When The Family Isn't The Legacy

R. Scott Moxley's assessment of what happened at the Crystal Cathedral is hard to read but deserves to be taken into account as what remains of the great congregation splits between devotees of Robert H. Schuller's family and the magnificent church he built in Garden Grove:

As I revealed in an April 2011 column based on bankruptcy records, Schuller, his extended family and closest aides--all of whom you could fairly call helplessly rich--diverted large sums of church donations to live exceptionally well. Not many American families enjoy vacation homes in Laguna Beach, Big Bear, Hawaii and Colorado--all private retreats that gave the Schullers much needed breaks from counting all those stacks of incoming dinero. The church's top ex-businessman lives behind guards and gates in Newport Coast--Southern California's most exclusive, ocean-view residential neighborhood that has been called home by mega-millionaires Kobe Bryant and Dean Koontz.

The bankruptcy records annihilated the deceitful, cemented facade that Schuller's every waking moment was devoted to helping the needy. For example, at one point when the ministry nabbed donations of more than $14 million, the Schuller clan directly grabbed hundreds of thousands of dollars while it spent just $22 a day to feed the poor.

It's no surprise then that the final straw in Schuller's decision to angrily leave the church board and threaten legal action involves not God, not the poor, not preaching but rather his own finances. Despite the millions and millions of dollars he, his family and closest aides have taken over the years, the reverend wants the faltering church to guarantee him payments of almost five times the local median household income: $320,000 a year.

What strikes me about this debacle isn't so much the money that Schuller earned and properties he accumulated in his half-century of ministry but the number of his family members who also ended up on the board and payroll. His break with his son and apparent successor in 2008 appears to have been a watershed. Was it a dispute over theology, or was a charismatic pastor and leader having trouble passing the baton? Instead, his daughter Sheila stepped into the pulpit as senior pastor. Her sister and brother-in-law had executive jobs with the "Hour of Power" broadcast, and her husband, Jim, served as "director of creative services."

Over the last week, as independent board members finally asserted themselves, the family members were fired. Schuller and his wife resigned from the board over the weekend. Next Sunday, Coleman will take what remains of the congregation and worship elsewhere. Within three years, the Crystal Cathedral, whose remaining non-Schuller clergy promise to continue to hold services for the time being, will be the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange County, which purchased the building for $57 million.

When we differed over management of the Nixon foundation and the need for an independent board, Richard Nixon's son-in-law Ed Cox liked to say, "The family is the legacy." At the Crystal Cathedral, not so much.

The Peace Of Christ That All Understanding Passes

Mega megachurch angst reported today in Orange County. The Schuller family hopes to take part of the Crystal Cathedral congregation to a new church, while Saddleback Church is in the midst of a controversy sparked by this article in the Feb. 26 Orange County Register:

Abraham Meulenberg, a Saddleback pastor in charge of interfaith outreach, and Jihad Turk, director of religious affairs at a mosque in Los Angeles, introduced King's Way as "a path to end the 1,400 years of misunderstanding between Muslims and Christians."

The men presented a document they co-authored outlining points of agreement between Islam and Christianity. The document affirms that Christians and Muslims believe in "one God" and share two central commandments: "love of God" and "love of neighbor." The document also commits both faiths to three goals: Making friends with one another, building peace and working on shared social service projects. The document quotes side-by-side verses from the Bible and the Koran to illustrate its claims.

"We agreed we wouldn't try to evangelize each other," said Turk. "We'd witness to each other but it would be out of 'Love Thy Neighbor,' not focused on conversion."

The Register follows up today:

An outreach effort to Muslims initiated by Saddleback Church in Lake Forest has sparked a national uproar among evangelical Christians, with some accusing the Rev. Rick Warren, Saddleback's pastor, of betraying core Christian principles and Warren responding that his beliefs and intentions have been misrepresented.

Since an Orange County Register article published Feb. 26 detailed the outreach effort, evangelicals across the country have taken to blogs, social media and Christian news outlets to debate whether and how Christians should forge relationships with people of other faiths.

Longtime critics of Warren have published lengthy online accusations that the influential pastor, who delivered the invocation at President Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration, has gone too far in seeking theological common ground with Muslims.

Warren's critics accuse him of sending cunning coded messages to Muslims in his inaugural prayer and of being more interested in feeding people, preventing HIV-AIDS infections, and promoting justice than bringing souls to Christ. It's an age-old, tiresome attack on faithful Christians who happen to be called to make life better for all those whom God loves.

Warren does dispute the assertion in the original Register article that he believed Christians and Muslims worshiped the same God. “We worship Jesus as God. Muslims don't,” he writes. “Our God is Jesus, not Allah." This is also a wearisome debate. If we insist, as Warren's critics do, that Muslims worship a different God, aren't we making the fantastic claim that there are more than one? It's a commonplace of interfaith dialogue that the Abrahamic faiths share historical and theological antecedents, especially the monotheistic God of Abraham, Issac, and Ishmael. Islam's critics are really saying that Muslims worship God the wrong way. Whenever tempted to think that may be true, I remind myself that I'd take a different view if I'd been born in Jordan to Muslim parents rather than in Detroit to a mother who happened to write the newsletter for the Cathedral Church of St. Paul. I proclaim Christ crucified and risen, but humbly enough, I hope, to allow for the diversity of God's infinite mind.

Those Pesky In-Laws Again

Robert Anthony Schuller was supposed to succeed his father in the pulpit at the Crystal Cathedral, but family politics kept him out:

Robert Anthony took over as the lead pastor, the role he had been groomed for. But he made it clear he wanted a shift in the church's culture: He proposed fewer family members and in-laws on the board for more transparency.

But before any changes were made, a July 2008 board meeting took away many of his duties. With a swift vote, the board created a three-person Office of the President, consisting of Fred Southard, the chief financial officer, and two of Robert A.'s in-laws.

"That was a single pivotal point," said Jim Case, a former board member who is now a congregant at [Schuller grandson] Bobby's church.

Soon after the July meeting, church leadership told Robert Anthony that his sermons weren't "anointed." Then, he couldn't preach on Sunday mornings. In November 2008, he resigned.

The church is now bankrupt.