that the hundreds and hundreds of cars [on Dolores every Sunday] are not all going to church, unless Dolores Park is a church."

The survey, which had 3,766 respondents, included an opportunity to leave an open-ended response. Many people filled out this section (1,665 to be precise), with a large number voicing displeasure at what they view to be a taxpayer funded subsidy of religious organizations.

While the results of the survey appear unambiguous, that doesn't mean we should expect swift action from SFMTA in one direction or another — for as the survey summary notes, "the survey is neither the determining factor in the SFMTA's final decision on median parking nor a statistically significant random sample of the stakeholders."

Responses via SFMTA.

Previously: SFMTA Wants To Talk About Illegal Church Double Parking On Sundays

"Well, it looks like the work, and the Spirit, have made it happen," wrote Laura Slattery, Executive Director of the Gubbio Project, which has provided shelter to homeless San Franciscans during the day at St. Boniface Church in the Tenderloin for 11 years. Now the Project is expanding, partnering with St. John the Evangelist, an Episcopal church on 15th Street between Mission and Valencia Streets, "starting in December, gratefully before the worst of the El Niño effects begin." There, writes Slattery, "we hope to provide the same essential services that we have been providing at St. Boniface — weekly breakfasts, massage, haircuts, HIV testing, and foot care."

The Chronicle reports that the program will begin as a six-month trial during which 30 to 50 homeless people will be welcomed from 6 to 10 a.m. on weekdays. The founder of Simmons ComforPedic mattresses is even chipping in, donating mattress pad "relief beds."

"Sanctuary is a big part of our story, and we see this as an extension of it,” said the Reverend Richard Smith, the vicar of the church. The Chronicle notes the institution's history as a provider of sanctuary, invoking a period in the '80s when refugees from El Salvador sought shelter in the Mission District.

“I think people are afraid, and churches are no different,” Slattery told the Chronicle of resistance to providing shelter. “Everyone has seen that person having a psychotic break on the corner, and it’s kind of human nature to paint with a very broad brush and to say, ‘This is indicative of all homeless people.’” However, “Folks police themselves,” she said. “I hear at least 10 times a day ‘Hey man, we don’t do that here’ from the homeless people talking to each other.”

“They literally answer the question, ‘What would Jesus do?’" Bay Area comedian W. Kamau Bell told the Chronicle recently of the program. Soon, on December 3rd, he'll be performing in Blanket Statements, a comedy event hosted by customer service tech company Zendesk to benefit the Gubbio Project. “Projects like theirs are key to keeping the city the diverse, accepting, loving, cool place we know it to be,” Bell said.

Related: Homeless Are Staying Too Long At Navigation Center

Sundays in San Francisco bring with them a familiar scene: hundreds of cars, illegally double parked, lining the streets for blocks surrounding prominent churches. As many churchgoers drive to their religious services, this makeshift response to insufficient street parking causes both widespread congestion and potentially dangerous traffic for drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists alike. That this practice has been tacitly permitted by SFPD and SFMTA for years evokes a wide range of emotions from church neighbors and nearby business owners. The SFMTA is now in the process of developing an official policy on the illegal double parking, and the agency wants your input.

In a nine-question survey, the agency seeks to understand how you, the average Joe/Jane, feel about the median parking along two specific streets: Dolores Street and Guerrero Street between 14th and 21st streets.

"Vehicles parked along the center medians of Dolores and Guerrero streets have been a common occurrence for years," begins the survey. "However, despite the practice's longstanding nature, it has in turn not been equally available to all potential users, been sporadically enforced, has at times generated unsafe conditions due to drivers parking in intersections and between medians, and has caused some vegetation along the Guerrero center medians to be damaged. "

In a conversation with Mission Local, SFMTA spokesperson Kristen Holland said that the current state of affairs relies on informal agreements between churches and neighbors, and that the SF Municipal Transportation Authority has never officially recognized the setup.

In addition to the survey, SFMTA has already begun to evaluate various suggested solutions to the obviously problematic status quo.

Regardless of the outcome, now is your chance to take a five minute survey (that includes an open-ended response option) that some poor soul (intern?) at SFMTA will have to read. We recommend you make the best of it.

Related: Are Tickets for Double Parking A Real Thing?

Way, way over in Butte, Montana, Pastor/49er zealot Tim Christensen of Gold Hill Lutheran Church cut things short with God on Sunday in order to watch SF beat Carolina. "Would you all like to be forgiven for your sins?" asks Christensen. "Ok, that's great. You are ... There's bread and wine up at the table. Feel free to help yourself."

Before leaving his flock, he kisses his biceps (comme Kaepernick) and then rips open his holy attire Superman-style to reveal a glorious 49ers shirt beneath.

Praise Harbaugh.

[via Uproxx, Deadspin]

A funny little news item appeared over the weekend connecting the fact the San Francisco Marriott had signed on as a sponsor of this year's Folsom Street Fair, and the company is still managed by the Marriott family, who are Mormon, and probably not that into bondage. While Marriott itself may not have donated to the Prop 8 campaign, the Mormon Church certainly did, and it's kind of wacky that Marriott would be giving money to such a pervy street fest!

But, as the Chronicle points out, the fair and its vendors have become noticeably tamer in recent years, perhaps in part due to the pressures of big corporate sponsors like American Airlines and Kimpton Hotels. Sure, you still see plenty of erect penises on the street, but not in the vendors' booths anymore, and the crowd is now a mixed bag that includes some families and East Bay tourists and the like.

The hotel is just looking out for its bottom line, of course; and given the massive number of gay and fetish tourists who come to town for the fair each year, they can't afford to discriminate. Still, fascinating...

[Chron]