Christian News Today

Ephesians 5:11 & Mark 4:22

SHEEP ARE SO DUMB AND HAVE NO DISCERNMENT BECAUSE ANYBODY WITH
BRAINS WOULD KNOW THAT ORAL ROBERTS WAS A VERY GOOD FRIEND OF
BENNY HINN. AND ORAL ROBERTS WAS A DECEIVER AND THIEF WHO DECEIVED
AND STOLE MONEY THROUGH THE CONCEPT OF SEED FAITH WHICH WAS
PROPOUNDED BY Eugene Ewing, often known for making his mark by setting up
"scam" mailing campaigns.

Most of Oral Roberts most successful campaigns (including telling audiences "God
will kill me if I don't get 6 millions dollars") are credited to Eugene Ewing. These
mailers -- similar to scam Nigerian emails you may receive today -- made false
claims and sly promises that (according to Trinity Foundation Investigators) were
the, "cleverest financial deception of the time." Ewing had apparently gotten his
mailing lists from US census records. He is said to have specifically targeted
those who marked themselves as Christian, low-education, but also had medium
income. The Ghostwriter of the Prosperity Gospel?
http://iamthetruthcenter.blogspot.ca/2012/03/ghostwriter-of-prosperity-gospel.html

DUI, speeding charges filed against Richard
Roberts, former Oral Roberts president
BY JERRY WOFFORD World Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 31, 2012


DEFENDANT

Richard Roberts: The former president of Oral Roberts University was
arrested last week after an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper clocked
him going 93 mph in a 65-mph zone, according to his arrest report.
Roberts has remained chairman and CEO of the Oral Roberts Evangelical
Association, which was separated from the institution after his
resignation.

Richard Roberts was charged Monday with two misdemeanor counts, including
driving under the influence of alcohol, court records show.

Roberts, a Tulsa evangelist and former president of Oral Roberts University, also
faces one count of speeding 26-30 mph over the speed limit, according to
charges filed Monday.

Roberts was arrested last week after an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper
clocked him going 93 mph in a 65-mph zone on the eastbound Creek Turnpike
west of U.S. 169, according to his arrest report.
He was stopped in his 2006 Mercedes S430 on U.S. 169 northbound near 71st
Street, the report states.
Roberts was unable to complete two field sobriety tests and was taken to the
Jenks Police Department to determine his blood-alcohol level, the report states.
His blood-alcohol level was measured at 0.11, according to the report. The legal
limit is 0.08.
He was booked into the Tulsa Jail about 2:45 a.m. Jan. 24 and was released
about three hours later on $1,100 bond, records show.

Roberts has remained chairman and CEO of the Oral Roberts Evangelical
Association, which was separated from the institution after his resignation.
Richard and his wife, Lindsay Roberts, host the nationally syndicated television
program "The Place for Miracles: Your Hour of Healing," according to the
association's website.
A person convicted of a first-offense DUI is subject to 10 days to one year in jail
and a maximum $1,000 fine and must complete a drug and alcohol assessment
and evaluation. The person must then complete the recommended DUI class and
a victim impact panel.

The cost of a first-time DUI conviction can top $5,000.
Original Print Headline: DUI, speeding charges filed against Roberts

Jerry Wofford 918-581-8310 jerry.wofford@tulsaworld.com

Just like Benny Hinn, Richard Roberts the Drunk is
hurting and needs money and is pulling out all
stops to get money
WHERE IN THE BIBLE DOES IT SAY TO SOW A FINANCIAL SEED FOR A
MIRACLE? IT DOESN'T? God doesn't do things for money but out of
love and mercy, the seed is the word Mark 4:14
BENNY HINN THE SCOUNDREL http://www.scribd.com/doc/17673980/


July 2012 Partner Letter | Richard Roberts :: Oral Roberts Ministries
oralroberts.com
If youre looking at your life or the life of someone you care about,
and youre asking, Where are all the miracles that would take care of
this situation? Then I

Dear Partner,

Do you need a miracle in your life right now? Do you know someone
who does?

If youre looking at your life or the life of someone you care about,
and youre asking, Where are all the miracles that would take care of
this situation? Then I have good news for you. You are EXACTLY in
the right place for the Lord to move in your situation in the
supernatural, unlimited, abundant way that only He can!

Yes, I mean exactly what Im saying right now It doesnt matter
what youre facing Gods power to turn your circumstances around,
even if it takes a miracle, is unlimited! Nothing is too hard for Him
(Jeremiah 32:17).

You may say, But Richard, the situation Im in seems to be totally
without hope. It appears as though God isnt doing anything for me.
And if Im not seeing a miracle yet, then surely Im in the wrong
place, not the right one

But Im here to tell you that no matter how things may appear to your
natural eyes, there is a spiritual truth that is greater than anything
you may be facing GOD LOVES YOU! He cares about what happens
to you. He has a plan for
your future (Jeremiah 29:11) And Im going to tell you how you can
connect to that plan.

I have good news for you Miracles have not stopped happening.
The Bible says, I am the Lord. I change not (Malachi 3:6). Gideon
obeyed the Word of the Lord and WE have Gods Word with us today.
The same God who helped Gideon wants to help you TODAY And Im
ready to stand in faith with you, expecting the miracles you are
believing God to do for you.

When you send in your Prayer Response, tell me what miracles you
need Tell me what miracles your loved ones need Ill hold your
prayer requests in my hands and pray in agreement with you for
Gods answers to come to you in every area of your life.

And remember, miracles can happen in your finances too The
supernatural power of God can come into your financial situation and
do what appears impossible to your natural mind. He can help you
find ways to pay your bills, have increase in your savings, manage
your money wisely, make good investments, and find restoration for
what has been lost through economic difficulties and other challenges
you may be facing.

One Bible way that God has instituted for us to connect to His
unlimited, abundant power is sowing and reaping Seed-faith is a
miracle of God, and when you use it, it brings His supernatural
resources into your situation!

Thats what Luke 6:38 means When you give, thats when it shall be
given back to you in good measure, pressed down, shaken together,
and running over Sowing your seed to God in faith and expecting
Luke 6:38 to work in your life brings His power of multiplication into
your situation to meet your needs, give you increase, and pour out
more than you can contain (Malachi 3:10).

But you have to do your part Just as Gideon had to act on his faith
in Gods Word, you need to act on your faith and connect yourself to
Gods power to bring you a harvest. Remember, Gideon heard Gods
Word to him received it in faith and acted on it by going and doing
what God told him to do

You can do the same thing RIGHT NOW by asking the Lord what
amount He would have you sow into this ministry as my partner
Listen carefully to what He is telling you right now It might be an
amount that you werent expecting to hear But dont be afraid to
trust Him It might be a bigger seed than you normally sow, but if
the Lord is in it, then His miracle power to multiply a harvest is in it
too

I challenge you right now to obey the Lord, just as Gideon did
Whatever He tells you to do, do it And do it in faith, expecting the
miracle of sowing and reaping to go to work on your behalf as you are
obedient to sow your seed.

Im expecting good things to happen for you because of your
partnership with this ministry I believe God has put you and me
together for a purpose, and part of His plan is to send harvests to you
for the seeds you sow toward helping this healing ministry share
Gods Word and His healing power around the world. You are helping
us change lives and bring people into Gods kingdom! I want to thank
you in advance for hearing the voice of the Lord as He speaks to you
and sowing a special seed-faith offering into our ministry at this time.

Right now by faith, I call you blessed and pray that the fullness of all
God has for you is poured out into your life daily because you are
faithful to pray and give as a partner to all were doing. I look forward
to praying for your specific prayer requests as soon as you send them
to meand Im asking the Lord to multiply your seed exceedingly
abundantly above all that you could ask or think.

So, get your response and seed in the mail as soon as you possibly
can. I look forward to hearing from you!

Your partner for miracles,


PS. The miracle-working power of our unlimited God is available for
youTodayin whatever circumstances you and your loved ones may
be facing. Reach out in faith to Him, sowing seeds against your need
and expecting His miracles in your life. Ill pray with you for your
needs to be met as soon as I receive your Prayer Request, so send it
in as quickly as you can.

Oral Roberts Tragedy
http://www.moriel.org/articles/discernment/church_issues/oral_ro
berts_tragedy.htm

Oral And Richard Roberts
Saints or Scoundrels?

ORU has doled out honorary doctorates to the late Kathryn Kuhlman and Rex
Humbard, both accused of multiple improprieties; the late plagiarist and false
teacher Kenneth E. Hagin; prosperity teachers Frederick Price, Creflo Dollar,
Marilyn Hickey, Joyce Meyer, Jesse Duplantis, Paul (David) Yonggi Cho, his wife,
and Kenneth Copeland; former NFL player Roosevelt Greer; the late entertainer,
Bob Hope; false teachers and founders of the Trinity Broadcasting Network, Paul
and Jan Crouch. But most egregious was ORU's awarding of honorary degrees to
the following teachers who were exposed in international scandals for various
instances of crookedness: Bishop Earl Paulk (who has faced a slew of sustained
sexual misconduct accusations over the years); disgraced television preachers
Robert Tilton and Larry Lea (who were both targets of PrimeTime television
exposes by Diane Sawyer); and faith healer Benny Hinn, who has faced dozens of
major scandals during the past 15 years. And there are many other lesser known
false teachers given honorary doctoral degrees since ORU began the practice in
1972.
Richard Roberts Resigned As He
Did No Wrong?
In 2007 wrongful termination suits were filed against Oral Roberts University by
former professors alleging that the founders son RICHARD ROBERTS and his wife
LINDSAY misappropriated school money and other improprieties. According to the
suit, they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund their lavish lifestyle,
including a stable of horses for their daughters, a $29,400 trip to Orlando and the
Bahamas aboard a university jet for a daughter and her friends, and a $39,000
shopping spree at one clothing store for Lindsay (Healing ORU, Christianity
Today, September 2008).
The suit also alleges that the Roberts home has been remodeled 11 times in the
past 14 years, that Lindsay spent nights in the ORU guest house with an underage
16 year old male, and that she frequently had cell phone bills of more than $800
per month, with hundreds of text messages sent between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. to
underage males who had been provided phones at university expense
The professors were fired for trying to expose the leaderships moral failings and
financial improprieties. On November 13, 2007, the tenured faculty of ORU
approved a nonbinding vote of no confidence in Richard, and he resigned as
president on November 23. Lindsay is his second wife. He and his first wife, Patti,
divorced in 1979.
The Deceived and The Deceiver
In His book "When It Seems All Hope Is Gone: Discover How to Regain Your Faith
And Restore Your Life, deceived Richard Roberts writes on page 114 about his encounter
with the Holy Ghost Bartender, Rodney Howard Browne, another deceiver, and states that
the LORD told him something that never happened " "you're going to laugh while I pay
off your $56 million debt."
ITS INTERESTING THAT IT WAS RICHARD ROBERTS $56 MILLION DOLLAR DEBT LARGELY
DUE TO HIS THIEVERY AND IT WAS ONLY PAID OFF IN PART AFTER RICHARD RESIGNED
AS PRESIDENT OF ORU
On October 17, 2007 Roberts asked for and was granted an indefinite leave of
absence from the school by the university's board of regents, citing the "toll" the
lawsuit and attendant allegations have taken on him and his family.[21] In a
statement Roberts said, "I don't know how long this leave of absence will last... I
pray and believe that in God's timing, and when the Board feels that it is
appropriate, I will be back at my post as President."[21] Billy Joe Daugherty of
Victory Christian Center was named executive regent of the board of regents and
interim president.[22] Chairman of the board of regents George Pearsons noted the
temporary resignation was not an admission of guilt.[22]
Note: Billy Joe Daugherty of Victory Christian Center died November 22, 2009
Roberts: Lord said don't fight it
By BILL SHERMAN World Religion Writer - 5/30/2010

Richard Roberts broke a 2 1/2-year silence this week to defend his wife's honor.

