Ex-Aide Alleges Fraud in Schuller Fund-Raising Letter

TV evangelist Rev. Robert Schuller sent a fund-raising letter to supporters in 1981 that sounded as if he was writing during a trip to China, but the letter was dictated months before Schuller left the United States, according to his former director of marketing and planning.

The letter included a simulated snapshot of Schuller standing on the Great Wall of China holding a Chinese translation of one of his books. The former marketing director, Timothy D. Waisanen, said the photograph was faked by posing Schuller in front of a studio backdrop.

A spokesman for Schuller confirmed Tuesday that the letter and snapshot were mailed to potential contributors before Schuller left for China. But the spokesman denied “any intent to deceive or otherwise engage in any dishonesty” and blamed the early mailing on a clerical error.

Schuller’s spokesman, Michael C. Nason, said Schuller was at a Hawaiian retreat with other ministers and unavailable for comment.

He said during a press conference Tuesday at Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove that there would be no further comment on the matter from church officials and threatened legal proceedings against “any and all individuals and entities that continued attacks on this ministry.”

Waisanen now is pastor of Orange Christian Assembly, a small congregation affiliated with the Assemblies of God denomination.

Referring to records he said he has kept from his fund-raising work with Schuller, Waisanen said Tuesday that the China letter was sent to 366,131 people on Schuller’s mailing list. It netted contributions of $220,459, a relatively low return that made the letter “one of the poorer mailings,” he said. Such letters were mailed each month, he said.

Waisanen said he was hired in August, 1980, by Robert Schuller Ministries Inc., which produces the “Hour of Power” television show.

He said that on April 14, 1981, he was for the first time invited to join the “marketing strategy group,” a panel of top executives of Schuller Ministries who plot fund-raising strategy. On that day, they met in Schuller’s home in Orange, Waisanen said.

He said that during the meeting, Schuller “had everyone stop talking and then brought out his tape recorder and began to dictate into the tape recorder something regarding, ‘Here I am in China,’ and talking on and on about events in China and about rushing this letter off to his secretary to make sure it got into the hands of people who were on the mailing list.”

“I’m trying to figure out what in the world is going on here. . . ,” Waisanen said of the incident. “Quite frankly, I didn’t understand what he was doing with that dictation.” Schuller’s trip to China was not scheduled until early August, 1981, Waisanen said.

But weeks before the trip--Waisanen said he thinks it was mid-June--an advance copy of the letter appeared on his desk, Waisanen said. The letter, dated Aug. 4, 1981, was six pages long, printed to appear to be handwritten and including the simulated snapshot.

On the back of the snapshot was more simulated handwriting:

“Here I am standing on the Great Wall in China--holding up my book, ‘Move Ahead With Possibility Thinking,’ published in Chinese! I want you to know that what has happened here in China is nothing short of a miracle! --Robert Schuller.”

The letter stated: “I am writing to you today from Peking, China.”

It also said: “I can not give you any details of my conversations with the leading Chinese personalities--I must honor their privacy.”

The letter ends with an appeal for money to pay the “mountain of unpaid bills” it says Schuller expected upon his return. Without contributions, he would be forced to cancel his TV show in some cities, the letter states.

“I believe that when I return home I will have a letter from you saying:

“ ‘Dear Dr. Schuller, Yes! We will be partners. You spend your energy creating--I’ll spend mine contributing. You preach I’ll provide. You pray, I’ll pay!’

“I will be so thrilled, I’m believing you will send $25 with your letter.”

Waisanen said he was outraged when the letter arrived on his desk and complained immediately to ministry executives.

“I said, ‘How can we do this as a ministry? This guy is dictating a letter in April, it’s going in the mailboxes in August, and he’s talking about events that haven’t taken place,’ ” Waisanen recalled.

He said his attempts to raise the question of ethics were “pooh-poohed” by his bosses.

He said he did not complain to Schuller because he did not have access to him. But the following September, during a “marketing strategy meeting” at a resort hotel in Santa Barbara, Schuller launched a tirade about the matter, Waisanen said.

Ministry ‘Never Questioned’

“It was obvious the people I had talked to had brought the subject to him about the China letter,” Waisanen said. “ . . . He got up and he walked back and forth, and he ranted and he raved and he said, ‘My ministry has never been questioned.’ He just went on and on and on and on. He was real upset, and he said, ‘I don’t want to hear another word about it.’ ”

Waisanen said he did not speak up during the meeting. “I guess I was intimidated and I didn’t respond, and I guess that’s something that could be said against me at that point.”

Waisanen said that after the China letter, “my attitude toward the ministry began to deteriorate.” He said he was anguishing over whether to remain and then was fired the following May or June during a “corporate shake-up. . . . It wasn’t like I was singled out.”

He said he was given no reason for his dismissal, but he said he “never ceased raising issues. I was basically a pain to those people.”

Nason called a press conference Tuesday and read a prepared statement. He said Schuller was “aware of the statement and has approved it.”

He said Schuller’s trip to China was planned and he had already had private conversations with Chinese officials when he drafted the letter. It was done in advance because Schuller “wanted to share his feelings with his congregation and television viewers at the exact time of his visit in China.”

Departure Delayed

Nason said Schuller’s departure for China was delayed, “but the ministry inadvertently neglected to delay the mailing.”

Nason said Schuller “apologizes for the error” but “objects to the crude efforts to capitalize on the hysteria that is presently being generated in the news media against television ministries. Unfortunately, disgruntled former employees and other opportunistic individuals seeking public recognition are being given a platform by the news media.”

Nason warned that “continued attacks on this ministry will be dealt with swiftly and forthrightly. We will use all available legal remedies at our disposal to protect the integrity of the Robert Schuller Ministries. We consider statements made thus far to be malicious, libelous and slanderous.”

Saying there would be no further comment on the matter from ministry officials, Nason walked from the room as reporters tried to question him.

Waisanen, seated in his church sanctuary in Orange Tuesday, said that “even though I’m talking about Robert Schuller, you know, I hope it’s understood in the context of, hey, I’m a sinner, too. The question is what we do about it.

“The big deal is, whenever we do something and we say we are doing it on behalf of God, I think we have to be very, very careful. . . . I felt like it’s an integrity issue. I feel it needs to be exposed so that generally people in the community will require higher levels of integrity with those that are going to hold themselves out in the Christian community.

“I feel that people who stay (with Schuller Ministries) long term--without the ministry changing--sell their soul. That’s my opinion.”

“My opinion,” Waisanen said of Schuller, “is that he’s not a godly man, based on what I observed. That’s my opinion. And it troubles me when I see a great deal of people who are swayed and follow so unquestioningly because they don’t see what I have seen.”

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