Schuller Role at White House Ruffles Flock

For Guy DiPasqua, the sight of his pastor, ebullient televangelist Robert Schuller, next to First Lady Hillary Clinton at the State of the Union speech was “unnatural.”

But DiPasqua, 42, a Republican pharmaceutical salesman from Placentia, and other faithful at the jam-packed Crystal Cathedral on Sunday displayed a downright Christian attitude about the preacher’s newfound role as advisor to the man many religious conservatives regard as the First Sinner of the land, President Bill Clinton, and his wife.

“His whole mission is to reach the unchurched and the ungodly,” DiPasqua commented after the service. “I’ve been praying for the government and the president for years.”

Indeed, Schuller seems the unlikeliest of spiritual advisors for Bill Clinton, but the television preacher has taken on the role with gusto, helping the president pick Scripture for his inaugural address and standing by Hillary herself.

Schuller has found himself defending the role to his conservative Orange County flock, many of whom can’t understand how their snowy-haired pastor could counsel a president accused of infidelity and objectionable policies on abortion and other issues.

The Tower of Hope adjoining the glittering glass cathedral has been besieged with letters and phone calls criticizing Schuller’s decision. When one woman called and demanded scathingly to know when Schuller was planning to install an abortion clinic in the cathedral, he did what he does best--took it to the pulpit and the cameras.

He addressed his relationship with the Clintons openly on his worldwide televised church services this weekend. He noted that he had also befriended Hubert H. Humphrey, Richard M. Nixon and other leaders. Sunday morning, he slipped Bob Dole’s name into his sermon. At every turn, he stressed the need for positive thinking, for the “repairing of breaches.”

In a column in The Times editorial pages Friday, Schuller wrote that “for all Christians and people of faith in America the occasion of our President’s public pronouncement of spiritual commitment should be a time for celebration rather than alarm.”

In his Saturday night televised sermon, Schuller spoke in his patented beaming, beatific style, full of “Wows!” and “Hallelujahs!” He noted that a biblical verse he sent to Clinton in a congratulatory letter months ago was the verse from Isaiah upon which he had based four decades of his ministry: “And you shall be called to be a repairer of the breach.”

While the two men had spoken on the phone several times and met once, it was the verse in Schuller’s letter to Clinton that “grabbed” the president. Clinton cited the passage in both his inaugural and State of the Union addresses. It has since become a favorite of the president’s in his effort to stress national reconciliation.

“I almost cried when I heard the president use the verse that I have lived my whole life by for 47 years!” he shouted in his Saturday night service, which claims a worldwide viewership of millions. Schuller also said he was “so shocked, so stunned,” when asked to be in the first lady’s box. He said Hillary Clinton told him that both she and the president had been deeply moved by the biblical quotation.

Lois Bowyer, 83, admitted she was “plenty surprised” when Schuller told the congregation the Sunday before the inaugural that he had been invited to be the Clintons’ guest. But Bowyer, a retired real estate saleswoman of Lagune Hills who is a longtime parishioner at Crystal Cathedral, said she had no problem with his White House connections.

“I think it’s great that he’s trying to help people,” she said. “You don’t preach to the choir. You speak to people who need it.”

For DiPasqua, the sight of his spiritual leader next to Hillary Clinton was “very unnatural. It was not a natural match.”

Schuller said of Clinton: “Already President Clinton has shown signs that he’s willing to repair the breaches both within his personal life and among the citizens of our country.”

And when they talk, he said, the president listens.

“I’ve been in private conversations with all the presidents since Nixon and by golly, in none of the others did I sense the power to focus with . . . such intensity,” Schuller said.

Schuller, who emphasizes the power of self-esteem, spoke with Clinton on the phone numerous times before meeting him in person in February 1995. The meeting was set up on Christmas Eve 1994, when Schuller called Clinton to offer best wishes for the holidays.

He had dinner at the White House, spent the night in the Lincoln Bedroom and prayed privately with the president. Schuller handed Clinton a copy of a book he penned in the early 1980s on eliminating the national debt: “The Power of Being Debt Free.”

But lately, it is Clinton who is reaching out to Schuller for spiritual guidance--and that has translated into a newly humble approach to bridging the rifts of nasty politicking.

In an interview Saturday, Schuller said the criticism he is receiving largely stems from erroneous perceptions of him and his role as a minister.

“The perceptions are that Robert Schuller is probably a conservative person,” he said. “Whereas President Clinton has been the subject of charges that would lead people to perceive that he is not running on the same track.”

Asked if he links morality with conservatism, Schuller said. “I don’t like the word conservative. It carries with it too much baggage--good and bad. We’re in a whole new era.” Schuller in his sermon on Sunday spoke of close friendships with Humphrey and Nixon--noting that the latter came with the territory of being a minister in Orange County--and said it was he who had persuaded Humphrey on his deathbed to invite Nixon to his funeral, thereby bringing the disgraced ex-president out of his self-imposed exile.

“I have done my pastoral job. That’s all I am. Not a politician, don’t ever see me that way,” Schuller said.

He added that he had also shared the verse, Isaiah 58:12, with Israeli leaders, with Yassar Arafat, who shed a tear when he heard it, with Russian viewers and with African clergy.

The question for some in Orange County is not their pastor’s powers, but whether Clinton is a true believer. The president is being hit hard by investigations of improper campaign donations, as well as the embarrassing fact that the U.S. Supreme Court is due to consider the case of Paula Jones, who says he asked her for sex.

“I don’t know whether it’s for politics or show,” said DiPasqua of Clinton’s apparent conversion to Schuller’s flock. “I prayed about exactly that at our men’s prayer circle Friday night. Whether it’s for real or for show, maybe it will actually work. The Word of God has a way of getting into everybody’s heart.”