A lawsuit filed against Roberts in the tumultuous period before he resigned as
president of Oral Roberts University in late 2007 implied that Lindsay Roberts had
an affair with a teenager later identified as her daughter's ex-boyfriend. Media
nationwide published the allegation.

"This is the first time I've ever spoken out on it. Maybe it's time," the 61-year-old
televangelist said Tuesday in a wide-ranging 90-minute interview in which he
discussed his departure from ORU, the loss of his father and his flourishing Tulsa-
based healing ministry.

"My wife was accused on the front page of the paper of a horrible thing. Not a
word of it was true," he said. "People rushed from everywhere to defend her, but
that never made the media."

"I can't think of anything more despicable to accuse a woman of. It hurt my wife,
it hurt me, and it hurt my children very badly to have someone say that about an
honorable woman to whom I've been married for 30 years and who has been
faithful all of her life.

"The Lord said, 'I want you to resign, and not defend yourself. If you'll resign, I'll
send someone in to pay off the (ORU) debt,' " he said.

"Well, I resigned, and (a few) days later they came in and paid off the debt."

The Mart Green family of Oklahoma City, founders of Hobby Lobby and Mardel,
donated $70 million to the university at that time and have made additional
donations.

Roberts said the crisis hurt him and his family deeply, but "I held on to my faith,
and I held on to my family." His wife and their three daughters now all work with
him in the ministry.

With the weight of ORU off his shoulders and a prospering healing ministry,
Roberts appeared relaxed as he talked in his spacious, well-appointed office in the
former Tulsa Scottish Rite Center at 6355 E. Skelly Drive.

Only one piece of furniture in the office appeared out of place, a small, plain
wooden desk used by his father, Oral Roberts, early in his ministry.

Roberts said he did not regret his nearly 15 years as president of ORU but had
accepted the job reluctantly.

"I didn't ask to be president of the university," he said. "I said yes because my
father asked me to." Four other men had turned down the post, he said.

ORU was $60 million in debt when he took over, a burden he says no one can fully
appreciate.

"Very few people know what we went through to keep the doors open. We stayed
on our faces in prayer but we never missed a payroll, and we never missed paying
a bill."

He described universities as black holes of financial demand.

In retrospect, he would have done some things differently, including stepping
down two years earlier, he said.

"I'm glad I'm no longer president. I wanted to resign earlier, but I was afraid it
would hurt my father."

He said he is happy that the Green family bailed out the university and that Mark
Rutland is the new president.

"He and I talk frequently," Roberts said.

Does he miss anything about his ORU days?

"I miss seeing those young freshman on campus, eyes wide, about to step into a
new world."

Roberts said the demands of the university took time from his true calling,
preaching the gospel and praying for the sick.

"It's very difficult to ride two horses at the same time."

After his resignation, ORU was separated from the Oral Roberts Evangelistic
Association ministry.

The ministry, headed by Roberts, relocated to the large, three-story building on
Skelly Drive. The building houses the offices, television studio, prayer center, mail
processing center and a 650-seat auditorium. The Roberts family moved off
campus into a home in Tulsa.

Roberts said the ministry is prospering.

He and Lindsay tape a show every morning that airs at night. She does a live
women's show every afternoon, "Make Your Day Count." The ministry receives
3,000 phone calls a day.

The couple's oldest daughter, Jordan, heads the ministry's "Hunger Needs a Voice"
program that has sent $3.2 million in food to Africa, Haiti and Central America
since 2008. They also are building a school in Nigeria.

Roberts travels widely conducting healing crusades. More than 200,000 people
attended the last night of his January crusade in Kenya. Four African presidents
have invited him to do crusades in their nations. He has more invitations to speak
than he can accommodate.

He has just completed a new book, "He's a Healing Jesus."

At 7 p.m. Friday, he will hold the first of what will be a monthly healing service in
the ministry's auditorium, where he will lay hands on the sick. He announced the
meeting on television, and it already is packed, he said. Overflow rooms are being
prepared.

On June 8, Roberts will begin a new Trinity Broadcasting Network program that
will appear two or three times a week on its Church Channel featuring his healing
ministry and vintage footage of Oral Roberts' healing ministry.

Richard Roberts said life for him is better after leaving ORU. He has more time for
his family; his health is perfect.

"I'm happy," he said. "I'm happy I'm alive. I'm happy I'm serving God. I'm happy
about his calling on my life."

Bill Sherman 581-8398
bill.sherman@tulsaworld.com
http://mobiletext.tulsaworld.com/article.aspx?articleID=20100530
_18_A1_Richar818476&subjectID=local&sort=new
Richard Roberts (evangelist)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Richard Roberts (born November 12, 1948, Tulsa, Oklahoma) is an American evangelist.
Roberts is chairman and chief executive officer of the Oral Roberts Evangelistic
Association. After serving for 15 years as President of Oral Roberts University (ORU)
in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he currently serves as President Emeritus for that institution.
He is the son of evangelist Oral Roberts. Richard Roberts hosts the religious one
hour television show The Place for Miracles: Your Hour of Healing, seen daily,
Monday - Friday, domestically and internationally.

Roberts, has dedicated his life to ministering the saving, healing, delivering power
of Jesus Christ around the world. He said that God put a dream in Roberts's heart
of reaching the nations of the earth for Jesus. Since 1980, he has ministered Gods
healing power in 34 nations spanning six continents. In his miracle healing rallies,
Roberts has ministered to crowds of up to 100,000 people in a single service.
Often as much as 50 percent of the audience stand for prayer to receive Jesus
Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. Hundreds of thousands more said they
received healings and miracles as Richard ministers Gods Word and moves in the
gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially the word of knowledge.

In a wrongful termination lawsuit filed against the university on November 21,
former ORU senior accountant Trent Huddleston claimed he had been ordered to
help Roberts and his wife "cook the books" by misclassifying nearly $123,000 in
funds allegedly spent by the university on remodeling the Roberts home.[20]

The board of Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma passed a vote of no confidence
in him after it was alleged he used college money to buy a fleet of expensive cars,
keep horses, convert a study into a wardrobe for his wife's designer clothes,
employed academics to do his children's homework and used the university jet to
fly his daughter to the Caribbean.

Roberts tendered his resignation to the university's board of regents on November
23, 2007, effective immediately. In an emailed statement he said, "I love ORU
with all my heart. I love the students, faculty, staff and administration and I want
to see God's best for all of them."[21]

United Church of Christ Bishop Carlton Pearson, a former protege of Oral Roberts, said
Richard Roberts was "born into privilege... What others may call extravagance he
may not see it as extravagant." According to CNN, Pearson said he was
disappointed but not surprised by the allegations, explaining, "These kinds of
things are common among family-owned and operated businesses and ministries.
They don't cross every T and dot every I."
[13]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Roberts_(evangelist)

Richard Roberts Ministers Powerfully at WRC

"50 people are going to be healed of back and neck pain right now...run up here
right now if that is going to be you! God is speaking to me this very moment, right
off the bat that at least 50 will be healed!" Those were the first words uttered by
Richard Roberts, Evangelist and 12 year President of Oral Roberts University as he
spoke at World Revival Church, Kansas City, Missouri, Sunday evening, January 9.
Within moments, 54 people stretched, bent, jumped and
moved in ways they were unable to do just minutes before.
That was the beginning of a long night of miracles, wonders,
and a steady stream of testimonies of Gods awesome
healing power. As a longtime friend and supporter of Pastor
Steve and Kathy Gray and the revival that broke forth almost
10 years ago, President Roberts felt the urgent Word of the
Lord declare to him to come to World Revival Church,
bringing two great healing ministries together.
"All I knew was that we had to get here. Healing is flowing here, the House of
Hope and Healing is a gift to not only this city, but to the world," spoke Roberts of
the ministry of healing that is making news around the world.
Both ministries believed, experienced, and proclaimed an
increase of influence in Kansas City, and particularly an
increase in a healing anointing that would flow stronger than
ever before from Pastor Steve and Kathy Gray. Drawing from a
rich heritage of healing from his father Oral Roberts, President
Roberts declared strong words of prophecy, and blessing over
the Grays and healing was released throughout the night.
http://www.worldrevivalchurch.com/resources/articles/?id=311

1. FALSE DOCTRINE - The Holy Spirit
Richard Roberts, by associating himself with the false teaching of Rodney Howard-
Browne ("The Holy Spirit Bartender"), Karl Strader and the Toronto Blessing
sensationalism, prompts serious questions, because in doing so he also aligns
himself with John Arnott whose views regarding the Holy Spirit and the Toronto
Blessing are also heretical.
http://www.ondoctrine.com/10roberr.htm

Oral Roberts Is Dead
Roberts used television, radio and direct mail to become the richest US evangelist.

America's televangelists have had more than their fair share of scandals involving
sex, fraud and extremist politics. But Oral Roberts, who has died aged 91 of
complications from pneumonia, always devoted himself to money and,
occasionally, God. He even justified his love of wealth with a biblical source.
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 15 December 2009 23.17 GMT

At the time of his death, however, Roberts' ministry and celebrity had been in
decline for years, a drop-off accelerated by a prophecy the preacher made 22
years ago that "God will call me home" unless $8 million was raised for
scholarships to Oral Roberts University by March 31, 1987.

The money was raised, but by then Roberts had become a figure of ridicule to
many inside and outside the Christian world.

With dwindling revenues -- they once stood at more than $100 million a year --
the televangelist was forced in 1989 to downsize his ministry, laying off 250
employees, closing Tulsa's City of Faith medical center and an adjoining medical
school, and selling vacation homes and luxury cars to raise money.

A heart attack in 1992 forced him into semi-retirement, though he remained the
chancellor of the university. He spent most of his final years in a Newport Beach
condominium with his wife, Evelyn, who died in April 2005. They had been married
66 years.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-oral-roberts16-2009dec16,0,3407978.story


JIM BAKKER & ORAL ROBERTS' FALSE
REVELATION FROM GOD

When Jim Bakker fell from his position of prominence, due to illegal and immoral
activities, he originally had the support of Oral Roberts. Oral Roberts claimed
direct revelation from God regarding Jim Bakker's innocence, in relation to words
he gave in his defense of Jim Bakker against the Assemblies of God denomination,
Jimmy Swaggart (before his two-time falls), and the Charlotte Observer
newspaper who were involved in the disclosure of Jim Bakker's illegal financial
dealings.
http://www.ondoctrine.com/10robero.htm

Measuring Oral Roberts' Influence
Friday, December 18, 2009
John MacArthur

Oral Roberts died this week and the obituaries have been
abuzz with analyses of his life and legacy. The USA Today headline summed
up his contributions this way: "Oral Roberts brought health-and-wealth Gospel
mainstream." The Los Angeles Times gave a similar snapshot of the
man: "Oral Roberts dies at 91; televangelist was pioneering preacher of the
'prosperity gospel'"

But Christianity Today's lead blogger, Ted Olsen, disagreed. He responded
with a post titled "Why the Oral Roberts Obituaries Are Wrong." The long
subtitle at the head of Olsen's post explained: "The 'faith-healer' (who hated
the term) may have done much to mainstream Pentecostalism, but he was
no architect of the Prosperity Gospel."

Olsen's argument, essentially, is that the real founder and mastermind of
prosperity doctrine was not Oral Roberts but Kenneth Hagin, "who is far
more widely recognized as the man who joined Pentecostalism with the Faith
Movement (also called 'Word-Faith,' or derogatively, the Prosperity Gospel or
'Health and Wealth' gospel)."

Olsen, however, is wrong. He has evidently confused two
categories. It is quite true that Kenneth Hagin is the main prosperity
preacher who popularized word-faith doctrine--the notion that the words
we speak determine the blessings we receive. Hagin borrowed that doctrine
from an earlier, lesser-known preacher--E. W. Kenyon. (A mountain of
evidence suggests that Hagin actually plagiarized large portions of his
published works from Kenyon's writings.) Kenyon had been strongly
influenced by the teachings of New Thought, a 19th-century metaphysical
cult similar to Christian Science. So Hagin's word-faith doctrines had deeply
cultic roots, but the idea fit perfectly with the prosperity doctrines that were
already being taught by A. A. Allen, Oral Roberts, Jack Coe, and other faith-
healers. The two ideas were natural complements to one another.

