Interesting: Robert Schuller ousts his son from the pulpit

Hm. The guy who preaches in a big glass house is throwing rocks.

Background: as I shared over at Pyro, I spent my formative teenish years in a cult called Science of Mind, or Religious Science. I would sometimes listen to Robert Schuller, and kind of like him. He was mostly in line with us, except he said the name "Jesus" more than we would.

After my conversion, I thought I'd watch him again, and expected to get more out of him. Instead, he repulsed me. Christ's Lordship was nowhere to be found, the full Gospel message was absent; he was humoring the lost to Hell. More than ever, he sounded almost identical to the cult from which the Lord had just saved me.

Schuller has said many terrible things, judged from the perspective of the Gospel. His abominable book Self-Esteem: the New Reformation carries many of them. Unlike Christ, Schuller puts man at the center of the universe, with God there to serve, affirm, and accommodate. The Biblical teachings of God's holiness and judgment, of Christ's Lordship, of sin, redemption, and salvation through penal, subtitutionary atonement, have been conspicuously absent or denied. Repentance from sin, as Biblically defined and depicted, is not a Schuller theme.

Now I read that the elder Schuller has removed his son from the pulpit, citing different visions and directions that could damage the ministry. Well, that piqued my curiosity. What difference? I haven't been following the doings at Crystal Cathedral at all. Did the younger Schuller preach even less Biblicaloid notions than Dad could stand? Or, perhaps... the other direction?

I searched mostly in vain. But if the Wikipedia article on Robert A. Schuller is accurate, it may give us a clue. Check this:

...where his father's preaching tends to be heavier on psychological reference and lighter on scriptural reference, Robert A. Schuller's messages rely considerably on scriptural reference, hermeneutics, and apologetics, making the role of "positivism" secondary. This emphasis on scripture as a primary teaching source makes his preaching style considerably different from his father's.

Critics of his father will find Robert A. Schuller's teaching and style more in line with mainstream evangelical thought. Some argue that that he does not preach adequately on the topic of sin and man's fallen nature, while others counter-argue that he does so adequately without overemphasizing them (a common critique from evangelicals and fundamentalists).

It is also argued that, as with many televangelists, including his father, Schuller's message is not throughout truly Christian but tends to be rather secular. Others counterargue that the heavy use of scriptural reference, hermeneutics, and apologetics used by Schuller negate this argument.

So, maybe... too much Gospel?

Golly. Think what would happen if anyone tried to nail up 95 Theses there!

Or even just the first one:

When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said "Repent",
He called for the entire life of believers to be one of
repentance.