Robert Schuller Reiterates Crystal Cathedral Loves the Gays, as It Always Has

By Gustavo Arellano Thu., Mar. 17 2011 at 12:21 PM

Poor Robert Schuller--in a way. The founder of the Crystal Cathedral, one of the architects of modern-day American Christianity, has seen his heir apparent split, donations to his church fall precipitously, and is now seeing his daughter try to swing the ministry to the homo-hating right by making the choir sign a declaration decrying sex outside of heterosexual marriage. Maybe Schuller deserves his life going into its Lear-esque decline, given he's a notorious asshole in his private life and was one of Orange County's earliest, most-vociferous Red-baiters (until he had an "epiphany" that strangely coincided with his church reaping in millions).

Then again, Schuller has accepted gays and lesbians more than any other megachurch.

After all, the architect who designed the Crystal Cathedral, Philip Johnson, was a proudly out gay man whom Schuller contracted for his visionary genius--think what you will of the ministry, but everyone acknowledges its grandeur, and the Schuller children sure didn't have a problem when daddy was exhorting the congregation for millions so a homosexual could build the family meal ticket.

As one evangelical friend who works in the Christian-music business told me after reading my story on Mariners Church's own homo-hating scandal, ALL choirs in OC's biggest megachurches owe much of their success to proud Christians who unfortunately have to remain in the closet lest they get booted by myopic boors.

Schuller told The Orange County Register (whose Deepa Bharath OWNS the Crystal Cathedral beat) he disagrees with his daughter's homo-hating move, adding, "I'm too well-educated to criticize a certain religion or group of people for what they believe in. It's called freedom."

That's a bullshit statement, but whatever: Let the record show Schuller loves the gays, as everyone should.

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Sean

I live a few blocks from his estate in Orange, and years ago I saw him outside giving what-for to the poor city workers who were putting in the sidewalk on the previously sidewalk-less avenue. My first thought was "What an @$$hole."

Homogenius

He sold it last fall after a year on the market. It was marked down several hundred K for a selling price of $1.2 million (of course, they had sub-divided it for daughters Milner and Penner). Reportedly he bought it in 1972 for $200k.

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Buy addresses---- tntn.usTips (48 hours after the special product is invalid)

Eddie

What I find more appauling, is that the author of this article has to emphasize with swear words, rather than producing a well thought out article to convey to his readers? Obviously, the author is not a journalist.

Homogenius

Which do you object to?

1. Calling RHS an "asshole"? Well, he's not a very nice person behind closed doors. He has an infamous temper, especially when he isn't getting his way. Like his good friend, Art Linkletter, the smile gets turned on with the lights and the cameras.2. It WAS a "bullshit statement". 3. What part of "blog" don't you get?

gustavoarellano

Homogenius: Gracias for your points

Homogenius

De nada.

Catch my act at DailyKos.com. I'm a semi-irregular there.

ruSaved

that's the difference between a church of Jesus Christ or a church by a man --- all ministries under the name of Jesus are full of confessing and repenting sinners. God does not love sin, so He allows the sinner to acknowledge, believe and confess/repent of their sins before they follow Him. make no mistake of tolerating sin, if robert schuller truly wants to save a person, tell that person the bad news (sin and condemndation) so he/she can start following the Good News (everlasting life).

Homogenius

Correction: Schuller TOLERATES teh gheys as long as they keep quiet. Read his full statement--he agrees with the anti-gay doctrine of his denomination, the Reformed Church in America. This is the denomination that fired the president of its seminary a few years ago for performing his lesbian daughter's wedding, then defrocked him.

Schuller is no friend to LGBT people. Like many mainline churches, the Cathedral practices the religious version of don't ask, don't tell. He's all too happy to take our money and let us volunteer, as long as we don't get too uppitty.

Let's remember that back in the early '90s, when popular guest soloist White Eagle revealed to cathedral pastor Juan Carlos Ortiz that he had AIDS, Ortiz not only broke his confidentiality (the whole church staff knew within two weeks), but the Schullers dropped him like a hot potato. Now on a recent TV broadcast, Sheila Schuller Coleman had the gall to say (with her most unctuous smile) that christians need to deal better with HIV/AIDS. Charity begins at home, sister.

The Schullers are reaping what they have sown. They think they can continue to run this as a family enterprise. They are mistaken. People are staying away in droves. Every time you turn around his incompetent children have discovered (or created) some new way to alienate people. If they had half a brain among them (Jim Coleman excluded) they would fire at least half the family members (including ANYONE named Penner), hire Robert A. Schuller back as interim pastor on a short-term basis (they're already paying him and Donna under their severance agreements), divide the morning services, making one "traditional" and the other "contemporary", explore opportunities to establish some type of Asian congregation like their hispanic ministry, and try to rebuild.