Still, word-faith doctrine and the prosperity gospel are not synonymous.
(Even the current Wikipedia entry acknowledges this: "Although [the Word of
Faith movement] shares teachings in common with Prosperity theology, they
are not the same thing.") Prosperity doctrine is the notion that God's
favor is expressed mainly through physical health and material prosperity,
and that these blessings are available for the claiming by anyone who has
sufficient faith.

Oral Roberts was certainly the 20th century's leading advocate of that idea.
His prosperity doctrine laid the foundation for an enormous media-based
religious system, and Oral Roberts was indeed its chief architect. It is
preposterous that Christianity Today would try to whitewash that fact.
Prosperity teaching was what Roberts himself wanted to be remembered for.

In Oral Roberts: An American Life, biographer David Edwin Harrell, Jr.,
describes how Roberts discovered the prosperity gospel and how it became
the centerpiece of his message. One day he opened his Bible randomly and
spotted 3 John 2: "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper
and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." He showed it to his wife,
Evelyn, and "They talked excitedly about the verse's implications. Did it
mean they could have a 'new car,' 'a new house,' a 'brand-new ministry?' In
later years, Evelyn looked back on that morning as the point of
embarkation: 'I really believe that that very morning was the beginning of
this worldwide ministry that he has had, because it opened up his thinking"
[(Bloomington, IN: Indiana University, 1985), p. 66]. Roberts testified that a
shiny new Buick, acquired by unexpected means shortly after that
experience, "became a symbol to me of what a man could do if he would
believe God."

After he embraced prosperity doctrine, Oral Roberts' best-known and most
far-reaching brainchild was the Seed-Faith message. Roberts taught that
money and material things donated to his organization were the seeds of
prosperity and material blessings from God, and that God promises to
multiply in miraculous ways whatever is given--and give many times more
back to the donor. It was a simple, quasi-spiritual get-rich-quick scheme
that appealed mainly to poor, disadvantaged, and desperate people. It
generated untold millions for Roberts' empire and was quickly adopted by a
host of similarly-oriented Pentecostal and Charismatic media ministries. The
Seed-Faith principle is the main cash-cow that built and has supported vast
networks of televangelists who barter for their viewers' money with fervent
promises of "miracles"--and the miracles are invariably described in terms of
material blessings, mainly money. Elsewhere I have compared this doctrine
to the mentality of the post-WWII cargo cults.

Tragically, the Seed-Faith message usurped and utterly replaced whatever
gospel content there ever may have been in Oral Roberts' preaching. In all
the many times I saw him on television I never once heard him preach the
gospel. His message--every time--was about Seed-Faith. The reason for that
is obvious: the message of the cross--an atoning sacrifice for sins wrought
through Jesus' sufferings--frankly doesn't mesh very well with the notion
that God guarantees health, wealth, and prosperity to the righteous. Our
fellowship in Jesus' sufferings (Philippians 3:10), and our duty to follow in His
steps (1 Peter 2:20-23), are likewise antithetical to the core principles of
prosperity doctrine. The prosperity message is a different gospel
(cf. Galatians 1:8-9).

One leading charismatic figure this week stated that without Oral Roberts'
influence, "the entire charismatic movement might not have occurred." That may
well be true. For that very reason, Roberts' legacy needs to be evaluated
soberly, honestly, and carefully, under the stark light of Scripture. Was the
message he proclaimed the unadulterated gospel? Though he eschewed the
label, Roberts made his main reputation on television in the 1950s as a
faith-healer, and he even claimed to have raised multiple people from the
dead. Were those "miracles" real and verifiable? Did his best-known and most
staggering "prophecies" prove to be true? Was he himself a credible man?

The answer to all those questions is an
unambiguous no. Oral Roberts' influence is not something Bible-believing
Christians should celebrate. Virtually every abberant idea the Pentecostal
and charismatic movements spawned after 1950 can be traced in one way or
another to Oral Roberts' influence. (What the CT blog fails to mention is that
Kenneth Hagin and Oral Roberts often ministered together and affirmed one
another's ministries. Furthermore, the heir to Hagin's standing as chief of
the word-faith preachers is Kenneth Copeland, who went into television
ministry after working as chauffeur and pilot to Oral Roberts. So even
though it would not be quite accurate to portray Oral Roberts as an
aggressive proponent of word-faith doctrines, he acted as more of an ally
than an opponent to the movement. We might say his relationship with that
movement was reminiscent of a benign grandfather who refused to correct
an out-of-control grandchild.)

One thing all the obituaries agree on is that Oral Roberts paved the way for
all the charismatic televangelists and faith-healers who dominate religious
television today. He did more than anyone in the early Pentecostal
movement to influence mainstream evangelicalism. He parlayed his
television ministry into a vast empire that has left a deep mark on the
church worldwide. In many places today, including some of the world's most
illiterate and poverty-stricken regions, Oral Roberts' Seed-Faith concept is
actually better known than the doctrine of justification by faith. The message
of prosperity is now the message multitudes think of when they hear the
word "gospel." Countless confused people worldwide think of the gospel as a
message about earthly, temporal, and material riches rather than the
infinitely greater blessings of forgiveness from sin and the eternal blessing of
the believer's spiritual union with Christ.

All of those are reasons to lament rather than celebrate Oral
Roberts' fame and influence. My prayer is that future generations will see
the folly of those doctrines, renounce and turn away from them, and cling
tightly to the sure word of God and the glorious, eternal promises of the true
gospel.

From Measuring Oral Roberts' Influence
http://www.gty.org/Blog/B091218


The Legacy of Oral Roberts

An Excerpt from "The Fleecing of Christianity" by Jackie Alnor

TBNs September, 1999 newsletter tells the story. "The first glimmer
came one night after a PRAISE THE LORD program," wrote Paul
Crouch to his supporters. "Pastor John Hinkle, of Christ Church in
Los Angeles (who went to be with the Lord a few weeks ago), had
been our guest1. . . . John told us that while he was driving home
after the program that night, the Lord spoke to him so powerfully he
literally had to pull his car to the side of the freeway and stop. The
heavens lit up and he saw in a vision the words, "100 TV STATIONS."
We rejoiced to hear of this revelation."2 (emphasis in original)

"The next great revelation came some years later," Crouch
continued, "as Jan and I were hosting a PRAISE THE LORD program
at one of the great Oral Roberts campmeetings. . . As he began to
speak, a strange new expression came over his face. He paused for
several seconds as he looked heavenward and said, Paul, the Lord
says, The day will come when you will see ONE THOUSAND TV
STATIONS -- and MORE before the Lord returns. Jan and I sat there,
stunned and transfixed for several moments before we could even
speak."3

Yet, contrast this newsletters proclamation with that of a TBN
newsletter 10 years earlier. The January 1989 TBN newsletter noted,
"The Lord is still speaking through His Prophets to His people
TODAY! . . . Brother Oral Roberts gave us a prophetic Word from the
Lord -- that the TBN Network would grow to be 100 STATIONS and,
yes, surpass even that! The Lord also revealed this to Pastor John
Hinkle . . . at a time when TBN was only one station!"4

So with Oral Roberts it was both 100 and then 1,000 stations. Yet
Oral Roberts, according to Paul Crouchs statement at a 1984 camp
meeting at Melodyland, the prophesied 100 stations would "usher in
the coming of Jesus Christ."5 And, today TBN has over 5,000
television stations6 and over 33 satellites. So what might have
looked like a valid prophecy at one time is invalidated by Roberts
time frame into which it was locked.

Oral Roberts is still touted by the Crouches as some great
prophet/healer. They do this even though his record as both is very
poor. His hearing of audible voices has proven to be false so that
even if anything he predicts comes true it cannot be thought of as
coming from God. But as noted earlier, the Crouches have Roberts to
thank for giving them the key to the viewers wallets -- the seed-
faith heresy. Christian media expert Al Dager, of Media Spotlight,
gave a very accurate summary of Oral Roberts ability to hear from
the Lord in his own prophetic record.7

* "1960: Roberts claimed that God had told him to make His
healing power known throughout the earth.
* 1977: Roberts said he had received a vision from God telling him
to build the City of Faith. He later claimed to have seen a 900-foot-
tall Jesus who told him that the vision would soon be realized and
that the hospital would be a success. The City of Faith opened in
1981.
* 1983: Roberts announced that Jesus had appeared to him in
person and commissioned him to find a cure for cancer (Time, July 4,
1983).
* 1986: Roberts said God had told him, I want you to use the ORU
medical school to put My medical presence in the earth. I want you
to get this going in one year or I will call you home. It will cost $8
million and I want you to believe you can raise it. (Abundant Life,
Jan/Feb. 1987).
* January 1987: Roberts said God had told him . . . he had to raise
$8 million by March 1 or God would take him home. Roberts said the
money would be used to provide full scholarships for medical
missionaries who would be sent to Third World countries. . . He said
$3.5 million had been raised and all he needed was $4.5 million
before March 1 that year.
* April 1, 1987: Roberts announced that he had raised $9.1 million
-- $1.1 million more than needed. Of the money raised, $1.3 million
was given by a dog track owner, Jerry Collins.
* November 1987: Roberts announced that the City of Faith
medical clinic will close in three months.
* January 1988: Roberts canceled the universitys free medical
tuition program despite his claim that God had told him to make the
medical school a world outreach program.
* March 1988: The medical scholarship fund went bankrupt.
Students were required to repay scholarship funds at 18 percent
annual interest if they transferred to another school rather than stay
at ORU medical school and start paying the high tuition.
* September 1989: Roberts decided to close the medical school
and the City of Faith hospital to pay off debts."

"When Oral Roberts says that God told him that he was going to take
him home if he didn't get 8 million dollars, he lied to the public,"
noted the late Bible Answer-man Walter Martin. "God never told him
that at all. Don't you get the feeling that something's going wrong?
It is and it's found for you in scripture. We're told in scripture to
reprove, rebuke, and exhort . . . for the time will come when men
will not put up with sound doctrine . . . It's here."8

This makes Oral Roberts a certified false prophet, false teacher, and
lying wolf in sheeps clothing. And his son Richard Roberts, the
current president of Oral Roberts University (ORU), is following in
his fathers footsteps. On Richard and Lindsey Roberts show,
"Something Good Tonight," that aired in March, 2000, Richard
Roberts spoke to the ORU students in the chapel service and claimed
that God said "I want you to get my university out of debt.
Students, I prophesy and Im not a man that prophesies very often
unless God gives me a word. I prophesy to you. . . I prophesy that
we are very near to the day when this university is going to be
totally debt-free. . . Every one of you who are sowing seed. . .
Students, if youve not been sowing seed you dont have a right to
this prayer. God is not going to multiply what you dont sow. But if
you have been sowing seed then I want you to lay your hands on my
hands were going to break the spirit of debt off of you who are
giving."

Of course, none of these students were part of the now defunct
medical program at ORU, but were merely liberal arts students,
many of whom gave up their spending money so that the Roberts
family could get ORU out of its reported 33 million dollar debt.9
False prophesying worked for his father, so no doubt it would work
for the younger one as well. The biggest losers in the deal were
those struggling ORU students.

None of this should come to any surprise. Richard Roberts made it
quite clear that his policy was to work the same tricks as his dad
taught him. He often brags "when you see me, you've seen my
father."


