San Diego Pastors Trade In Bibles For Apathy & Silence During Gay Candidate's City Council Race

The James Hartline Report
- On The Frontlines Of The Culture War -
February 5, 2008
~ Campaign 2008 Update ~

San Diego Pastors Trade In Bibles For Apathy & Silence
In Wealthy Church District Where Gay Candidate
Is Seeking A Seat On The San Diego City Council

Silence By District 5 Church Pastors Is Empowering
The Campaign of Homosexual Republican Carl DeMaio
In San Diego's 5th District City Council Race

(JHReport Update) The majority of evangelical churches in San Diego, California have an official theological position that calls the act of homosexuality a sin. However, in this 2008 campaign season there is not one pastor in San Diego who is speaking out against the candidacy of local homosexual Republican activist Carl DeMaio. DeMaio, who revealed his personal involvement in homosexualiity in an April, 2007 edition of San Diego Magazine, is the endorsed Republican candidate for the 5th District of the San Diego City Council.

During the April, 2007 San Diego Magazine interview, DeMaio degraded the opinion of Christian Conservatives by stating that voters were not concerned with the issue of homosexuality. DeMaio's comments were made right before hundreds of outraged San Diego voters turned out at the San Diego City Council to oppose a pro-gay marriage legal brief that was being issued in the name of all San Diego voters by the city council.

When revealing that he was homosexual, DeMaio stated of his homosexuality: "But at the end of the day, I don’t think it’s very relevant when you consider all the things that are really important to voters." Shortly after DeMaio decided that the public needed to know about his homosexuality, transvestite activist Nicole Murray Ramirez placed a photograph of DeMaio with two other prominent San Diego homosexual activists in his column in the Gay and Lesbian Times.

Despite the fact that DeMaio disparaged the city's Christian voters in the San Diego Magazine interview, pastors in San Diego's 5th City Council District have remained astonishingly silent on the possibility that DeMaio will be representing their church families on the city council. For all general purposes, pastors in San Diego's 5th City Council District have spiritually neutered themselves on the matter of opposing DeMaio.

San Diego's 5th City Council District includes the communities of Mira Mesa, Rancho Bernardo, Carmel Mountain Ranch, Sabre Springs, Scripps Ranch, Sorrento Mesa, and San Pasquel Valley. Some of San Diego's wealthiest and most influential churches are located in these communities. Yet, on the matter of confronting the Republican Party's promotion of a homosexual activist who will be representing the important city council seat where these large and influencial churches are located, pastors have become verbally castrated, trading their Bibles in for complete apathy and silence. In one of the great moral catastrophies in San Diego history, these pastors have exchanged their pastoral obligation to be courageous for the embarrassment of cowardice.

Maranatha Chapel is perhaps San Diego County's largest and most prosperous church with 7,000 members. Located in the community of Rancho Bernardo, Maranatha Chapel is located in the heart of San Diego's 5th City Council District. The idea that Pastor Ray Bentley is not confronting the potential that his church will be represented by a homosexual activist on the city council, is a demonstration of just how disconnected from the political process these wealthier churches in San Diego have become.

Horizon Christian Fellowshp - North County, an extremely large and wealthy Rancho Santa Fe-based church, has enormous influence on the business community in San Diego. The church's pastor, Bob Botsford, has been completely silent on the matter of Carl DeMaio being elected to the San Diego City Council. Recent events surrounding Horizon Christian Fellowship may give some hint as to why the pulpit of its extremely wealthy sister church, Horizon Christian Fellowship - North County, is silent on the DeMaio campaign. In recent years, a number of wealthy members of Horizon Christian Fellowship have supported pro-abortion and homosexual candidates for public office.

Horizon Christian Fellowship Pastor Mike MacIntosh has refused to publicly rebuke his wealthy members for their political compromise. One Horizon Christian Fellowship member, Larry Stirling, endorsed homosexual Republican Ralph Denney for the California State Assembly in 2006. In 2004, Stirling endorsed rabid pro-abortion Republican Tricia Hunter for the 76th District of the California State Assembly. Stirling has continued his sell-out of San Diego Christians in 2008. Both Larry Stirling and his wife Linda have both endorsed Carl DeMaio for the city council and both have given the maximum amount of financial contributions to DeMaio's campaign.

Linda Stirling supports homosexual activist Carl DeMaio at the same time that she promotes herself to the Christian community as a corporate member of a local Christian women's business group. Linda Stirling's immoral flip-flopping places her in the top echolons of hypocrisy. She is currently involved with the Professional Women's Fellowship. The website states this about Stirling: she is a "founding board member of Ken Blanchard’s Lead Like Jesus Foundation, as well as a member of the Finance Committee for the San Diego Billy Graham Mission. Linda is also a founder and current corporate member of PWF."

