Robert Schuller Interview (page: 3 / 6) Crystal Cathedral	Print Interview

Let's talk a little bit about the building of this magnificent edifice, the Crystal Cathedral, and how you envisioned that. It must have seemed like an impossible dream, and yet you've realized it. What did you have in mind?

Robert Schuller: All I had in mind was a building. I needed a building. I came to begin this church in California, at the age of 28, with only $500. My denomination asked me to start a church there. It is the oldest denomination in the United States of America, started in 1628, when the Dutch colonists bought Manhattan Island. All of it belonged to the state church in Holland which was, and still is, the Reformed Church.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I came to start a church. Couldn't find an empty hall, made a list of ten places where I thought I would be able to find a place, like a school or a Seventh Day Adventist church (they're closed on Sunday), or a Jewish temple. "I'll rent your building for Sundays," you know, make a deal. But, number nine was "Use a drive-in theater." And that was the only option left to me, and I did. And, I think I felt at home under the sky because I was raised on a farm. And so, 25 years later, I would have 10,000 members.

[ Key to Success ] Perseverance

I needed a building to seat at least 3,000 people, to protect us from the wind and the rain, and the birds -- who never did learn good manners. So I went to Philip Johnson, I said, "Can't you make it all glass? I tell you, in my mind, this is a building where we are to experience communication, to receive and to extend creative thinking as the high point of authentic religion and true spirituality, and I should be in the environment."

I had already learned bio-realism from the architect Richard Neutra. No one understands that better than I. I gave a lecture on it to 5,000 architects in St. Louis a few years ago. I received standing applause, so I know I'm very, very aware of bio-realism in architecture. Bio-realism says that every organism has its own natural habitat. I was doing this 40 years ago, while Richard Neutra was working with René Duboce, who was the founder of sociobiology, and the three of us prepared notes. Renee Duboce said that if you change the environment of a living thing -- whether it's an insect, a plant, or an animal -- that form of life will become extinct. It will do anything it can conceivably do to survive, but if it survives, it will be a deviate, it will not be its authentic self.

The human being was designed to be a creative person, a communicating person. Tension obliterates or stifles the capacity to be really hearing, honestly listening. So Renee Duboce and Richard Neutra say that the human being therefore should live in an environment that is peaceful, calm, tranquil. If we decide to live where nature's sounds are dominated by sirens and engines, and the grass gives way to cement, the human being is out of his natural habitat. He will be affected, he will become a deviate before he allows himself to become extinct. I contend that atheism -- I'm not talking about agnosticism, I respect the agnostic who has serious questions -- but the atheist is an emotional deviate. That's caused to a great degree by getting out of our natural habitat.

So we created this structure. When we think about God, and think about religion, we are wrapped around with natural space. So the crystal cathedral is not an attempt to be an architectural ego-statement. It's probably the ultimate spiritual and psychological statement that could be made in architectural terms.

There was a crucial moment in your fundraising when you asked John Green for one million dollars. I think you described it as the most ecstatic event of your life.

Robert Schuller: Yes. It was Maundy Thursday in the year 1977, I believe.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. When I hired the architect, Philip Johnson he said, "You need a building to seat three thousand." "Yes." "And you want it all glass?" "Yes." "How much money can you afford to spend?" I said, "Nothing. I don't have anything. But," I said, "It's your job to design a masterpiece. If you do your job, the masterpiece will attract financial support - smart people, sophisticated people, successful people. They'll take a look at it and say, 'That building must be built! It should stand on planet Earth.'"

[ Key to Success ] Passion

When he submitted the plan, I took a look at it and said, "Wow!" I say no idea is worthwhile if it doesn't start with a "Wow!" If it's got a wow, it'll go. I just had to find the people who would be turned on by it. I went to this man, John Green, whom I'd never met. I knew he was wealthy, I knew he gave a million dollars to the YMCA. I showed him the plans, and he said "Wow!" He may not have used that actual word, but his reaction was a wow.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I said to Mr. Green, "I have no money. It will cost probably seven million. I've got to raise that money, but people won't take me seriously. If I had a lead-off gift of a million dollars, I think they would. Would you give the million?" He said, "I'd like to, but I can't." So, I said, "May I pray before I leave?" "Sure," he said. And out of my mouth came one of the most remarkable prayers. I did not coin it, I did not create it, I was just a spokesman for the Eternal Spirit. I said, "Dear God, I'm so thankful that he wants to do it. He said he'd like to, but he can't. Can you figure out a way for him to do what he'd like to do but can't? Amen." And the next morning, he called and said, "I don't know how, I don't know when, but the building's got to get built. I'll give you the million, somehow, sometime." And in 60 days, he did. And so I was off and running. It was the most ecstatic event of my life.

[ Key to Success ] Perseverance

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