Robert Schuller

Fantasy Bluthball: We Draft Locals for Arrested Development Roles

Matching A.D. socialites to real OC socialites

Robert A. Schuller, Former Crystal Cathedral Pastor, Defaults on His Million-Plus Laguna Home

Wow, how the saga of the Schullers of Crystal Cathedral gets...well, not sadder and sadder, because the family had millions upon millions of dollars for decades, but downright pathetic.We all know about Robert H. Schuller's mismanagement of the empire he created to the tune of having to declare bank ... More >>

Crystal Cathedral Gets New Name, God Doesn't Really Care

So the big news in Godburg over the weekend was that the Crystal Cathedral, the once-hallowed home of Schuller family shenanigans, has officially been renamed Christ Cathedral. Why it took months to drop three letters and add two others is anyone's guess, but as a "Wheel of Fortune" fan, I've seen ... More >>

Spiritual Swinging: Shack Up With the Schullers For $700 a Night

Pack your pajamas and bring your Bible. Rev. Robert A. Schuller and his wife Donna are opening up their four-bedroom, four-bath, 3,200-square-foot Laguna Beach house with an ocean view to couples looking to light the fire again. They've posted an ad for the home on Airbnb.com, a websi ... More >>

Rev. Robert Schuller: Pimping God To The End

​The Reverend Robert Schuller and his wife recently quit the board of the Garden Grove-based global televangelist church they recklessly drove into a massive $50 million bankruptcy and one of their daughters has announced she intends to create a new church.Most mainstream media accounts of the dev ... More >>

Crystal Cathedral Cutting Kin

​The Crystal Cathedral is becoming less of a family affair. Officials at the Garden Grove-based ministry confirmed this week that three people related to founder Robert H. Schuller were given the boot from leadership.

Crystal Cathedral Bidding War Won by Catholic Diocese

​A $59 million hail Mary by Chapman University did not overcome the hail Marys of parishoners, clergy and a certain bishop as a bankruptcy judge decided Thursday afternoon that the Crystal Cathedral will be sold to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange for $57.5 million.By siding with the Crystal C ... More >>

5 Ways the Catholic Diocese or Chapman University Can Sweeten Their Offers to Buy Crystal Cathedral

​A bankruptcy judge has said he'll make a decision Thursday on who the winning bidder is for Crystal Cathedral, Orange County's original Protestant megachurch that was completed in Garden Grove in 1980 and is now $46 million in debt.Bidding seems to have come down to two other Orange County instit ... More >>

Bishop Tod D. Brown Fails OC Catholics Again by Failing to Buy Crystal Cathedral

Brownie: The Hour of No Power--again​The local and national media are tripping over themselves in reporting how the Crystal Cathedral's board of directors has approved Chapman University's offer to purchase the iconic church's Garden Grove facilities for $50 million. All the reports are also makin ... More >>

Has the Robert H. Schuller Family Been Running a Crystal Ponzi Scheme Cathedral?

​We posted an item earlier this morning about two Orange County men who stole nearly $10 million from investors in separate Ponzi schemes. Now, we must ask, what is it if not a Ponzi scheme the Robert H. Schuller family has been running, at least based on the lawsuit brought by unpaid creditors of ... More >>

[UPDATED with Creditor Blowback:] New Bidder for Crystal Cathedral: Crystal Cathedral

​UPDATE, AUG. 11, 12:22 P.M.: Crystal Cathedral's former chief financial officer, Fred Southard, strolled into a recent bankruptcy hearing in federal court in Santa Ana and shook his head. It just won't work, he commented to assembled reporters about the Robert H. Schuller family plan to turn to c ... More >>

Sources: Robert Schuller Wants Crystal Cathedral Sold to Diocese of Orange, Daughters Don't

​As I predicted a month-and-a-half ago, the Catholic Diocese of Orange is interested in buying the Crystal Cathedral from the Rev. Robert Schuller, mostly to save Bishop Tod D. Brown's ass from ever having to build the Tod Mahal that would've been Christ Our Savior Cathedral. This past weekend, OC ... More >>

Chapman University Wants to Buy Crystal Cathedral for $46 Million

​Chapman University in Orange has submitted a $46 million bid to buy the Crystal Cathedral property and facilities in Garden Grove.The university's Board of Trustees authorized the proposal at its June 27 regularly scheduled meeting, something that was made public today in a filing made by the C ... More >>

'Earth-Like Planet' Says Extinction, Shmextinction

The Irvine Fine Arts exhibit avoids icky humans and focuses on the greener future

Robert Schuller's Glass House of God

[Moxley Confidential] Picking through the shards of the bankrupt televangelism empire.

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

​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 makin ... More >>

Christianity Today Editorial Tells Readers Not to Blast Robert Schuller--Then Blasts Him

​It's quite an Orange County issue for the latest Christianity Today. Yesterday, we reported on a great profile of Roberta Ahmanson, the wife half of the wacky-cause-giving Ahamansons. Turns out there's another titan of Orange County Christianity also discussed in the January 2011 issue--the Rev. ... More >>

[UPDATED:] Crystal Cathedral's High Salaries Questioned in Bankruptcy Proceedings

​Update, November 19, 2:50 p.m.: Creditors in the Crystal Cathedral bankruptcy proceedings have filed court documents that question the high salary of yet another employee.This one is is paid to the son-in-law of the church's Chief Financial Officer Fred Southard, whose $132,019 housing allowance ... More >>

Crystal Cathedral Declares Bankruptcy--Why Robert Schuller Had it Coming

​The news is traveling across the wires right now that the Crystal Cathedral, that iconic Garden Grove congregation that started the modern-day megachurch movement, has declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The best coverage of this story has happened in the pages of the Orange County Register, specific ... More >>

Matching Food Network Stars with their TBN Alter Egos!