1Note that Paul Crouch still endorsed John Hinkle after it was
already shown that he was a false prophet. Crouch would never
want to acknowledge he was wrong -- that would be too humbling.
2Paul Crouch, TBN newsletter, September, 1999, Vol. XXV, No. IX.
3Ibid.
4TBN Newsletter, January 1989, Vol. XVI, No. I.
5Paul Crouch, Vintage 1984 Camp Meeting at Melodyland, video on
file.
6http://www.tbn.org/index.php/3/18.html
7Al Dager, quoted in O Timothy magazine, Vol. 7, Issue 3, 1990.
8Walter Martin, audio tape "Schismatic Sheep"--pt. 2, tape on file.
9Per Oral Roberts at the ICBM Conference 6/20/2000, video tape on
file.

http://www.apostasyalert.org/Oral%20Roberts.htm


US Television Evangelist Tells Sick Scots To
Expect Miracles
Published Date: 26 April 2009
By Marc Horne

A CONTROVERSIAL American televangelist who claims he can "cure"
cancer is bringing his spiritual roadshow to Scotland, sparking a
wave of anger.
Fundamentalist preacher Richard Roberts is due to host a healing
session in Glasgow where he will tell the seriously ill to "expect
miracles". People will also be asked for "offerings".

One of the country's most respected cancer specialists has
denounced the claims as "cruel and damaging" and has questioned
whether the event should go ahead.

Glasgow City Council has stated that Roberts could face prosecution
if he makes unsubstantiated claims over his alleged medical powers.

A spokesman for the Bible Belt cleric insists he has already "healed"
as many as 100,000 cancer sufferers around the globe and can offer
hope to chronically ill Scots.

But Roberts was forced to quit his lucrative post as president of an
American college amid claims he abused his position and embarked
on "Imelda Marcos-style" spending sprees with the institution's
funds.

The board of Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma passed a vote of
no confidence in him after it was alleged he used college money to
buy a fleet of expensive cars, keep horses, convert a study into a
wardrobe for his wife's designer clothes, employed academics to do
his children's homework and used the university jet to fly his
daughter to the Caribbean.

Roberts will visit Glasgow's Destiny Church, an independent
evangelical organisation, on May 6, and pledges that, through "the
holy spirit", he will cure the sick.

A promotional leaflet states: "Bring your family and invite your
friends and witness healing miracles from the Lord. Come expecting
your miracle".

The event is free, but people will be invited to make financial
"offerings" afterwards.

Professor Jim Cassidy, head of Glasgow University's Centre for
Oncology, believed the event would give false hope to the most
vulnerable.

He said: "Undoubtedly there will be lots of people who wish to take
up this offer. People do clutch at straws, but this is likely to be quite
damaging to them.

"It would be interesting to challenge the legality of these claims."

The cancer specialist was concerned by the idea of people feeling
obliged to pay money to receive "healing".

"The idea that this individual can cure your cancer is quite cruel. I'd
be keen to find out if there was way of stopping such a thing."

Glasgow City Council's Trading Standards Unit confirmed it was
monitoring the situation. A spokesman said: "If Mr Roberts, or
anyone else, advertises or promises a cure for cancer then he is
likely to be in breach of consumer protection regulations.

"Anyone advertising a product, which includes a service, must be
able to deliver."

Terry Sanderson of the National Secular Society has attended similar
gatherings and described them as "dangerous and exploitative".

"I attended a meeting at Wembley held by an another American
televangelist called Morris Cerullo.

"They didn't charge you anything to get in, but before long around
came the little envelopes where you could provide your credit card
details. There is a real danger that vulnerable people can end up
parting with sizeable sums of money through sheer desperation."

Cerullo later caused controversy after a women he had pronounced
"cured" of epilepsy stopped taking her medication and drowned in
bath following a seizure.

Sanderson said: "Telling people they are cured when they are not is
downright dangerous as well as being exploitative.

"We shall be keeping a very close eye on Mr Roberts during his time
in the UK and challenging each and every unsubstantiated claim he
makes."

Cancer Research's chief clinician Professor Peter Johnson said: "We
would urge any cancer patient to continue with the scientifically
proven medical treatments prescribed by their cancer specialist"

A UK spokesman for Richard Roberts said: "I have been at services
where the crippled have walked, the blind have seen and the deaf
have heard.

"But there is no guarantee that everyone who attends will be cured,
it just depends on that night."

He added: "Richard Roberts has a healing programme in Tulsa and
probably over 100,000 people have been healed of cancer over 15
years.

"These are documented cases and our advice to sceptics is to come
along and see."

The Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association, an international
organisation of which Roberts is head, has an estimated annual
turnover of more than $14m (9.5m).

Much of the money is raised through appeals on numerous TV
networks.

A spokeswoman for Destiny Church in Glasgow said they had total
faith in Roberts as a man of probity and proven healing ability. She
said: "Richard Roberts is not some wacky kind of preacher. I know
when you watch some stuff on TV it can be a bit wacky but he is
really sound.

"People who are seriously ill and are suffering from cancer should
definitely come along."

How Roberts was driven out of his own college

ROBERTS is the son of Pentecostal preacher Oral Roberts, who
founded the college that bears his name after claiming to have seen
a vision of a "900ft Jesus" near Tulsa. He became the university's
president in 1993.

In 2007 a number of senior academics resigned, accusing the
president of lavish spending and "cooking the books" to conceal
improper outgoings at a time when it was $50m in debt.

They claimed Roberts spent university funds on sports cars and
redecorating his lavish campus quarters 11 times in 14 years, and
deployed the university jet to take his daughter on holiday.

It was also alleged that Roberts' wife Lindsay awarded 13
scholarships to friends.

The embattled college head strongly maintained his innocence, and
still does, but resigned in tears in front of TV cameras claiming God
had told him to step down. A number of lawsuits taken against
Roberts were settled out of court.


http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/US-television-evangelist-tells-
sick.5206581.jp

Richard Roberts A Wolf In Sheeps
Clothing
Oral and Richard Roberts are con-people. Robbing from the poor and
using the ministry money for their own personal pleasures and
enjoyment. Some day they will meet the King face to face and he will
show them the gates of Hell.

Oral Roberts Insists Son Did Nothing
Wrong

TULSA, Okla. -- Oral Roberts says he doesn't think his son, who has
been accused of misspending funds at the university the evangelist
founded, did anything wrong.
In a visit to the Oral Roberts University campus Saturday, the 91-
year-old Roberts said that he and Richard Roberts didn't discuss his
son's decision to resign as the school's president in late 2007.
The younger Roberts, a televangelist, was accused with his wife,
Lindsay, of spending money on shopping sprees, home
improvements and a stable of horses for their daughters at a time
when ORU was badly in debt. The couple have denied wrongdoing.
The school had been more than $17 million in debt until the family of
billionaire Oklahoma City businessman Mart Green donated $80
million and pledged to restore the public's trust in the school. Green
is now the chairman of the university's board of trustees.
Roberts called the creation of the university the crowning
achievement of his life, and said he never thought the university
would close despite its financial woes. He said, "If God hadn't sent
the Green family, he would have sent somebody else."
Dr. Mark Rutland, a former president of Southeastern University in
Florida, was named president of the Tulsa school in January.
Rutland said the elder Roberts told him Saturday that "I want you to
receive this university from me personally. I want you to consider
yourself as succeeding me as the president."
Roberts declined to talk about his son's future.
Oral Roberts University Faces Money
Laundering Allegations

Oral Roberts University (ORU), its related ministries and former top
administrators were at the center of a new controversy in February
when a former senior accountant for the school alleged in a revised
lawsuit that more than $1 billion was funneled through
"unrestricted" accounts at the university and possibly, through
negligence, to benefit regents.

ORU, Oral Roberts Ministries (ORM), Oral Roberts Evangelistic
Association (OREA), Richard and Lindsay Roberts, and the board of
former business regents were named in the suit, which was
originally filed in November after the former accountant lost his job.

"It appears that many of the former board members were actual
participants in the funneling of money through the university for
their own eventual personal use," former ORU accountant Trent
Huddleston alleged.

The lawsuit claims the university acted as a "corporate veil" so that
funds could be "improperly and arbitrarily co-mingled" with the
finances of ORM and OREA.
Attorney Asks For End To Gag Order In
Oral Roberts Case
TULSA, Okla. (AP) - An attorney is asking the Oklahoma Supreme
Court to stop a district judge's gag order barring all parties in a civil
lawsuit involving Oral Roberts University and its former president,
Richard Roberts, from discussing the high-profile case outside the
courtroom.

Last month, District Judge Rebecca Nightingale said two
constitutional rights were in competition in the wrongful termination
case: the right to a fair trial and the right to freedom of speech, and
expressed concern that the national attention the case has garnered
could hamper either side's ability to a fair jury trial in the future.

The lawsuit, filed Oct. 2 by three former ORU professors, alleges they
were forced out after reporting the evangelical school's involvement
in a local political race and after they gave school regents a copy of a
report documenting alleged moral and ethical problems of Roberts
and his family.

Roberts stepped down as president in November amid accusations
he misspent school funds to bankroll a lavish lifestyle. He has
repeatedly denied wrongdoing.


ORU lawsuit and scandal

Wikinews has related news:

Oral Roberts University president accused of illegal political donations and financial
misappropriation

In October 2007 three former professors filed a lawsuit in Tulsa County.
They claimed to have been wrongfully terminated. They also alleged Roberts
misused university assets and illegally ordered the university to participate in
Republican candidate Randi Miller's political campaign for Tulsa mayor. This
occurred while the tax-exempt university was working lawfully with the
Republican National Committee on out-of-state projects as part of a long-
standing, pre-approved curriculum which had been in place for several
years.
[11][12]

Other allegations against Roberts include claims he used university funds to
pay for his daughter's trip to The Bahamas by providing the university jet and
billing other costs to the school, maintains a stable of horses on campus and
at university expense for the exclusive use of his children, regularly
summons university and ministry staff to the Roberts house to do his
daughters homework, has remodeled his house at university expense 11
times in the past 14 years, allowed the university to be billed both for
damage done by his daughters to university-owned golf carts and for video-
taped vandalism caused by one of his minor daughters, later alleged to be
Chloe Roberts (along with benefiting from school property she allegedly stole
during the same incident, even after he was informed) and acquired a red
Mercedes convertible and a white Lexus SUV for his wife Lindsay through
ministry donors.
[13]

[14]

Lindsay Roberts, who is referred to in ORU publicity as the university's "first
lady," is accused of spending tens of thousands of dollars of university funds
on clothes, awarding nonacademic scholarships to the children of family
friends and sending text messages on university-issued cell phones to people
described in the lawsuit as "underage males."
[15]
The lawsuit also alleges a
longtime maintenance employee was fired for the purpose of giving the job
to an underage male friend of Lindsay Roberts.
[16]

Richard Roberts publicly responded by saying, "This lawsuit ...is about
intimidation, blackmail and extortion." A former ORU professor Tim Brooker,
one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, questioned the university's survival. "All
over that campus," said Brooker, "there are signs up that say, 'And God said,
build me a university, build it on my authority, and build it on the Holy
Spirit.' Unfortunately, ownership has shifted."
[17]

United Church of Christ Bishop Carlton Pearson, a former protege of Oral
Roberts, said Richard Roberts was "born into privilege... What others may
call extravagance he may not see it as extravagant." According to CNN,
Pearson said he was disappointed but not surprised by the allegations,
explaining, "These kinds of things are common among family-owned and
operated businesses and ministries. They don't cross every T and dot every
I."
[18]

Wikinews has related news:
More allegations filed against Oral Roberts University

On 12 October the plaintiffs filed an amended version of the lawsuit alleging
three days after the original lawsuit was filed, Roberts fired the university's
financial comptroller (who had been employed by ORU for 26 years) and
"witnesses have reported voluminous materials and documents were
shredded and destroyed, constituting spoilation of evidence." The filing also
alleged Lindsay Roberts had spent at least nine nights in the ORU guest
house with an underage 16 year old male who also was allowed to live in the
Roberts family residence on campus, a situation which made their oldest
daughter so uncomfortable, she insisted deadbolt locks be installed on all
bedroom doors in the house.
[19]

In a written response to the later allegations Lindsay Roberts said, "I live my
life in a morally upright manner and throughout my marriage have never,
ever engaged in any sexual behavior with any man outside of my marriage
as the accusations imply. Allegations against me in a lawsuit yesterday are
not true. They sicken me to my soul." In a separate written statement the
university denied "purposely or improperly" destroying documents.
[20]

