Robert Schuller and Sell-Out Christianity

The Reverend Robert Schuller was always big on appealing to the masses. Positive Thinking is an easy sell, especially when people are convinced that all they have to do is think the right thoughts, and then everything else will work out just fine.

He even appealed to mass culture, presiding over the funeral services of Wally George, the fire-eating hate-mongering "talk-show" host, whose "Hot Seat" set off a fire-storm in the early 1980's.

A vulgar man who hated every opponent, fully justifying himself to do all kinds of wrong to his belittled guests, Wally George trashed his guests mercilessly, a number of which he had hired beforehand just to be pilloried.

Schuller gave him a pass: "Do you ever watch his show. He promotes values like like and family." How Schuller could have praised so vicious a rhetor is not open to much guessing. Wally George was a congregant at the Crystal Cathedral.

Then there are the outrageous claims that Reverend Schuller has never struggled with temptation. Robert Schuller is not impressing anyone. Not to struggle with temptation is to be beneath contempt. He made this claim as recently as this year, in the midst of declining church attendance and chronic disruptions in leadership.

Years ago, he refused to remove his robe from hanging in the aisle of an airplane. Schuller argued that he did not want to ruin the robe, but the flight attendants insisted. Still refusing to cooperate, Schuller zipped off the casing around the robe and threw the empty bag in the overhead compartment.

He has battled with family members over the rule and management of the Crystal Cathedral, an institution struggling to stay solvent in the midst of a global recession which has plagued millions, and impoverished mega churches around the globe.

How does any of this advance the Gospel of Jesus Christ? When will Reverend Schuller come clean and admit that the whole operation has been at the behest of promoting the interests of man, not the mission of God's reconciliation through His Son's death on the Cross.

Reverend Robert Schuller: the patron saint of Sell-Out Christianity.