Schuller-Clinton Bond Raises Eyebrows

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

But DiPasqua, 42, a Republican from Placentia, and others among the faithful at the Crystal Cathedral here Sunday displayed a downright Christian attitude about their 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.

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

Indeed, Schuller seems the unlikeliest of spiritual advisors for Clinton, but the television preacher has taken on the role with gusto, helping the president choose Scripture for his inaugural address.

And Schuller has found himself defending that role to his flock in conservative Orange County, where, unlike DiPasqua, many can’t understand how their pastor could counsel a president who supports abortion rights and who has been accused of infidelity.

The offices adjoining the Crystal Cathedral have been besieged with letters and phone calls criticizing Schuller’s actions. When one woman scathingly demanded to know when Schuller was planning to install an abortion clinic in the cathedral, Schuller did what he does best: took to the pulpit and to the cameras.

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

“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” as he did with Clinton, Schuller said in his Saturday remarks.

In an opinion piece in The Times last week, Schuller wrote: “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 the biblical verse he cited in a congratulatory letter to Clinton months ago was the same one from Isaiah upon which he had based four decades of his ministry: “And you shall be called to be a repairer of the breach.”

The verse in Schuller’s letter to Clinton “grabbed” the president, Schuller said. Clinton cited the passage in both his inaugural address and the State of the Union speech. It has since become a public favorite of the president’s.

“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 televised church service. Schuller also said he was “so shocked, so stunned,” when he was asked to be in the first lady’s box. He said Hillary Rodham Clinton told him that both she and the president had been deeply moved by the biblical quotation.

Lois Bowyer, 83, said she was “plenty surprised” herself when Schuller said that he had been invited to be the Clintons’ guest. Bowyer, a retired real estate agent from Laguna Hills and a longtime parishioner here, said she had no problem with Schuller’s 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.”

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.

In an interview Saturday, Schuller said the criticism of him stems chiefly 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.”

In his Sunday sermon, he said that he had also shared the same verse, Isaiah 58:12, with Russian viewers and African clergy, with Israeli leaders and with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who shed a tear when he heard it.

The question for some in Orange County is not their pastor’s powers, but whether Clinton is a true believer.

“I don’t know whether it’s for politics or show,” DiPasqua said.

“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.”