Resignation
Wikinews has related news:
Richard Roberts takes leave of absence from Oral Roberts University

On October 17, 2007 Roberts asked for and was granted an indefinite leave
of absence from the school by the university's board of regents, citing the
"toll" the lawsuit and attendant allegations have taken on him and his
family.
[21]
In a statement Roberts said, "I don't know how long this leave of
absence will last... I pray and believe that in God's timing, and when the
Board feels that it is appropriate, I will be back at my post as President."
[21]

Billy Joe Daugherty of Victory Christian Center was named executive regent of
the board of regents and interim president.
[22]
Chairman of the board of
regents George Pearsons noted the temporary resignation was not an
admission of guilt.
[22]

On November 13 the tenured faculty of Oral Roberts University approved a
nonbinding vote of no confidence in Roberts.
[23]
The vote was nearly
unanimous according to a professor in attendance.
[24]

In a wrongful termination lawsuit filed against the university on November
21, former ORU senior accountant Trent Huddleston claimed he had been
ordered to help Roberts and his wife "cook the books" by misclassifying
nearly $123,000 in funds allegedly spent by the university on remodeling the
Roberts home.
[25]

Roberts tendered his resignation to the university's board of regents on
November 23, 2007, effective immediately. In an emailed statement he said,
"I love ORU with all my heart. I love the students, faculty, staff and
administration and I want to see God's best for all of them."
[26]

On January 14, 2008 the outgoing ORU board of regents voted unanimously
to name Richard Roberts president emeritus in honor of his work during 15
years as president.
[27]

References
1. ^ (Oct. 6, 2007) "Scandal Brewing at Oral Roberts". Ft. Worth Star-Telegram.
Retrieved on 2007-10-07.
2. ^ Gardener, Martin. "Giving God a Hand", New York Review of Books, August 13, 1987.
Retrieved on 2007-10-18.
3. ^ Roberts' information page on ORU website, retrieved 7 October 2007
4. ^ Ostling, Richard. "Raising Eyebrows and the Dead", Time, Feb. 07, 1972. Retrieved
on 2007-01-04.
5. ^ "Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association", Charity Navigator, October 2007. Retrieved
on 2007-10-05.
6. ^ "Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association", Charity Navigator, October 2007. Retrieved
on 2007-10-05.
7. ^ Gardener, Martin. "Giving God a Hand", New York Review of Books, August 13, 1987.
Retrieved on 2007-10-18.
8. ^ Captioned family portrait in ORU alumni magazine, Summer 1991, retrieved 5
October 2007
9. ^ Digging in the Walls, Timothy magazine,Volume 7, Issue 3, The Life and Ministry of
Oral Roberts, 1990, retrieved from Christian News and Views, 8 October 2007
10. ^ "How ORU's president lives compared to counterparts", The Oklahoman, October
28, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-10-05.
11. ^ 3 Former Professors Sue Oral Roberts U., (October 4, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-09-
24.
12. ^ Tulsa World (October 2007). Swails, Brooker, Brooker v. Oral Roberts University,
et al. Retrieved on 2007-09-24.
13. ^ Oral Roberts president faces corruption lawsuit (October 5, 2007). Retrieved on
2007-09-24.
14. ^ Justin Juozapavicius, Associated Press, Scandal Brewing at Oral Roberts U., 5 October
2007 retrieved 7 October 2007.
15. ^ Oral Roberts president faces corruption lawsuit (October 5, 2007). Retrieved on
2007-09-24.
16. ^ Tulsa World (October 2007). Swails, Brooker, Brooker v. Oral Roberts University,
et al. Retrieved on 2007-09-24.
17. ^ Associated Press, Scandal Brewing at Oral Roberts, 6 October 2007, retrieved 8
October 2007
18. ^ CNN, Oral Roberts' son denies he misspent school funds, 10 October 2007, retrieved
10 October 2007
19. ^ Online copy of revised Swails lawsuit against ORU, October 12th, 2007
20. ^ Tulsa World, Lindsay Roberts, ORU deny latest claims, 13 October 2007, retrieved 14
October 2007
21. ^
a

b
Blumenthal, Ralph. "President of Oral Roberts to Take Leave of Absence", The
New York Times, 2007-11-18. Retrieved on 2007-11-17.
22. ^
a

b
Marciszewski, April. "Roberts takes ORU leave", Tulsa World, 2007-10-18.
Retrieved on 2007-10-18.
23. ^ "Faculty Opposes Oral Roberts President", Associated Press, The New York Times,
2007-11-14. Retrieved on 2007-11-16.
24. ^ Marciszewski, April. "ORU faculty gives vote of no confidence", Tulsa World, 2007-
11-15. Retrieved on 2007-11-16.
25. ^ Justin Juozapavicius, Nov. 21, 2007, "Oral Roberts Accountant Sues Over Firing,"
Associated Press, at [1].
26. ^ Embattled Oral Roberts President Resigns
27. ^ Marciszewski, April, tulsaworld.com, $62 million for ORU, 15 January 2008, retrieved 15
January 2008
FROM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Roberts_(evangelist)


Its Time For A Grand Jury To Be
Convened?

MT 7:15 "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing,
but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

I am an ORU alum from the 70s. The nonsense that surfaced last fall has
been there for years. This needs to be treated as white-collar crime, with
some serious jail time for Richard and Lindsay and not a few of the
Regents. They looted the place while faculty and staff prayed that the
payroll would be met. Its time for a grand jury to be convened. 13.
12/26/2007 7:35:16 AM, Graydon Powell (Tulsa World)

In July 2007, The Rev. Gregory Clarke, 53, pastor of the 6,000-member
New Hope Baptist Church was convicted of income tax fraud and was
given a 21-month prison term. Clarke was convicted in July of
underreporting on his tax returns $110,000 in earned income. Clarke's
attorneys contend the pastor received gifts and so-called "love offerings,"
not pay, and that church officials approved giving Clarke $60,000 of the
money in question.

Dr. Henry J. Lyons, the former President/head of National Baptist
Convention, was sent to jail and spent four years in prison for stealing
millions of dollars from the group. He resigned as head of the convention
after pleading guilty to five federal counts. Lyons served a 5 1/2-year state
prison term and a concurrent 4 1/2-year federal sentence. He was released
from prison in November 2003.

While the minister was on a trip to Africa, his wife Deborah Lyons
discovered he had purchased a $700,000 waterfront home with a mistress,
Bernice Edwards, a convicted embezzler who worked with the pastor as
the public relations director for the influential National Baptist Convention.
Deborah Lyons set the home on fire.

The resulting investigation unmasked Lyons use of his leadership role at
the convention to access millions of dollars to finance his lavish lifestyle.
Officials estimated the minister took about $4 million to buy luxury homes,
jewelry and support his mistresses.

Lyons was convicted of racketeering and grand theft in 1999. He resigned
as president of the National Baptist Convention and, in a deal with
prosecutors, pleaded guilty to five federal charges of tax evasion, fraud
and making false statements. Edwards later died in prison and the Lyonses
have since divorced.

Lyons He was a man called by others as Rev. Hanky-Panky who was a
personal friend of Bill Clinton. A man who sought spiritual solace in the
bathtub smoking marijuana after a hard day of playing patty-cake with
Nigerian dictators and the financial stewardship of the NBC including
secret bank accounts, forged signatures, missing files and hushed-up
lobbying work on behalf of those wacky, zany Nigerian scamps. A man
who made a $200,000 rip-off of an Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith
donation, which found its way into his pockets instead of burned out
Baptist churches where it was originally intended. A man whose hand
picked board of the National Baptist Convention refused to see the facts
about Lyons and forgave him unanimously and unilaterally. So that they
could also be forgiven if caught doing the same thing in the pattern of
President Oral Roberts who forgave Jim Bakker for what was not
forgivable.

And yes, nepotism, pilfering and looting of Pentecostal Family run and
owned ministries by the senior anointed Pastor or Evangelist is more
common than people realize. And some of looting is of great magnitude
such as displayed by the Assembly of God Senior Pastor Karl Strader who
stole First Assembly of God after the dissidents rebellion failed and
turned it into Carpenters Home Church Incorporated with Karl Strader
president for life. (See Not Innocent
http://www.a2zbookdepot.com/xxcrxxoxxoks.pdf )

Pilfering and looting was the cause of the downfall of Evangelist Rex
Humbard. From its modest $65 beginning, the Rex Humbard Ministry was
now worth millions. And was all paid for by private contributions. Still, like
those of many of his fellow television colleagues, Rexs ministry appeared
ever on the brink of bankruptcy. On his April 13, 1980, broadcast he made
an impassioned plea for immediate cash contributions needed to stave off
disaster. The program was $2.5 million behind in its obligations, and
Humbard was running an average of four months behind in payments to
stations for TV time.

Humbards appeals brought in $4 million and wiped out the debt. About the
same time, a Cleveland Press writer discovered that Rex and two of his
sons, who work with him on the television ministry, had purchased a home
and condominiums in Florida valued at $650,000 with down payments of
$177,500 in cash.
A lot of people have long believed that preachers, especially the
evangelical variety, have their hands in the offering plate. In light of this
belief, the timing of Humbards corporate debt and personal investment
certainly didnt make him look very good. And he didnt help his own cause
any when he told the prying Press reporter, My people dont give a hoot
what I spend that money for.

But people do give a hoot how much money their favorite minister steals
and that is why ministers especially prominent ones hide their salaries. As
a result of Rex Humbards thievery his ministry folded because people and
even God does not like crooks in the House of God.

Evangelist Benny Hinn, who is a personal friend of Rex Humbard, Richard
Roberts, Karl Strader and other Pentecostal pilferers, stated that his salary
is a personal and private matter when the salary and income of the
President of United States is not! But salaries of anybody who owns or is
involved in a nonprofit corporation or ministry is not a private matter
because its tax exemption status comes from the public, not God. As a
result they are also answerable and accountable to the public for what
goes on in their so called ministry or nonprofit corporation especially
concerning expenditure of funds and the salaries of the leader, his family
and special friends!

Pilferers such as senior pastors or TV Evangelists use various techniques to
shield themselves from scrutiny by their own supporters including clichs
such as Touch not my anointed, Judge Not!, Preachers are
accountable only to God, Evil is he who sees evil, "For I see that you are
poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity, " The Devil is behind all the
news reports, etc..

Pilferers and looters also ensure the composure of their board of directors
including family, friends and staff and the instant removal of any
dissidents. The news media reported about President Richard Roberts
remark I have the deck stackedI am elected to three year terms and if a
Regent appears to give me trouble, I remove him. I stack the deck... .

Yes, stacking the board is also a very common practice in many
Pentecostal family run and owned ministries. Public exposure of
pilferers or looters such as Rex Humbard, Benny Hinn, Richard Roberts,
etc. puts them at the risk of going to jail just like Jim Bakker and Dan
Strader were sent there! But some arrogant and proud ones think that
they are somehow above the law and exempt from public scrutiny or the
Grand Jury because after all they are Gods servants and anointed ones?
Unfortunately for them they are fools who sooner or later will pay for their
foolishness be it in jail or when they have to give a real account to God for
their thievery!


Liars Lie?
TULSA WORLD REPORTED ORU issues
by: Staff Reports 12/26/2007

Here is a look at key issues in the Oral Roberts University controversy:

Finances: During the past 14 years, ORU has reported only two years when
revenues outpaced expenses. During that time, former President Richard Roberts
repeatedly claimed the university was reducing its debt and gaining financial
strength. ORUs current debt is $52 million. An accrediting body and an
independent audit have recommended reforms, which ORUs board of regents
claims are under way.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/common/printerfriendlystory.aspx?articleID=07122
6_1_A8_hHere02455

SO WE SEE THAT FORMER ORU PRESIDENT RICHARD ROBERTS IS A PROVEN LIAR
WHO HAS LIED OVER THE YEARS TO EVERYBODY THAT GOD WAS BLESSING ORU
AND THE UNIVERSITY WAS REDUCING ITS DEBT AND GAINING FINANCIAL
STRENGTH WHEN IT WAS NOT TRUE?

