Schuller Says He, Bush Prayed at White House Over Hostages’ Fate

Television evangelist Robert Schuller said he prayed with President Bush on Thursday over the ordeal of the hostages in Lebanon and was confident that Bush would take action “Americans will be proud of” if another American captive were killed.

Schuller, host of television’s “Hour of Power” religious show and pastor of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, said he was invited to the White House before the hostage crisis erupted.

He said the conversation turned to the plight of the hostages and that Bush “made it clear he would take appropriate action” if another hostage were killed in the wake of Monday’s reported hanging of Lt. Col. William Higgins.

Without specifying what that action might be, Schuller said: “If there is the loss of another life, Americans will be proud of the response that President Bush will take. I feel that very certainly.”

He added: “I think that if the President felt that for the preservation of life and liberty that drastic action is necessary, he has the will to take such an action.”

However, Schuller said, he “did not presume to ask” the President what responses he is considering.

He said he told the President that he had spoken to former hostage David Jacobsen, a member of his congregation, and brought Jacobsen’s assurance that Bush has taken the right tack with Iran and the pro-Iranian hostage-takers. Schuller described Bush as controlled, with “a glint of righteous anger.”

Schuller spoke with reporters in the White House driveway before the announcement from Lebanon of a suspension in the threatened execution of hostage Joseph Cicippio .

The pastor praised Bush for calling world leaders to try to bring about a peaceful resolution.

He said that at Bush’s invitation, they prayed together in the Oval Office for the hostages.