Rebel preacher man Jay Bakker simply can't convince Joel Osteen to love the gays.

The men met last week to discuss mega-church leader Osteen's offending silence on gay rights, a cause close to Bakker's heart. Bakker, whose mother was gay icon Tammy Faye Mesner, traveled to Osteen's church in Texas last week to raise the clownish pastor's awareness of the universal gay plight.

In a surprising move, Osteen agreed to seat Bakker and activists during his Sunday sermon, but won't budge on his anti-gay take:

In the end, Bakker said, Osteen was most gracious, had chairs reserved for the LGBT community Sunday morning and made time to meet after the 11 a.m. service.

During their chat, the two men agreed to disagree.

"I don't think homosexuality is a sin, and they do," Bakker said, "but it was very nice of Joel to introduce me to his family. I met Joel's wife and mother, and they were just great. … I'm really grateful."

And, in the end, Bakker still has the support of the gays, which we think is far more important than - well, just about anything in the universe.

With Tammy Faye Bakker dead and buried, son Jay Bakker will probably have a pretty lonely Mother's Day weekend But, wait! What's that? There are gays in need of Bakker-patented preaching? Hoo-rah!

Bakker's currently in Texas petitioning anti-gay preacher man Joel Osteen to join a "non-traditional family" picnic this Saturday. Bakker says he wants to do two things: one, honor his mother and, two, praise Jesus. At least one of things is really gay.

I want to celebrate my mother's life and help spread the message she lived and preached. We need to stop thinking of ourselves as 'us' and 'them.' We hope the families of Lakewood Church will open their hearts and minds to us and sit down and have a conversation and share a meal… Let's put our differences aside and share the love and hope of Christ.

Bakker also hopes he can persuade Olsteen to speak up for the gay folk. If Osteen refuses - well, it's time to bring out the big guns: the ghost of Tammy Faye. That's one spirit you don't want to feel!