While the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange is allowing Crystal Cathedral ministry to stay there for another three years before completely taking over, Bishop Tod Brown is seeking a new name now, with submissions accepted through Feb. 20 at rcbo.org/cathedral-name. Brown asks only that the name be “Christological” or keeping with the nature and person of Jesus Christ. That got us thinking . . .
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Remember JC's famous quote from Sunday school? You know, the one based on his telling his disciples (via Matthew 19:25-29): “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
First, to our Lord and savior: Jesus Christ, Jesus, engage in class warfare much? You'd never make it through a GOP presidential debate with a mouth like that. Yet, in the spirit of that divisive statement and others, here are five nominees for new names for Crystal Cathedral, which you'll recall is a massive, gaudy glass structure in Garden Grove that the Diocese picked up for $57 million and change in bankruptcy court.
Luke 4:16-19: “He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: 'The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.'”
Mark 10:21-22: “Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, 'One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.' And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved, for he had great possessions.”
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Matthew 25:41-45: “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.' Then they also will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?' Then He will answer them, saying, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.'”
Mark 10:42-45: “So Jesus called them and said to them, 'You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.'”
Matthew 5:5: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.