WHAT ELSE IS NEW ABOUT THESE PENTECOSTAL PILFERERS AND LOOTERS?

Gospel or Greed?
ERIC GORSKI A.P.

The six ministries in the inquiry by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, share
Pentecostal theology, a strong television presence and a "prosperity gospel"
message emphasizing material rewards for the faithful

The message flickered into Cindy Fleenor's living room each night: Be
faithful in how you live and how you give, the television preachers said, and
God will shower you with material riches.

So the 53-year-old accountant from the Tampa, Fla., area pledged $500 a
year to Joyce Meyer, the evangelist whose frank talk about recovering from
childhood sexual abuse was so inspirational. She wrote checks to faith healer
Benny Hinn and a local preacher-made-good, Paula White.

Only the blessings didn't come. Fleenor ended up borrowing money from
friends and payday loan companies just to buy groceries. At first she
believed the explanation given on television: Her faith wasn't strong enough.

"I wanted to believe God wanted to do something great with me like he was
doing with them," she said. "I'm angry and bitter about it. Right now, I don't
watch anyone on TV hardly."

All three of the groups Fleenor supported are among six major Christian
television ministries under scrutiny by a senator who is asking questions
about the evangelists' lavish spending and possible abuses of their tax-
exempt status.

The probe by Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the
Senate Finance Committee, has brought new scrutiny to the underlying
belief that brings in millions of dollars and fills churches from Atlanta to Los
Angeles -- the "Gospel of Prosperity," or the notion that God wants to bless
the faithful with earthly riches.

All six ministries under investigation preach the prosperity gospel to varying
degrees (and are Pentecostal in doctrine and friends of Oral or
Richard Roberts).

Proponents call it a biblically sound message of hope. Others say it is a
distortion that makes evangelists rich and preys on the vulnerable. They say
it has evolved from "it's all right to make money" to it's all right for the
pastor to drive a Bentley, live in an oceanside home and travel by private
jet.

"More and more people are desperate and grasping at straws and want
something that will alleviate their pain or financial crisis," said Michael
Palmer, dean of the divinity school at Regent University, founded by Pat
Robertson. "It's a growing problem."

The movement can largely be traced back to evangelist Oral Roberts'
teachings. Roberts' disciples have spread his theology and vocabulary
(Roberts and other evangelists, such as Meyer, call their donors "partners.")
And several popular prosperity preachers, including some now under
investigation, have served on the Oral Roberts University board.

Grassley is asking the ministries for financial records on salaries, spending
practices, private jets and other perks. The investigation, coupled with a
financial scandal at ORU that forced out Roberts' son and heir, Richard, has
some wondering whether the prosperity gospel is facing a day of reckoning.
The scrutiny could force greater financial transparency and oversight.

Prosperity and the Bible

It wasn't until the postwar era -- and a pair of evangelists from Tulsa, Okla.
-- that "health and wealth" theology became a fixture in Pentecostal and
charismatic churches.Oral Roberts and Kenneth Hagin -- and later, Kenneth
Copeland -- trained tens of thousands of evangelists with a message that
resonated with an emerging middle class, said David Edwin Harrell Jr., a
Roberts biographer. Copeland is among those being investigated.

"What Oral did was develop a theology that made it OK to prosper," Harrell
said. "He let Pentecostals be faithful to the old-time truths their
grandparents embraced and be part of the modern world, where they could
have good jobs and make money."

Prosperity preachers say that it isn't all about money -- that God's blessings
extend to health, relationships and being well-off enough to help others.

They have Bible verses ready to make their case. One oft-cited verse, in
Paul's 2 Corinthians, reads: "Yet for your sakes he became poor, that you by
his poverty might become rich."

Critics acknowledge the idea that God wants to bless his followers has a
biblical basis, but say prosperity preachers take verses out of context. The
prosperity crowd also fails to acknowledge biblical accounts that show God
doesn't always reward faithful believers, Palmer said.

Yet the prosperity gospel continues to draw crowds, particularly lower- and
middle-income people who, critics say, have the greatest motivation and the
most to lose. The prosperity message is spreading to black churches,
attracting elderly people with disposable incomes, and reaching huge
churches in Africa and other developing parts of the world.

One of the attractions is that it doesn't dwell on traditional Christian themes
of heaven and hell but on answering pressing concerns of the here and now,
said Brian McLaren, a liberal evangelical author and pastor. It not only preys
on the hope of the vulnerable, it puts too much emphasis on individual
success and happiness, he said.

Rolls Royce and a jet

The checks and balances central to Christian denominations are largely
lacking in prosperity churches, critics contend. One of the pastors in the
Grassley probe, Bishop Eddie Long of suburban Atlanta, has written that God
told him to get rid of the "ungodly governmental structure" of a deacon
board.

Some ministers hold up their own wealth as evidence that the teaching
works. Atlanta-area pastor Creflo Dollar, who is fighting Grassley's inquiry,
owns a Rolls Royce and multimillion-dollar homes and travels in a church-
owned Learjet.

In a letter to Grassley, Dollar's attorney calls the prosperity gospel a "deeply
held religious belief" grounded in Scripture and therefore a protected
religious freedom. Grassley has said his probe is not about theology.
But even some prosperity gospel critics -- like the Rev. Adam Hamilton of
15,000-member United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in suburban
Kansas City, Mo. -- say the investigation is entering a minefield.
"How do you determine how much money a minister like this is able to make
when the basic theology is that wealth is OK?" said Hamilton, an Oral
Roberts graduate who later left the charismatic movement. "That gets into
theological questions."

There is evidence of change. Joyce Meyer Ministries, for one, has enacted
financial reforms and makes audited financial statements public. And she
has promised to cooperate with Grassley.

The investigation

A probe by Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the
Senate Finance Committee, has brought new scrutiny to the "prosperity
gospel." It's a belief that brings in millions of dollars and fills churches from
Atlanta to Los Angeles on the notion that God wants to bless the faithful with
earthly riches. All six ministries under investigation preach the prosperity
gospel to varying degrees (and are good friends or Oral and Richard
Roberts)
.
Proponents call it a biblically sound message of hope. Others say it is a
distortion that makes evangelists rich and preys on the vulnerable.

The ministries

The six ministries in the inquiry by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, share
Pentecostal theology, a strong television presence and a "prosperity gospel"
message emphasizing material rewards for the faithful. They are:

Randy and Paula White of Without Walls International Church and Paula
White Ministries of Tampa, Fla.
Benny Hinn of World Healing Center Church and Benny Hinn Ministries of
Grapevine, Texas.
David and Joyce Meyer of Joyce Meyer Ministries of Fenton, Mo.
Kenneth and Gloria Copeland of Kenneth Copeland Ministries of Newark,
Texas.
Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church and Bishop
Eddie Long Ministries of Lithonia, Ga.
Creflo and Taffi Dollar of World Changers Church International and Creflo
Dollar Ministries of College Park, Ga.


Two Evangelists Lose Clout On ORU's Board

The evangelist Creflo Dollar has resigned from the Oral Roberts University
board of regents, and another evangelist, Benny Hinn, has lost his status as
a voting member of the board.

ORU's spokesman Jeremy Burton confirmed Wednesday that Dollar had
resigned and that Hinn had been named a "regent emeritus" without a vote
on the board.

Both refused last week to respond to a Senate inquiry into lavish spending
by evangelists.

For more: Read the latest ORU stories, view the lawsuit and other documents
and watch slide shows and video.


Professors, ORU headed for day in court
by: APRIL MARCISZEWSKI World Staff Writer 12/9/2007

The school wants to ban those in the lawsuit from talking
publicly about it.

Tuesday will be Oral Roberts University's first day in court since three former
professors sued more than two months ago and started an ongoing public debate
about the school that culminated in Richard Roberts resigning as president on Nov.
23.

The lawsuit: The former professors -- John Swails, Tim Brooker and Paulita
Brooker -- are suing ORU, its board of regents, former President Roberts and
administrators Mark Lewandowski, Wendy Shirk and Jeff Ogle for wrongful
termination and related claims. The professors also are seeking to sue Oral Roberts
Ministries, the ministries' board of directors, and former ORU Regent Lindsay
Roberts in a version of their lawsuit that has not yet been accepted or denied by
the court.

On Tuesday: The first court hearing in the case is scheduled for 2 p.m. for Tulsa
County District Judge Rebecca Nightingale to act on the following requests by
defendants ORU, Roberts and the administrators in response to the professors'
court filings:

Throw out various versions of the lawsuit and require the professors to rewrite their
suit so the defendants can respond to it. The defendants allege the former
professors did not follow proper procedures in filing or applying to file various
versions of their lawsuit and did not properly format or write their lawsuit. The
defendants allege that one version of the lawsuit would wrongly add Oral Roberts
Ministries, its board and Lindsay Roberts as defendants because those entities and
Lindsay Roberts never employed the professors.

Ban participants in the lawsuit from talking about the lawsuit outside of court to
preserve the defendants' right to a fair trial.

Disqualify Gary Richardson as the professors' attorney. The defendants allege that
Richardson is also the attorney for Stephanie Cantees. The professors claim they
lost their jobs because they turned over to ORU regents a report that Cantees
allegedly wrote. The report contains allegations of financial and other wrongdoing
by the Roberts family. The defendants allege that Richardson advised Cantees
regarding that report, so the defendants claim Richardson has a conflict of interest.
Richardson says he is not Cantees' attorney and did not discuss the report with her.

Require mediation, in which all of the parties and their attorneys would talk through
and try to resolve the issues.

Throw out the professors' requests for documents from a pilot, a private
investigator and ORU's security director, or review the documents and then turn
over relevant documents to the professors. The defendants want to prevent the
documents from being made public, and they are asking the court to stop the
professors from obtaining "irrelevant" information about the Roberts family's
alleged wrongdoing. The professors had asked for documents that might
substantiate the report they claim cost them their jobs.

Expectations: Richardson said he thinks the court could "very possibly" accept the
most recent version of the professors' lawsuit, which they have requested to file.

He said he does not think his alleged conflict of interest will amount to anything,
and he thinks the court will allow the professors to request documents related to
the report.

Richardson said he does not know the likelihood of the case being settled.
Attorneys for the defendants declined to talk publicly about the suit because they
are asking the court to stop the professors and their attorneys from doing so.

Robertses powerful in bylaws
ZIVA BRANSTETTER World Projects Editor 12/9/2007

Board chairman says they have a voice but no vote.

While Oral Roberts University's regents say former President Richard Roberts will
have no say in the school's business affairs, Roberts and his father retain significant
power under the school's bylaws.

Roberts, who resigned Nov. 23 as ORU's president, also appears to have significant
power over the board's chairman, George Pearsons.

"I am standing here today because the Lord clearly spoke to me and said, 'Do
whatever Richard Roberts asks you to do,' " Pearsons said in a speech to regents
May 4, 2007.

Pearsons said Friday his comments were referring only to Roberts' request that he
take on the role as chairman of the board of regents.

The Tulsa World obtained ORU's bylaws after citing a federal law that requires
nonprofits to release such information.

The board is divided into two groups: up to 37 business regents and four spiritual
regents. The bylaws list the spiritual regents as Oral, Evelyn, Richard and Lindsay
Roberts.

Evelyn Roberts died in 2005. Lindsay Roberts resigned from the board in October,
the same month three former professors sued ORU, alleging the Roberts family
lived a lavish lifestyle and misspent university and ministry funds.

The bylaws state no seats in the business regents may be held by members of the
Roberts family or their employees. The current board has 23 business regents.

Business regents "shall have sole and complete authority over all of the business,
secular, corporeal, commercial, financial, pecuniary, fiscal and other non-spiritual
affairs" of ORU, bylaws state.

Spiritual regents, meanwhile, "shall be the spiritual, evangelical, scriptural and
theological policy-making body," the bylaws state.

