Legal Dispute for Rev. Schuller Pops Up Down Under

The Rev. Robert Schuller, who has come under criticism for a misleading 1981 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. And the episode has angered Christian broadcasters in Australia and left many supporters 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 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 reports of sexual impropriety made against Jim Bakker.

Enormous 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.”

Last week, a spokesman for Schuller acknowledged that a 1981 fund-raising appeal that claimed 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.

Schuller had Tresgain’s signed contract and had received two installments totaling about $27,000, roughly 60% of Schuller’s $45,000 speaker’s fee, both parties agree. But the remainder was not paid by Feb. 20 when the balance was due. The Australian promoters contended that the Schuller organization was adding conditions not laid out in the contract.

Sandra Patton, a director of Tresgain, said she was informed by Tresgain’s travel agent that Schuller canceled his plane reservations on Feb. 25. 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.”

Seeking Damages

Patten said Tresgain accepted the cancellation, but requested return of the $27,000 and damages, including the cost of advertising, administration and promotion. It has since estimated its 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 was done.

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

Crystal Cathedral spokesman Nason released a brief statement Friday, saying that 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.”