Comments (3) Best Political Pastor - 2009

Michael Holland

In terms of religious figures who poke their heads into politics, Orange County's cup runneth over with the likes of Howard Ahmanson Jr., Wiley Drake and Robert Schuller. But when it comes to counting clergy members who preach for some social cause instead of merely against the Republican bogeyman du jour—immigrants, gays, Barack Obama—we've got a pretty barren manger. There was a time when it looked like Saddleback Church heavyweight pastor Rick Warren might beat a new path for OC religion, what with Saddleback's crusades against AIDS in Africa and hosting of a presidential-candidate forum. Warren landed a plum spot issuing a prayer at Obama's inauguration, but he then proceeded to torch his reputation as affably engaged by condemning gay marriage, and then pretending to the national media he hadn't. But there's no such squishy, political-as-in-"I-play-politics" air about the Reverend Mike Holland of the Church of the Foothills in Santa Ana. He's a "progressive Christian" who leads in deed and words: He performed one of the first gay marriages in OC, has hosted anti-Proposition 8 rallies and regularly screens environmentally themed movies at his church. Of gay marriage, Holland has said, "It's a faith issue first, then a civil-rights issue." Quotes like that remind us there are OC Christians who fight for tolerance instead of merely for their own book deals.