The board of spiritual regents, Oral and Richard Roberts, "shall determine what
actions are required of it, or permitted of it," bylaws state. Spiritual regents can
only be removed "for cause, which includes moral turpitude, fraud, apostasy or the
like," they state.

"In the event a decision of the Spiritual Regents is in conflict with a decision by
Business Regents, on any purely spiritual matter within the purview of the Spiritual
Regents, the decision of the Board of Spiritual Regents shall prevail," the bylaws
state.

Additionally, the bylaws create an 11-member executive committee that has all
powers of the full board. Richard and Oral Roberts are nonvoting members of that
committee, which also includes evangelists Creflo Dollar, Kenneth Copeland and
Pearsons, who is Copeland's son-in-law.

In his May speech to the board, Pearsons discussed the long connection between
his family and the Roberts family. Copeland attended ORU in 1967, Pearsons in the
1970s and his daughter attends now.

"I am standing here today because of the Roberts/Copeland covenant. Our families
are forever connected," Pearsons told the board then.

In an interview with the World, Pearsons said Oral and Richard Roberts "have
tremendous influence and we listen to them and respect their background."

"They are still spiritual regents and they have a voice, but on the board they don't
have a vote. They are responsible for seeing that the founding purpose and just the
theology of the university as a healing evangelistic outreach of the school is intact."

Pearsons said he could not recall any significant matter on which members of the
board disagreed.

When asked whether God still wanted him to do "whatever Richard Roberts asks,"
Pearsons said: "Not to all situations."

"That actually came out of a time of prayer that I had early on when Richard asked
me to do a project for him. I prayed about it and that's the answer that the Lord
gave me. It was like a standing order that I had to do whatever I can to help."

Pearsons said he was encouraged by recent developments at ORU, including an
offer of $70 million from the family that founded Hobby Lobby and Mardel. Yukon
businessman Mart Green has said if ORU accepts the funds, his family expects
changes at ORU, including on the board of regents.

ORU is at least $52 million in debt and reported only two positive years during a
14-year period studied by the Tulsa World.

The regents will meet this week but Pearsons said he did not expect a formal
presentation from Green until early next year.


ORUs Regents


George Pearsons, Chairman of the board

Executive Committee

Charles Green, chairman
Kenneth Copeland
Creflo Dollar
Michael A. Hammer
John Hagee
Marilyn Hickey
George Pearsons
*Oral Roberts
*Richard Roberts
Jerry Savelle
Charles Watson

*non-voting

Lifetime Spiritual Regents

Oral Roberts, Richard Roberts

Business Regents

Karen Arutonoff
Don Bullard
Kenneth Copeland
Scott Cordray
Creflo Dollar
Jesse Duplantis
Rick Fenimore
Charles Green
John Hagee
Michael Hammer
Marilyn Hickey
Benny Hinn
Barry Hon
Scott Howard
Myles Munroe
Glenda Payas
George Pearsons
Henry Penix
Jerry Savelle
Bill Scheer
Pete Sumrall
Charles Watson
I.V. Hilliard
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=071209_1_A1_hrpah20728

Scandal-plagued university looks to
regroup

TULSA, Okla. (AP) - For most of its 44 years, one of the cardinal rules at Oral
Roberts University was this: Don't rock the boat.

Fallout from that blinders-on mentality, a financial scandal that engulfed the
evangelical school and led to the resignation of its televangelist president, Richard
Roberts, came as a crushing blow.

Now, ORU is beginning to repair the damage and attempting to restore the public's
trust in the 5,700-student school, known for its Prayer Tower and 60-foot-tall
bronze statue of praying hands.

Leaders have called for more transparency and involvement from faculty in key
university matters and voiced the need to return the university to financial stability.
An Oklahoma City businessmen recently pledged $70 million to help kill ORU's
tremendous debt load. Disgruntled alumni - of which only 6 percent previously
donated to the school - are being vigorously courted.

Promises have been made, but plenty of skepticism remains among critics. Will the
new ORU fall into the same traps as the old ORU did?

"I actually feel we've come through the storm on the other side and now we have
to fix the ship," George Pearsons, chairman of the ORU board of regents, told The
Associated Press in a recent interview. "We've got great people here. They need to
be heard and they need to know there are ears here that are willing to listen."

That attitude seems a far cry from how things used to work. For decades, ORU was
run like a family business and dissension was discouraged, former employees recall.

"It was like Disneyland, it was a magical place," said David Lacy, who worked for
the school in the 1980s. "As long as people didn't speak bad of (the Robertses) or
they could fully control what was coming out of the campus, their power continued
to grow."

Repairing the damage will be a daunting task. The school faces more than $50
million in debt and lawsuits from former professors claiming wrongful termination,
students who say their degrees are devalued and a former accountant who alleges
the financial books were cooked.

ORU is also looking for a new leader after Richard Roberts, son of the school's
founder, stepped down amid accusations he misspent school money to bankroll a
lavish lifestyle. It marked the first time in school history a member of the Roberts
family was not at its helm.

His resignation opened the door for Oklahoma City businessman Mart Green,
founder of Mardel, a Christian office and education supply store chain, to pledge
$70 million to help the university, provided it passed a 90-day review of the
school's finances.

He offered $8 million of that total immediately, and plans to ask for at least two
seats for his family on the board of regents.

And this week, televangelist Pat Robertson dispatched a team from his Virginia-
based Regent University to the south Tulsa campus, and said his university "stands
ready to offer support and assistance to ORU."

Some faculty members and students say it's a good start, but it remains to be seen
if leaders will follow through on their promises.

They say there are several red flags. Among them, the contents of an outside audit
of ORU's finances which Pearsons has refused to make public, citing the pending
litigation, and that three ORU regents - Creflo Dollar, Kenneth Copeland and Benny
Hinn - are the subjects of a Senate investigation into whether the televangelists
violated their organizations' tax-exempt status by living lavishly on the backs of
small donors. Pearsons is Copeland's son-in-law.

Oral Roberts U. and President Part Ways

DALLAS, Nov. 27 Oral Roberts Universitys regents announced Tuesday that they
would legally and financially separate the university from the ministry headed by
Richard Roberts, the television evangelist accused last month in a lawsuit of tapping
university and ministry money to finance a lavish lifestyle.

The regents also decided during a two-day closed-door meeting to accept the
resignation of Dr. Roberts, who began a leave of absence Oct. 17 from his position
as university president when he and his wife, Lindsay Roberts, were accused of
financial and personal misconduct.

University officials recently disclosed that the institution was more than $50 million
in debt.

George Pearsons, chairman of the Board of Regents, initially announced at a news
conference on Tuesday that the university had received $10 million in donations
during the two-day meeting. Then Mart Green, whose family started chains of
hobby and Christian education stores, increased his $8 million gift to $70 million,
provided the university could show good governance.

Dr. Roberts, son of the television evangelist and university founder Oral Roberts,
had led the university for 14 years. He also serves as chairman and chief executive
of the multimillion-dollar Oral Roberts Ministries, which finances his television
shows and outreach programs.

Mr. Pearsons said that because of pending litigation, the regents would not disclose
the results of an outside investigation into accusations presented to the board.

Dr. Robertss lawyer did not return a call for comment. In his letter of resignation,
Dr. Roberts had told the board: I love O.R.U. with all my heart. I love the
students, faculty, staff and administration, and I want to see Gods best for all of
them.

Joseph Odom, a 2003 graduate of the university who serves on its alumni board of
directors, said recent steps had been difficult but necessary to forge a stronger
institution.
This is by no means the end, he said. I know were going to come out on the
other side better for it.

Richard Roberts: God told me to resign
Tulsa World 11/28/2007

Richard Roberts told Oral Roberts University students Wednesday that God spoke to
him last Thursday and told him to resign.

Students cheered and cried as Roberts spoke for about three minutes at the
school's chapel service Wednesday, five days after his resigned as the school's
president.

Roberts told the students that God spoke to him Thursday and told him to step
down. Roberts said he initially resisted the instructions, but God told him that if he
would resign, the school would be blessed ''supernaturally.''

Roberts resigned Friday.

On Tuesday, Yukon businessman Mart Green promised the school up to $70 million,
more than enough to erase the school's debt.

Roberts was under pressure to step down after three former professors sued Oral
Roberts University, alleging excessive spending on the part of the Roberts family.

Green said Tuesday that reports of the school's troubles and Roberts' decision to
resign helped him decide to make his donation.
Richard Roberts resigns
as Oral Roberts University
president
Tulsa World Nov 24, 2007
Embattled Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts resigned Friday
following nearly two months of allegations that he and his family misused
university and ministry resources.
Oral Roberts accountant sues over
firing
By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS, Associated Press Nov 21, 2007
A senior accountant for Oral Roberts University claims in a lawsuit filed Wednesday
that he was ordered to help school president Richard Roberts and his wife "cook the
books" by hiding financial wrongdoing from authorities and the public.
Trent Huddleston said in the wrongful termination lawsuit that he was directed
against his will to falsely list tens of thousands of dollars as expenses rather than
assets which were spent remodeling the home of Richard and Lindsay Roberts
in order to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and other agencies.
He claims nearly $123,000 was paid by Oral Roberts University and Oral Roberts
Ministries for remodeling the home.
The suit said Huddleston "was improperly and unlawfully directed to perform
functions and duties in violation of state and federal law in an effort by the
defendants to 'cook the books' and hide from the appropriate authorities and the
public the continued wrongdoing, improper and illegal conduct of the defendants,
and in particular, of Richard and Lindsay Roberts."
University spokesman Jeremy Burton said the university is reviewing the allegations
and had no further comment. Roberts, who has been on temporary leave while an
outside probe into the school's finances, has denied wrongdoing.
The suit seeks more than $20,000 in actual and punitive damages.
Huddleston claims he was discharged on the day an audit was to take place. The
audit was ordered by the school's regents two weeks after three professors brought
a wrongful termination lawsuit against the university accusing Roberts of misusing
school funds to support a lavish lifestyle.
Two students also sued Wednesday in district court. Cornell Cross II and David
Brown claim the wrongful termination of the three professors ruined the reputation
of their degrees.
The lawsuits come after more than 80 percent of the faculty voted this week
against Roberts continuing as president at the 5,700-student school.
Poll: Majority at ORU want
Roberts gone
RICHARD ROBERTS IS A WOLF IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING AND WOLVES DON'T
DESERVE A SECOND CHANCE! WOLVES CONSIDER ONLY THEIR OWN
INTEREST AND NEVER THOSE OF THE SHEEP! ORAL AND RICHARD
ROBERTS HAVE MANY WOLVES AS FRIENDS INCLUDING RODNEY HOWARD
BROWNE.
The 'post-survey' revealed that more than 80 percent of faculty members
believed Roberts should not continue as president, while nearly 12 percent
were still undecided. 'When it's that overwhelming of a vote, when does
Richard start thinking more about the needs of the university than his own
needs?' said Tulsa attorney Gary Richardson, who is representing the three
professors in their lawsuit against ORU. 'What does the vote have to be?'
JUSTINJUOZAPAVICIUS, Associated Press

Grassley Probing Three Oral
Roberts Regents
By Scott Sanborn Nov 7, 2007
TULSA, Okla. (AP) - An Iowa senator is investigating possible financial wrongdoing
by six televangelists, including three who sit on the board of regents for Oral
Roberts University.

Senator Charles Grassley is the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.

He is requesting financial records from televangelists Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar,
Joyce Meyer, Kenneth Copeland, Paula White and Eddie Long.

Hinn, Copeland and Dollar are members of the ORU board of regents.

That school is more than 50 million dollars in debt and fighting claims that
its president, Richard Roberts, misspent university funds to support a
lavish lifestyle.


