The Rev. Robert H. Schuller, the televangelist who drew millions of followers with his “Hour of Power” broadcasts from the Crystal Cathedral, his glittering house of worship, died April 2 at a care facility in Artesia, Calif. He was 88.
Schuller was diagnosed in 2013 with esophageal cancer. His death was announced on the website of “Hour of Power,” now hosted by his grandson Bobby Schuller.
By the time of Schuller’s death, his ministry, based in Garden Grove, Calif., had filed for bankruptcy and largely crumbled. It was the victim, by most accounts, of overexpansion, declining popular interest and internal strife precipitated by his retirement in 2006.
At his height, he had been one of the most influential preachers in the United States, a feel-good outlier among the televangelists who, at times controversially, harnessed modern media technology to spread their messages and solicit donations.
“Hour of Power,” Schuller’s internationally syndicated program, began in 1970 and aired for decades, becoming one of the most widely watched television broadcasts of its kind. By design, it aired Sunday mornings, reaching tens of millions of viewers.
Many nonbelievers, and believers who preferred a more reserved form of worship, regarded his exploding fountains and “Glory of Christmas” pageants as show-biz theatrics. Some questioned the necessity of his $18 million cathedral, a prototype of the modern megachurch, which was erected from 10,000 panels of glass.
To his faithful, Schuller was an omnipresent source of comfort. While other preachers fulminated about damnation, Schuller offered his congregation a theology that he described as “possibility thinking.” In sermons and books, he invited his followers to “turn your scars into stars,” “turn your hurt into a halo” and to know that “God plus me equals a majority.”
Robert Harold Schuller was born Sept. 16, 1926, in Alton, Iowa, and grew up in a Dutch farm community. By age 4, it was said, he had decided to become a minister. Schuller’s books included “Tough Times Never Last, but Tough People Do!,” “The Be (Happy) Attitudes” and “Don’t Throw Away Tomorrow.”
Schuller’s wife of 63 years died in 2014. Survivors include five children, 19 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
