Who Was Bishop Pike?
Controversial Bishop Gives Talk to Students in 1966
Bishop James Pike (1913-1969) was a larger-than-life media presence throughout much of the 1960s. As an Episcopal clergyman, who appeared on television well before the word “televangelist” was ever part of anyone's vocabulary, Pike had long been associated with Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. His politically liberal views regarding social equality (particularly for Gay, Lesbian, and Transsexual parishioners) were considered by many in the American “mainstream” of the time, to be outrageous and radical. Pike was also one of the leaders of the “Protestants and Other Americans United for the Separation of Church and State” movement. He resigned his post as Bishop in 1966 after the death of his son from recreational drug use - then, as if to validate the popular mainstream view of his unhinged extremism, Pike came to believe that he could communicate with the dead, and that his life's mission was to search the deserts of Israel for the origins of Christianity. He died there in 1969.
James A. Pike addressed overflow crowds on campus, according to the
1966 Elan yearbook. In late March 1966, he appears in MB 1055 (above, center). He is also shown waiting in the gym’s bleachers (above, left) to be introduced to his CSUH audience. Pike both reflected and shaped the socially liberal political views of the Bay Area, and his San Francisco-based parish in particular.