Thou shalt not manhandle your flight attendant with a headlock.
And the Rev. Robert Schuller, known to TV audiences worldwide for his Hour of Power Sunday morning religious program, swears he didn't.
"I've not broken a single one of the Ten Commandments," Schuller said yesterday in a televised press conference from the Crystal Cathedral--his glitzy Orange County, California, congregational home.
The FBI and United Airlines officials are investigating allegations that Schuller pulled a Hulk Hogan on a flight from California to New York last Saturday night.
An unnamed 35-year-old United male flight attendant says the silver-haired, 70-year-old Schuller made "physical contact" with him, causing injury, according to a spokesman for the airline. Terry Giles, attorney for the televangelist, says his sources say the flight attendant claimed that Schuller either pushed the man, or put him in a headlock.
Push, shove, headlock or merely a laying on of hands (that's Schuller's version), this much is known: The airborne dispute between the minister and the flight attendant wasn't what you'd call a holy war. Rather, it was waged over a garment bag, cheese and grapes.
Seems that when Schuller got on the cross-country flight (en route to attending the funeral of Malcolm X's widow in New York), he asked a flight attendant to hang up his garment bag. (The better to avoid wrinkling the clerical robe he was to wear at the event.) The attendant balked, saying it was against policy to hang garment bags. Schuller appealed to a supervisor, and the robe got hung as a "coat"--minus the garment bag.
Fine. Then, came snack time. And Schuller has to abide by a low-fat diet, you see. So, when the flight attendant (Mr. It's-Against-Our-Policy again) came by, passing out cheese and fruit, Schuller made another request. How about fruit only, he asked? No, came the response.
Employing a little of that "God only helps those who help themselves" can-do attitude, Schuller left his seat for the airplane kitchen. There, he asked a second flight attendant for a serving of grapes.
Then things got dicey, and details sketchier: The male flight attendant came up behind Schuller, according to Giles. "Touchy-feely" Schuller, in the words of his attorney, tried to counsel the agitated man. "I'm so used to addressing people with intensity and physical gestures," Schuller said yesterday.
Schuller says his actions were in no way violent. But the ticked-off flight attendant reportedly jumped back from Schuller and threatened to call police if he was touched again.
Federal authorities questioned Schuller for five hours after the plane landed. No charges have been filed.
Hour of Power is watched by 20 million people in more than 180 countries. |
