A prayer for Rick Warren

[Iwillnevergiveup]

Opinion

A prayer for Rick Warren

A local Lake Forest boy called to greatness has the chance to redeem Orange County and himself.
By Gustavo Arellano
January 19, 2009

Many have weighed in on Barack Obama's choice of Rick Warren to give the invocation during the presidential inauguration. But what has interested me most isn't so much the controversy about the Lake Forest pastor and his homophobic thinking, but rather the pride I feel in his ascendancy to such a prominent stage. To have a local boy help out our president-elect tells me that Orange County Christianity has made it, and it's about time.

The county is second probably only to Colorado Springs as a nexus point of American Christianity. It has four of the top 100 largest churches in the United States, according to Outreach magazine, including the largest non-English-language Christian church in the nation -- Anaheim's SaRang Community Church. The world's largest televangelical network, Trinity Broadcasting Network, broadcasts its founders, Paul and Jan Crouch, from their antebellum-esque studios in Costa Mesa. Drivers on the 5 Freeway in Garden Grove can make out the gleaming tower of the Crystal Cathedral, where the Rev. Robert Schuller tapes his "Hour of Power," the most-watched Christian television show on Earth. Dotted across the United States are churches belonging to the Calvary Chapel movement, based in Santa Ana. Newport Beach billionaire Howard F. Ahmanson Jr. funds every flavor-of-the-month conservative Christian cause imaginable -- recent efforts include the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign and the schism in the Episcopal Church over the ordination of a gay bishop. And the current big boy on the block is Warren, head of Saddleback Church and whose book, "The Purpose Driven Life," has sold millions of copies.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinions/commentary/la-oe-arellano19-2009jan19,0,1949007.story