Horizon Christian Fellowship - North County is awash in wealthy members. The church is located in the community of Ranch Santa Fe which is listed as the highest income community in the United States with at least 2,500 households at $196,298. Forbes reported Rancho Santa Fe as having the third most expensive zip code in the United States, and most expensive in California, with a median home sale price of $2,585,000. In recent years, the area was represented by Congressman Duke Cunningham, who is now in prison for taking bribes.

Two years ago, James Hartline, a well-known Christian activist, was driving with a friend in the area around Horizon Christian Fellowship - North County. Driving past the church, Hartline could not believe what his eyes were seeing. In the church facility parking lot was a limousine, a Rolls Royce, Jaguars, numerous Mercedes Benz vehicles, BMW's, and a multitude of expensive Cadillacs. Hartline, who ministers in one of San Diego's poorer neighborhoods, felt a sense of nausea at the magnitute of seeing so much hoarded wealth on a church property while many Black and Hispanic churches in San Diego are so poor they can barely keep their doors open.

There is no vocal opposition against Carl DeMaio coming from any Horizon Christian Fellowship Church. "We are all going to suffer because these San Diego pastors will not show any backbone or moral courage during this political crisis," declares James Hartline. "Opposition to the homosexual political movement has been replaced with the promotion of golf and tennis tournaments by many of these wealthy church pastors," Hartline states.

San Diego pastors cannot say that they do not have any options regarding the District 5 City Council race. DeMaio has a strong pro-family opponent in the District 5 race by the name of Bob Ilko. Bob Ilko, a former police officer who nows earns his living as an attorney, is a member of a local synagogue. The James Hartline Report has spoken with Ilko on a number of occasions. Although JHReport has asked Ilko to fill out a family-values questionnaire, Ilko has been hesitant to fill out a Christian voter guide because he is Jewish.

Even without reading his answers on a questionnaire, it is fairly easy to conclude that Bob Ilko is a strong supporter of families in San Diego's 5th District. Having received numerous awards from local community groups, Bob Ilko has a sixteen-year history of volunteering to help San Diego families during difficulties like the 2003 Cedar Fire. Carl DeMaio, on the other hand, just recently moved into District 5, having almost no ties to the district. Despite his capretbagger status and involvement in homosexuality, the county GOP is backing DeMaio over Bob Ilko.

Long before he declared himself a candidate for the San Diego City Council, Bob Ilko was working to gain justice for the District 5 community he has lived in for many years. In a 2003 newsletter that contained information on the devastating Cedar Fire, Bob Ilko wrote a compassionate and inspiring article on what he personally experienced during the catastrophe. He concluded his article with this statement:

"As I sit at my office desk this early Monday morning, I wait for the sun to rise to see
what can be done for those who lost and to pray that more do not have to bear the
same suffering. I hope that those who lost will have the strength to find their way
back home."
Sincerely, Bob Ilko, Scripps Ranch Planning Group

Two months ago, James Hartline contacted Community Bible Church, one of the largest churches in District 5. Hartline spoke briefly with Pastor Barry Minkow, informing him of the potential of having a gay Republican representing his church's district on the city council. Additionally, Hartline sent emails to all staffmembers of Minkow's church regarding DeMaio. Hartline says that there was absolute apathy among the church's leadership and staff regarding the District 5 race.

The very people who have the responsiblity for making sure that Christians maintain the moral compass in San Diego, California are the city's 2,000 pastors. Out of those 2,000 pastors, not one has spoken out against the Republican Party's promotion of the candidacy of homosexual activist Carl DeMaio.

When the cameras were rolling late last year as the San Diego City Council was voting on the gay marriage legal brief, there were the traditional "family" values groups and pastors crying out against the injustice of gay marriage. However, when the cameras disappeared and Carl DeMaio began to express his homosexuality right before he began his official city council campaign, San Diego pastors nervously shuffled their feet and made reservations for their next paid vactions. Perhaps, while they are in Hawaii, Europe or anywhere else where they are putting their feet up and enjoying their vacations, someone else with some God-given courage will step up into a San Diego pulpit and declare war on the moral abyss being created in San Diego by the apathetic spirit of Christian leaders in San Diego's 5th City Council District.

This has been an exclusive James Hartline Report - 2008 Campaign Update.
Now Read Daily By Over 16,000 Concerned Citizens Of Conviction.

I Am Making My Stand!
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James Hartline, Publisher
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Comments

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Anonymous said…
I have gay friends and I can tell you that the last place they want to be is church because they feel they are hated there. There must be a way to draw all people in love to Jesus without condoning behavior. I find it sad that we get more caught up in the issues/sins and forget that Jesus came to save and love.

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