​​I see Food Network shows occasionally, about as much as I watch the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Maybe I'm just a fool (actually, I am!), maybe I've seen too much of each channel, but some of their star personalities start melding into each other until the TBN and the FN personalities are ind ... More >>

Robert H. Schuller Continues Speaking Engagements as his Crystal Cathedral Burns

​Much has been made of the problems of OC's original megachurch, the Crystal Cathedral, in the past year, and the Orange County Register's Deepa Bharath has done a great job documenting the splits between the Rev. Robert H. Schuller, his children and former congregants. While other local megachurc ... More >>

Supreme Court Nominee Elena Kagan No Fan of the Rev. Robert Schuller

​Poor Robert Schuller--literally. Not only is his Crystal Cathedral millions of dollars in debt, not only are former members of his congregation ridiculing Schuller's children for mismanaging Orange County's original mega-church, but now he has to deal with Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan ridicu ... More >>

Why is Robert Schuller Still Giving Self-Help Talks?

​While Rick Warren has influenced two continents, for better or worse, and Chuck Smith can enjoy the twilight of his life knowing Calvary Chapel is one of America's great Christian quasi-denominations, the Rev. Robert H. Schuller faces the prospect of ending up as Orange County's Aimee Semple McPh ... More >>

North Carolina Pastor to Burn Books of Local "Heretics" Rick Warren, Robert Schuller, and Benny Hinn

I thought book burnings in the South went with the way of the Beatles, but this shows how much I know: to celebrate Halloween, Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, North Carolina will host an ol'-fashioned Scripture bonfire complete with "Bar-b-Que Chicken, fried chicken, and all the sides," acco ... More >>

Rick Warren Superstar

Just about everything that can be said has been said about pastor Rick Warren's performance this past weekend with underlings John McCain and Barack Obama. Except this: by getting all moving cameras in the Free World fixed on his Saddleback Church, Warren officially propelled himself past two other ... More >>

Warren Ain't no Schuller

The eyes of America fall upon Saddleback Church tomorrow, where recent Time cover boy Rick Warren plays Tim Russert while he interviews presidential nominees John McCain and Barack Obama. There is a lot of grousing amongst people for the outlandish admission fees Warren is charging, monies he claims ... More >>

Rev. Schuller Spins Orange Coast Magazine

Like Rich, we're excited to see the "new" Orange Coast, and wish it the best even though it's now technically a competitor. I've yet to see the issue that Rich dissected but did catch the one before, one that already had hints of the literary journalism and well-written analysis readers can expect u ... More >>

Hour of Power Now 2,000 Episodes Old

Sorry I'm late on this, but The Hour of Power—that uniquely Orange County slice of televised Christianity hosted from Garden Grove's Crystal Cathedral by Robert H. Schuller and his son, Robert A.—celebrated its 2,000th consecutive broadcast on June 1. Watch it here. Thinking about how this Pa ... More >>

Crazy Christians Trash Schuller on National Day of Prayer

Today is the National Day of Prayer, a chance for America's most-oppressed people—Christians—to ignore the Nazarene's advice and insist the world see them pray. Heading the affair is Shirley Dobson, wife of Focus on the Family overlord James Dobson. To plug the event, Shirley appeared on the Hou ... More >>

At Your Service: Main Place Christian Fellowship Church Prayer Booth

Welcome to the first installment of my weekly church review, where I'll visit houses of worship—Christian, Muslim, Baha'i, even Scientologist—and examine what folks of faith need to know: theology, environment, parking, and the all-important sermon. Suggestions for churches to review in the comm ... More >>

Robert Schuller to Bury Evel Knievel

For another reason why this paper has been historically softer on the Reverend Robert Schuller than on Orange County's other wacky Christians (though read this article for proof we're not that soft), look no further than the announcement that Schuller will preside over Evel Knievel's funeral in Mont ... More >>

OC Pastors Jihadi Appeasers?

That's what the Michelle Malkins and Jonathan Constantines of the world will undoubtedly screech once this open letter of apology to Muslims by Christian pastors percolates through the blogosphere. The letter--which appeared Nov. 18 as a full-page ad in the New York Times--is an ecumenical overture ... More >>

Diary of a Mad Year

Jan. 1-Dec. 13

Diary of a Mad County

I didn't get what I wanted for Christmas, and now you're gonna pay!

Garden Grove

Church du Soleil

The Rev. Schuller's daughter puts on a show. Very cool puppets rule

Church du Soleil

The Rev. Schuller's daughter puts on a show. Very cool puppets rule

Diary of a Mad County

Letters

Diary of a Mad County

Diary of a Mad County

Son of Scary

Evil spawn of OCs Scariest People

To Protect and Swerve

Garden Grove police say their chaplain, a man with ties to neo-Nazis, is no problem

Crystal Unclear

Schuller probes advisers neo-Nazi past

Hour of White Power

Reverend Robert H. Schuller relies on a man with ties to Neo-Nazis to build religious understanding

Diary of a Mad County

Letters

Sex, Drugs and Narcissism

The fifth annual Calleys

The Year in Letters

Bottom of the Mailbag