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).
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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.
