University of Virginia Library

THE MAINLINER

Mainline Protestant and Catholic groups once dominated the air time networks had set aside for religious broadcasting. But that was before the televangelists came along and offered local stations handsome rates for Sunday morning "ghetto" time. Robert Schuller, whose Garden Grove Community Church is affiliated with the Reformed Church in America, is the only mainliner on the marquee of religious broadcasting. His denomination, however, does not sponsor his broadcasts. Like the organizations of the other televangelists, his "Hour of Power" pays for air time on every station on which the program appears.

Robert Schuller

Sunday, September 12, 1980, was a moving day for the regular viewers of the "Hour of Power." Robert Schuller preached his last sermon from the old sanctuary of the Garden Grove Community Church. His topic: "Every Ending Is a New Beginning." Then viewers saw Schuller lead a procession from the old sanctuary to the new Crystal Cathedral, a reflective glass structure in the shape of a four-pointed star. The cathedral spans 415 feet from point to point in one direction and 207 in the other. Its 10,611 panes of glass are supported by white-painted metal trusses.

All over the United States that morning, people were shedding tears of joy as they watched the procession. It was not the eloquence of the sermon, or the magnificence of the ceremony, or even the first glimpse inside the Crystal Cathedral—a stunning panorama—that caused so many to choke up. All over the country there were tens of thousands of individuals who had helped to pay for this "impossible dream" with their $10 and $15

gifts to the "Hour of Power" ministry. It was an architectural triumph. It was also a personal triumph in the life of a man who began his southern California ministry on the roof of the concession stand of a nearby drive-in theater. Most of all, it was a triumph of that man's message of "possibility thinking."

Among the pictures in Robert Schuller's office are those of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen and Norman Vincent Peale. Sheen showed all would-be religious broadcasters that a powerful preacher can make it on television. Peale has preached for decades the very popular "power of positive thinking." It takes no leap of the imagination to understand Schuller's respect for and debt to both men. Schuller is the successor to their mantles; he is a mainline telegenic preacher who skillfully blends psychology and religion.

Schuller freely acknowledges his intellectual debt to Norman Vincent Peale, who once appeared on the drive-in roof with him. "Possibility thinking" is a theology of self-esteem, hope, and positive thinking. Schuller's sermons, as well as his conversational discourse, are loaded with slogans such as "turning scars into stars," "turning stress into strength," "different rules for different roles," and always, positive affirmation of self: "You are a beautiful person" or "God loves you, and so do I." When Schuller mounted the marble podium for the dedication ceremonies of the Crystal Cathedral, he prayed that God would "show us how to turn a monument into an instrument."

Schuller has come a long way since the day in 1955 when he stood atop the sticky, tar-papered roof of a drive-in theater snack bar in Orange County, California, and preached to about seventy-five people in cars. His church, the Reformed Church in America, had asked him to go to California to start a congregation. Schuller did few things conventionally. When the church grew large enough to be housed in a building, he continued to hold services at the drive-in as well. In time he built a church that incorporated the features of both, with glass panels that rolled back so that worshippers in cars in the ramped parking lot could see inside, or persons who preferred to be outside could sit on the grass. In the Crystal Cathedral, also, one arm of the star slides open like a giant airplane hangar door so that those who wish to may worship in the privacy of their autos.

The "Hour of Power" telecast was inaugurated in 1970. Today it is syndicated on 149 stations in the United States and is the only program regularly telecast on the Armed Services Network. The television program is also connected with a nationwide telephone counseling service for both spiritual and psychological problems. A typical show begins with a rising, rousing anthem by the choir. As they sing, the cameras provide a panorama of the beautiful grounds of the Garden Grove church, of the fountains, of soaring gulls and blue skies, of eucalyptus trees swaying in a gentle breeze, and, always, of the happy faces in the congregation.

Then a camera zooms in on Robert Schuller. Clad in a magnificent robe, with arms extended and a broad smile on his face, he booms out, "This is the day the Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it!" A professional announcer does a voice-over—usually headlining Schuller's "gift of the week," with details on how viewers may get one to come later. Then Schuller is introduced. He preaches dramatically and forcefully. He is a first-rate orator with a great flair for the dramatic.

The "Hour of Power" often includes the appearance of a guest whom Schuller interviews, with a lighthearted touch, about his or her faith. He doesn't believe in using his pulpit to promote any political viewpoint, so a show that features someone who is associated with one side of an issue is balanced by a later visit with someone associated with the opposing side. Liberal Democratic Senator Birch Bayh, for example, was followed a short time later by conservative Republican Congressman Guy Vander Jagt.

Schuller's sermons are usually punctuated with alliteration and mnemonic devices, so that the major points are not lost amid his illustrations and anecdotes. For example, a sermon on how to become a transformed person was built on five concepts: fantasize, analyze, verbalize, organize, and finally concretize. "The words are simple," Schuller tells his listeners, "but they contain profound psychological, theological, and spiritual truth."

Schuller is the only mainline Protestant in the cast of cathode stars. He doesn't like being confused with the other evangelists on TV, some of whom he thinks are charlatans. And he doesn't like people to refer to his television program as a church. On the

other hand, Schuller believes that mainline Protestantism is "losing ground because it is failing to meet the deepest emotional needs of the people." He is trying hard to use his television ministry as an instrument of psychological and emotional therapy. There are some who don't care for Schuller's calling his "possibility thinking" Christianity. They say that his theology is as simple as equating sin with negative thoughts and Original Sin with self-doubt. A thoroughly positive man, Schuller has little time to answer critics or engage in intramural quarrels. His response to criticism is an invitation to spend some time at the Garden Grove Community Church and determine whether there is any theological depth to what is taught and practiced there. Television, he argues, is a powerful but limited medium. He is pointing people in the right direction, not giving them the full gospel.