Pasadena Star News - Sierra Madre and God weigh in on the McMansions

Mod: Trust me, God is not the least bit happy about this.

Sierra Madre: God weighs in on the McMansions (Pasadena Star Newslink): I have devoutly followed the real estate development story in the San Gabriel Valley for over a decade. The struggle between organically grown legacy villages versus massive clearcut swathes of housing that magically appear in surprisingly similar forms has long been a topic of interest for me.

However, during all that time spent witnessing these controversies, I have yet to come across one in which somebody claims their proposed housing project is the will of the Almighty. Until now. Apparently in this, our infinitesimal micro-moment of eternity, His will is being tested.

Some background for you. There is a celebrated Biblical passage that states, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God.” Jesus says this in Matthew 19:24. Camels being generously sized and not known for unusual dexterity, eyes of needles barely large enough to accommodate sewing thread.

But camels aren’t an issue today. They and other forms of four-legged animal transport were replaced long ago by cars stretching as far as eyes can see. It would be easier to drive a Lexus through the eye of a needle than get to downtown Los Angeles on a Monday morning. A place few consider Heaven.

The lesson taught is that your personal wealth is of no interest to the Almighty. Rather, God is concerned about what you feel in your heart, and how you put that to work helping your fellow inhabitants of His creation. Personally, I doubt God is happy about how we’re doing with that. God is more likely to spend His time in homeless camps than at any of Rick Caruso’s transactional shopping temples.

There is intense debate in Sierra Madre over a housing project at the Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, known in town as the Monastery. Forty-two near-identical McMansion-style homes are being pushed by the Passionist priests residing there for reasons that change often. Many in the community are opposed to such a gargantuan project, and feel it will disrupt their lives both now and well into the future.

You might believe this is your garden variety preservationist vs. developer tiff, but that isn’t the case. In a novel local twist on a national theme, what some taking the Passionist side in the struggle now claim is that those who do not support these consecrated McMannies are doing so out of an animus to God. Ballot measure or no.

Several notable manifestations of this novel belief have arisen in Sierra Madre lately, but my favorite appeared as an unsigned letter to the community’s adjudicated weekly newspaper. Titled “Religious Freedom Is Now At Issue At Mater Dolorosa,” here is how our mystery writer claims God has placed His thumb on the scales, and for mansionization:

“What the initiative definitely does is strip the Monastery of its existing religious institutional rights. Why is this important? Because as a religious institution the Passionists have more rights than the average property owner.”

Being average, I did not know that. Further on in this missive our veiled author reinforces the claim that God’s hand can be sensed in real estate development.

“The proposed initiative should never reach the ballot and risk violating the religious rights of the Monastery.”

I’d always believed the Founding Fathers had put some necessary distance between Church and State, but perhaps I’m mistaken. Besides, what exactly would the punishment be for using the ballot to democratically decide upon what is actually a community land-use issue? Witch trials? Burning at the stake?

I don’t want to appear inflexible about this, so here’s my deal. If you guys can make a $3 million dollar McMansion pass through the eye of that needle, I promise to reconsider everything.

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