Sibling rivalry fueled Crystal Cathedral fall, son says

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. — As the Crystal Cathedral tries to find its footing without any members of founder Robert H. Schuller’s family at the helm, the only son and one-time successor says “sibling rivalry” played a key role in the California megachurch’s decline.

“They didn’t want to be accountable to me, their brother,” said Robert A. Schuller, the church’s former senior pastor, of his sisters and brothers-in-law, some of whom were board members and ministry staffers. “So they took steps into their own hands to make sure that they had job security.”

In an interview March 19, Schuller, 57, said his siblings took advantage of his father’s signs of dementia and halted the younger Schuller’s 2006 succession to his father’s ministry within two years. He left the gleaming megachurch in 2008. The onetime heir apparently said the memory of his 85-year-old father has been failing for at least 10 years. “My sisters were able to manipulate that because of his mental capacities,” said Schuller, now co-owner of Youtoo TV, a TV and social-media network. “It was the demise of the ministry.”