Schuller Arouses Furor in Australia : Cancellation of Speaking Tour Angers Christian Broadcasters

The Rev. Robert Schuller, who has come under criticism for a misleading fund-raising appeal, is embroiled in a dispute in Australia over his last-minute cancellation of a speaking tour there in March.

The television evangelist’s decision to back out of the heavily advertised and promoted series of motivational lectures is now the subject of legal negotiations in Sydney. The episode has angered Christian broadcasters in Australia and left many supporters there of the Garden Grove minister’s “Hour of Power” broadcast holding unused tickets.

“I cannot stress too strongly the feeling of hurt that exists among ordinary people who purchased tickets and then found the tour canceled,” said the Rev. Gordon Moyes, senior minister at Wesley Central Mission in Sydney and himself a widely respected television evangelist.

“I received scores of letters highly critical of the Schuller ministry and also highly critical of me for supporting him” after the cancellation, Moyes said.

Moyes, whose own weekly television show, “Turn ‘Round, Australia,” is seen across the country, said news of the Schuller cancellation broke in Australia about the same time as news of Oral Roberts’ fund-raising controversy and charges of sexual impropriety made against Jim Bakker.

‘Cumulative Effect’

“Oral Roberts, Jim Bakker, Robert Schuller hitting the press at the same time has had an enormous cumulative effect,” said Moyes, who had been asked to introduce Schuller at the scheduled talk in Sydney. “People don’t distinguish between each of them,” he said.

“When Oral Roberts shot himself in the foot, the bullet ricocheted around Australia and set Christian fund-raising back here in Australia,” Moyes said. “When Schuller didn’t show at the same time as the Jim Bakker scandal erupted, the Christian cause in Australia suffered ridicule, lampooning by cartoonists in the press and lack of credibility. We will have to work hard to recover ground lost by the American evangelist.”

Last week, a spokesman for Schuller acknowledged that a 1981 fund-raising appeal, claiming that the founder of the Crystal Cathedral was writing from China, was actually composed and mailed before Schuller left for the Far East.

The spokesman, Michael C. Nason, called the mailing of the letter a “clerical error.” He declined to comment on a charge made by the Rev. Timothy D. Waisanen, former director of marketing and planning for “The Hour of Power,” that an accompanying photograph of Schuller standing on the Great Wall was faked, taken in front of a studio backdrop.

Australian attorneys representing Schuller and Tresgain Party Ltd., the small Sydney firm that organized the tour, said last week that Schuller planned to deliver four motivational lectures between March 10 and March 18 in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne. Both parties also said Schuller had Tresgain’s signed contract and had received two installments totaling approximately $27,000 (U.S.), roughly 60% of Schuller’s $45,000 speaker’s fee, by late February, when the final payment was due. Several weeks before that, however, disagreements over matters not specifically covered in the contracts generated some friction.

Center of Dispute

The cause of the breakdown is the subject of considerable dispute.

Sandra Patton, a director of Tresgain, said the company was concerned because the contract had not been returned with Schuller’s signature. There followed a series of telephone calls and telexes with representatives of Schuller Ministries in Garden Grove and Schuller’s agent in Chicago, Cheryl Miller, president of Speakers International Inc.

Patton said there was disagreement over the Schuller organization’s unwillingness to make the evangelist available for promotional appearances in Australia; its reluctance to use the organization’s Australian mailing list of 18,000 supporters to spread word of the visit; an unwillingness to make available for sale copies of Schuller’s books and other materials; how to divide profits from such sales, and Schuller’s dissatisfaction with proposed hotel accommodations in Sydney.

Patton said she was informed by Tresgain’s travel agent that Schuller canceled his plane reservations on Feb. 25, and Miller telexed Tresgain on Feb. 27 that the tour had been canceled. Patton said the company received word from Schuller’s Australian lawyers on March 3 “telling us to cease all advertising and to advise all ticket holders that he wasn’t coming.”

They complied, Patton said, but several days later she and Richard Gonda, another partner in the firm, consulted attorneys. In a return telex, Tresgain accepted the cancellation, but requested return of the $27,000 and damages, including the cost of advertising, administration and promotion. They have since estimated their claim against Schuller at about $140,000.

At the time of the cancellation, Tresgain had already sold approximately half of the 8,000 tickets it hoped to sell, Patton said. More than 100,000 brochures were printed and extensive advertising had been done.

Patton estimated that there are 2,800 ticket holders who have not been reimbursed the $28 average cost.

Released Statement

Nason released a brief statement Friday saying the Australian promoters “breached the agreement in several ways, not least among which was the failure to make the payments required under the contract. When the payments were not received, Dr. Schuller canceled the speaking tour, which was an express right given him by the agreement.”

Miller would not comment on details of the incident, but also released a prepared statement, saying “Speakers International was asked by Tresgain Party Ltd. to make arrangements for Dr. Schuller to speak in Australia in March. When . . . Tresgain Party Ltd. failed to fulfill its obligations under the contract, Dr. Schuller elected to terminate the arrangement pursuant to the contract terms.”

Geoffrey Nye, a partner in the Sydney law firm of Gray and Perkins, which is representing Schuller, said in an interview that Tresgain is liable for the remainder of the speaker’s fee.

“They owe us money,” said Nye, who is handling the negotiations. “Not a large amount.”

Nye declined to elaborate, other than saying that the matter is the subject of “pending litigation.”

Peter Daniels Sr., an Australian businessman active in Schuller Ministries in Australia, said the March tour was “not a function of our ministry,” and said “there was some confusion in regard to his coming. It seems as though the people here in Australia have not lived up to their commitment.”

Moyes, who disapproves of evangelists asking for money on their broadcasts and said he does not do so on his own programming, said: “I don’t have an ax to grind in this situation. I have very warm regard toward Schuller as a person.”.

“I gave Schuller all the benefit of the doubt,” he said of the cancellation. “If there was any problem, I assumed it was the fault of the Australians. Now I believe that Schuller was at fault,” he said.

Extensive Coverage

The Rev. George Christopher, a retired Episcopal priest in Adelaide with a Sunday evening religion show on radio, had agreed to appear with Schuller in that city and had given extensive coverage to the Schuller visit.

When he heard the visit was canceled, he said he attempted to find out why.

“I tried and tried and tried to get Dr. Schuller to talk with me,” Christopher said. “He has consistently refused.”

Christopher persisted, he said, because “I had to protect the good name of my show.” Frustrated, he finally gave up. “When he wouldn’t talk to me, I said, ‘Has he got something to hide?’ ”

“We obviously were frantic about this,” said Tresgain’s Patton. The experience was “like a nightmare” for the small company. “We’re not multimillionaires,” she said. “We put our own money into it and we worked very hard . . . . We would have made a reasonable profit out of it.”

According to the statement released Friday, Schuller has not returned the advance payments to Tresgain, and instead has “insisted that the monies be placed in trust and used to reimburse the ‘Hour of Power’ supporters in Australia who bought tickets. That trust is currently being administered by an Australian attorney.”

Nason said that a 2 1/2-page double-spaced letter from Schuller, explaining the circumstances of the cancellation to Australian supporters, has been prepared and will be sent shortly to the 18,000 contributors.