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KEVORKDJANSEZIAN—THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILE Rev. Robert H. Schuller has died at 88. ByAmyTaxinand Gillian Flaccus TheAssociatedPress ARTESIA The Rev. Rob- ert H. Schuller, the South- ern California televangelist and author who beamed his upbeat messages on faith and redemption to mil- lions from his landmark Crystal Cathedral only to see his empire crumble in his waning years, has died. He was 88. Schuller died early Thurs- day at a care facility in Ar- tesia, daughter Carol Schul- ler Milner said. He was di- agnosed with terminal esophageal cancer in 2013. Once a ubiquitous pres- ence on Sunday morning television, Schuller faded from view in recent years after watching his church collapse amid a disastrous leadership transition and sharp declines in viewer- ship and donations that ul- timately forced the ministry to file for bankruptcy. The soaring, glass-paned Crystal Cathedral — the touchstone of Schuller's ca- reer — was sold to the Ro- man Catholic Diocese of Or- ange in 2011, and Schuller lost a legal battle the fol- lowing year to collect more than $5 million from his former ministry for claims of copyright infringement and breach of contract. Schuller, who preached in a flowing purple robe and outsized aviator glasses, led an evangelical Protestant ministry that was a product of modern technology. He and his late wife, Arvella, started a ministry in 1955 with $500 when he began preaching from the roof of a concession stand at a drive- in movie theater southeast of Los Angeles. The church's motto — "Come as you are in the family car" — tapped into the burgeoning Southern California auto culture and the suburban boom of post- World War II America. By 1961, the church had a brick-and-mortar home, and Schuller began broad- casting the "Hour of Power" in 1970. In 1980, he built the glass-and-steel Crystal Ca- thedral to house his boom- ing TV ministry, which was broadcast live each week from the 2,800-seat sanctu- ary. At its peak in the 1990s, the program had 20 million viewers in about 180 coun- tries. Schuller's message — that "Possibility Think- ing" and love of God over- come hardships — was a uniquely American blend of Bible and psychology. It was inspired by late author Norman Vincent Peale, who wrote "The Power of Posi- tive Thinking." Schuller also wrote more than 30 books, including several best-sellers. Unlike other televange- lists, Schuller's message lacked fire-and-brimstone condemnations or conser- vative political baggage. "The classical error of historical Christianity is that we have never started with the value of the per- son. Rather, we have started from the 'unworthiness of the sinner,' and that start- ing point has set the stage for the glorification of hu- man shame in Christian theology," he wrote in his book "Self-Esteem: The New Reformation." Fundamentalists at- tacked him for statements they believed denied the need for personal repen- tance of sin. Schuller had admirers that ranged from fellow evangelist Billy Graham to Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. His friendship with President Bill Clinton raised some eyebrows among con- servative Republicans. He also was among the first foreign religious fig- ures invited to preach on Russian television. In the start of a care- fully choreographed lead- ership transition, Schul- ler's only son, 51-year-old Robert A. Schuller, was in- stalled as senior pastor in 2006. But he left amid a bitter family feud in 2008. The tumult worsened a pre-existing decline in viewership and dona- tions, and in 2010, Crystal Cathedral ministries filed for bankruptcy, citing debt of more than $43 million. Bankruptcy filings in- dicated the ministry was paying significant tax-ex- empt housing allowances to Schuller family mem- bers and insiders. The al- lowances were legal but raised concerns among church creditors who had gone unpaid for months. Robert Harold Schuller was born in Alton, Iowa, in 1926, and ordained in 1950. He was pastor of Ivanhoe Reformed Church in Chi- cago from 1950 to 1955 be- fore moving to California. Besides his son, Schul- ler and his wife had four daughters: Sheila, Jeanne, Carol and Gretchen. Wife Arvella Schuller died Feb. 11, 2014, after a brief ill- ness. Robert Schuller, Crystal Cathedral me ga ch ur ch f ou nd er , di es at 8 8 OBITUARY PLEASE RECYCLE THIS NEWSPAPER. By Don Thompson The Associated Press SACRAMENTO A federal judge on Thursday or- dered California's correc- tions department to pro- vide a transsexual inmate with sex change surgery, the first time such an op- eration has been ordered in the state. U.S. District Court Judge Jon Tigar in San Francisco ruled that denying sex re- assignment surgery to 51-year-old Michelle-Lael Norsworthy violates her constitutional rights. Her birth name is Jeffrey Bryan Norsworthy. The ruling says it would be the second time nationwide that such a surgery has been per- formed on an inmate, an apparent reference to an inmate who castrated himself in Texas then was given the surgery out of necessity. Norsworthy has lived as a woman since the 1990s and has what Tigar termed severe gender dys- phoria. "The weight of the ev- idence demonstrates that for Norsworthy, the only adequate medical treat- ment for her gender dys- phoria is SRS," Tigar wrote, referring to sex re- assignment surgery. He found that the deci- sion by the California De- partment of Corrections and Rehabilitation to deny the procedure was medi- cally unacceptable under the circumstances. Corrections officials said they are considering whether to appeal the rul- ing. Attorneys for Norswor- thy did immediately com- ment. "This would be a first" for California, said Joyce Hayhoe, a spokeswoman for the federal receiver who controls California prison medical care. The cost to taxpayers for such surgery is uncertain, she said. "It's several tens of thou- sands of dollars, possibly close to $100,000, depend- ing on the circumstances. But It's hard to estimate," Hayhoe said. PRISONS Ju dg e or de rs C al if or ni a to pay for inmate's sex change By Sudhin Thanawala The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO The state can remove an out-of-con- trol child from the cus- tody of a parent even if the mother or father is not to blame for the child's be- havior, a California appeals court said Thursday. If children face substan- tial risk of harming them- selves, it doesn't matter whether the parent did anything intentional to put them in that position, the 2nd District Court of Ap- peal ruled. "When a child thereby facesasubstantialriskofse- rious physical harm, a par- ent's inability to supervise or protect a child is enough by itself to invoke the juve- nile court's dependency ju- risdiction," the court said in its 3-0 ruling. The ruling came in the caseofanunnamedLosAn- geles County mother whose teen daughter repeatedly ran away from home and had a child at the age of 15. The appellate court said the girl remained incor- rigible despite her moth- er's best efforts, which in- cluded looking for her each time she left home, sending her to live with her grand- parents and calling the po- lice and Los Angeles County DepartmentofChildrenand Family Services for help. 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