Steve Smick Commits Suicide at Altar of Pastor Robert H. Schuller's Crystal Cathedral

There is more drama following Pastor Robert H. Schuller and his Crystal Cathedral. Apparently Steve Smick, 48, walked into the church Wednesday morning, handed a church greeter a note, then knelt in front of a cross and shot himself in the head, leaving him dead at the altar. All this occurred at a suicide-prevention lecture.

According to the Orange County Register, greeters at the church said a man had shot himself in the head inside the main church. Betty Spicer, one of the greeters, said she welcomed the man as he entered the church asking him where he was from. The man, who had long-hair and was “a bit unkempt,” responded, “Around here,” Spicer said. Then he handed her a piece of paper folded over, with his driver’s license inside. “He was in a hurry,” Spicer said. The note, in bold marker, indicated he’d parked a pickup truck in the parking lot and had borrowed a gun from a friend, Spicer said.

The man went to the front of the church, knelt in front of a large gold cross, reached into a backpack and then put the gun to his head. Spicer said she thought the man was praying before she heard a loud pop. The man had a semi-automatic handgun and fired one round to his head, Lt. Ellsworth said. Source: OC Register

There is no connection between the man and the church. It is just so ironic that he chose that church to kill himself, considering that the same church is embroiled in its own scandal and the slow death of the Schuller dynasty.