Rick Warren has finally crossed the Rubicon of homo-hating with his invitation to St. James Anglican Church in Newport Beach to set up camp at Saddleback Church because the California State Supreme Court recently ruled they can't stay on their Balboa Peninsula property. A quick primer: St. James split with its Episcopal diocese in 2004 because they didn't like the idea of a gay man getting ordained as a bishop and began taking its orders from a homo-hater in Uganda. So this isn't even a gay-marriage issue, people: Warren is opening his arms to folks who don't think gays can assume leadership in the church. Sick, Purpose-Driven Rick: sick.
But piling on Warren isn't the purpose of post. One of the main reasons for the schism is Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr., supreme funder of many conservative Christian causes–his most recent Uncle Moneybags move was giving $900,000 to the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign. Read this excellent report on Ahmanson's influence in creating the Episcopal Church schism over the ordination of the openly gay Gene Robinson as a bishop back in New Hampshire. At last report, Ahmanson was still a member of St. James Anglican.
Which begs the question, and we ask it directly to Howard, whom we know reads Navel Gazing: given your fabulous wealth, why don't you just buy a building for St. James? And, if you no longer belong to St. James, don't you think the least you can do to those poor souls is buy them a place as penance for the secular vengeance you inadvertently wrought? Inquiring minds want to know!