God Speaks To Richard Roberts?
The week the lawsuit was filed, Richard Roberts said at a chapel service that
God told him to deny the allegations. He said God told him: "We live in a
litigious society. Anyone can get mad and file a lawsuit against another
person whether they have a legitimate case or not. This lawsuit ... is about
intimidation, blackmail and extortion." - Associated Press

Richard fires people abruptly, he said. He has a record of making people clear
out their desk by 5 o- clock. He humiliates them, so hes created some enemies.
You have to fire people sometimes, but theres a way to do it with dignity. These
are college-trained Ph.Ds, brilliant, Christian educators. You dont treat them like
children. I think these guys have just said, Thats enough. Bishop Carleton
Pearson

MT 11:29 "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and
lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

So God told Richard Roberts to deny the allegation? He probably told him
also to fire people at will without compassion or any decency or human
dignity? Your Joking! Jesus Christ unlike Richard Roberts is gentle and lowly
in heart and so should all be who call themselves Christians.

ORAL ROBERTS IS A FALSE PROPHET

ACTS 20:33 "I have coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. 20:34 "Yes, you
yourselves know that these hands have provided for my necessities, and for those
who were with me. 20:35 "I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this,
that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that
He said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' "

1COR 14:29 Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge.

In the last few years I have picked up on some strange going on in what I consider
cult churches led by a Charismatic leader. The Pentecostal pastor prophesies special
prophecies in church publicly over different members that God is going to make
them millionaires, make them super anointed, give them a worldwide ministry, or
give them great fame! As a result the members are hooked on their wonderful
pastor who prophesies good things even though over the years none of the
prophecy had ever come to fruitrition. And the pastor attributed it all to lack of faith
or unbelief or hidden sin on the part of the member that his prophesies failed rather
than because of pastor's own sins, faults and failures.

About six years ago in Living Water Church, Tampa, Florida, when we were there
Oral Roberts in person prophesied that God was going to raise up many millionaires
in the church who would be rich and support the work of the kingdom. A few
months ago I checked with the St. Petersburg Times to see what was happening
with the Living Water Church? And boy was I surprised! The church filed for
Bankruptcy. Since 2002 this large church was not able to meet it budget. And then
the Laughing Anointed Pastor Ron Clark a good friend of Evangelist Rodney Howard
Browne, the Holy Ghost Bartender, and Belinda had gone off the deep end with a
public divorce which only compounded the matter.

Living Water, a once-thriving, 2,000-member non-denominational Christian church,
sought protection from creditors in bankruptcy court last October. By then, the
church's checking account balance had dwindled to $60 and the congregation had
fewer than 500 members.

Congregants left as details emerged from the divorce of Ronald and Belinda Clark,
the couple who founded Living Water in 1988. Ronald Clark accused his wife of
being mentally ill, unfaithful and a thief. Belinda Clark claimed in court papers that
her husband had a secret plan to sell the church and funnel the proceeds overseas
with the help of church board chairman Melvin Myer.

The rancorous divorce of the Clarks began to attract publicity a year ago, and has
been blamed for the defection of nearly three of every four members at the Living
Water Church, which was founded by the couple in 1988.

Ronald Clark, the $138,000-a-year church pastor, accused his wife of being
unfaithful, suffering from mental illness, dabbling in pornography and stealing
church mail filled with Easter church donations. It turned out that Pastor Ron
enforced tithing in his church and collected three offerings per service, but he,
himself, never tithed!

Belinda Clark, Living Water's $70,000-a-year associate pastor who was fired in the
wake of the allegations, accused her husband of domestic violence, of lying to
church trustees to ruin her credibility and of having a secret plan to sell the church,
place the proceeds in a trust, then have funds funneled to him at a foreign location.

Hence I am very suspicious of prophets who only prophesy good things happening
to people and not telling them to repent from their hidden sins. And if we are not
careful we will be consumed in the sins of others when the judgment of God falls on
them for defending them or being friends of them. This is something that happened
to Oral Roberts who defended his not-innocent friend Jim Bakker.

Assembly of God Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, had been accused of complicity in the
"diabolical plot" to take over the Bakker ministry by Jim Bakker. Swaggart said
that he had initiated a church inquiry into Bakker's personal conduct, but that it
was "absurd and ridiculous" to suggest that he wanted to take over PTL. He also
stated " I'm ashamed, I'm embarrassed. The gospel of Jesus Christ has never sunk
to such a level as it has today. We've got a dear brother in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
perched up in a tower telling people that if they don't send money that God's going
to kill him, then we got this soap opera being carried out live down in South
Carolina all in the name of God. ( Jeffrey A. Frank and Lloyd Grove, "The Raging
Battles Of the Evangelicals," Washington Post, March 25, 1987.)

In an interview on "The Larry King Show," Swaggart claimed that Bakker's downfall
represented a "very glad day, because this cancer has been excised that I feel has
caused the body of Christ untold reproach. ' ( Associated Press, "Swaggart Calls
Bakker 'Cancer' of Christ," The Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Virginia), March 25,
1987.)

These comments aroused Oral Roberts's ire, and he blasted Swaggart while
defending Bakker. Foolish Oral Roberts forgave and defended Jim Bakker for
something that was not forgivable. God does not forgive those who rob, rape and
murder in the house of God as Eli and his two sons were not forgiven. This is
something that is found in the very bible that they sometime use and is true.

Oral Roberts forgave his friend, Jim Bakker, for robbing and raping in the house of
God. Roberts made large contributions to the Praise the Lord (PTL) ministry of Jim
and Tammy Bakker when they fell into hard times during the 1987 scandal. (Sara
Diamond, Spiritual Warfare (Boston, MA: South End Press, 1989). Then he
wondered why the City of Faith of faith was not finished, the law school was not
accredited and ORU incurred a 40 million dollar debt. (Robert's aides confirmed
annual donations of $58 million in 1986, but the Association's Internal Revenue
Service returns show that the organization has been losing money steadily since
1986).

Richard Roberts announced on Television Sunday August 23, 1998 that God was
moving in many churches because of the word that the Lord gave his father Oral
Roberts about Miracles are coming back in big way. But the Roberts never talked
about how the City of Faith failed? How the accreditation of their law school failed?
How they went 40 millions dollars into debt after Oral Roberts forgave and
defended Jim Bakker for robbing and using the sheep? Richard and Oral Roberts
did not talk about the Miracles that they lost?

Richard Roberts did not talk about how he went to bat for Dan Strader the Son of
Pastor Karl Strader who was sentenced to 45 years for crimes he did
commit? Richard Roberts did not talk about how he did nothing for the victims of
the Strader's even though he was asked to help them and to remove Karl Strader
from being on the board of Oral Roberts University?

Was this not hypocrisy and double standards from so called men of God? Didnt God
speak to other men today beside Oral Roberts? Are not the word of prophet Micah
true today?

But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the LORD, And of justice and might, To
declare to Jacob his transgression And to Israel his sin. Now hear this, You heads
of the house of Jacob And rulers of the house of Israel, Who abhor justice And
pervert all equity, Who build up Zion with bloodshed And Jerusalem with
iniquity: Her heads judge for a bribe, Her priests teach for pay, And her prophets
divine for money. Yet they lean on the LORD, and say, "Is not the LORD among
us? No harm can come upon us." Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed
like a field, Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, And the mountain of the
temple Like the bare hills of the forest. Micah 3:8-12

Did not the Roberts sin by showing partiality and favoritism to the high and mighty
like Jim Baker and the Straders of Lakeland? They did help the aggressors and not
the victims? Unfortunately, as documented by the Strader Affair there were many
other Pentecostals Charismatic who were deceived but very few who were doers of
the Word as defined by the History of the Revival of 1992-1995 6. Karl Strader
taken from a web site:

In February of 1993, Karl Strader, pastor of Carpenter's Home Church in Lakeland,
Florida, and his wife, Joyce, were in Hawaii for a Worship '93 conference, where
Norvel Hayes prophesied that a tremendous great wind of the Spirit was about to
come to them. Joyce Strader wrote in Ministries Today (July/August 1993, p. 38),
"We arrived home Saturday night. That Sunday morning Carpenter's Home Church
began a planned one-week series of meetings with South African evangelist Rodney
Howard-Browne But God had a surprise for us. The meetings went on for four
weeks -- with thousands flocking to the church to see and taste the new move of
God.... But God never intended for it to last only a week. Full-blown revival has
come to Central Florida and Carpenter's Home Church."

During the first few months of 1993, Rodney Howard-Browne spent a total of
thirteen weeks at that church, and Christian leaders from many parts of the United
States, including Richard Roberts, chancellor of Oral Roberts University, came to
the meetings to observe and participate, and minister in the new anointing.
Charisma (Aug 1994, p. 24), stated that people flew in for these meetings from
Africa, Great Britain, and Argentina to see what was happening.

The effect of this so called revival in Carpenters Home Church and its lasting
impact on the community as documented by this book included the robbing, raping
and murdering of innocent God fearing elderly by people by the Straders. The
assistant State Attorneys remarked, at the trial of Daniel Strader, that there are
other things in life besides the pursuit money such as justice is something that
Oral and Richard Roberts did not consider important.

The Roberts never talked about what the media talked about in Florida including:
investors knew him as the son of a well known local pastor. Strader 35, is the son
of Karl Strader, Pastor of the Carpenters Home Church in north Lakeland. A 1979
telecommunication graduate of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Okla. the younger
Strader formed Interstate in 1985.. Daniel Strader, 36 was arrested on Friday May
20, 1994, at his fathers beautiful home, on a lake, across the street from an 18
hole golf course, for what the State of Florida alleged that Dan did.

He was the son of the Pastor and a devout Church member of Carpenters Home
Church. Also a former insurance investigator and a self-made and self-proclaimed
investor with a once-thriving insurance practice. The State Attorney office of Florida
would give a picture of a confident pitchman whose financial world was in
shambles. Interviews with investors by the media revealed that Strader offered
attractive double digit interest rates on their so-called investments which turned
out to be a sham.

The Investors solicited by Dan Strader were told many things about where their
money was being invested, from real estate to insurance companies or stocks or
bonds, but ended up instead in a company run by Dan Strader, Interstate Financial
Services or in his personal pocket or bank account. All the while, Dan Strader was
telling others that he was paying the interest with income from company owned
properties. While it mainly came in from other gullible investors who believed the
Pastors son and this so called man of god and graduate of Oral Roberts University
who prayed with and preyed on them, while he talked about Christ and quoted
Bible verses.

Investigators would later show that Dan Straders five of the properties he had
purchased for investors with their funds, were actually in Straders own name.
Many of his so-called investors or victims, were his insurance clients or members of
his fathers church. Dan and Pastor Karl Strader also told the parishioners of
Carpenters Home Church, Lakeland, Florida that Dan faced real threats and
dangers because of threats from his investors. Although, this was never established
as a fact, by the Straders or by the court.

It's troubling none of the major thieving evangelists or CEOs such Randy White,
Kenneth Copeland, Oral Roberts, Rodney Howard Browne, Franklin Graham, Karl
Strader or Stephen Strader have earned doctorate degrees never mind a degree in
business administration. Secular presidents of universities and non profit charitable
organizations have earned doctorate degrees and are qualified to earn their salary
unlike many Pentecostal religious leaders who have honorary degrees bestowed on
them by Oral Roberts university.

But greedy and thieving TV evangelists always justify what they are doing because
they are uncomfortable with their thievery. Richard Dortch, VP of the PTL club, now
an ex felon stated that when he was earning very little he didn't care if people knew
but when he was stealing $400,000 he didn't want anybody to know? There are
always tell a tale signs about their thievery and life styles that give them away.

Unlike Jesus Christ who owned nothing, Televangelists Jan and Paul Crouch
of Trinity Broadcasting Network are definitely not lacking in any material
possession. Their home is described as "a palatial estate with ocean and city views
and was purchased for around five million dollars. It has six bedrooms, nine
bathrooms, a billiard room, a climate-controlled wine cellar, a sweeping staircase
and a crystal chandelier. The three-story, nearly 9,500-square-foot house, has an
elevator, also has a six-car garage, a tennis court and a pool with a fountain.

Trinity Broadcasting, established in 1973, has more than 768 TV stations on the air
worldwide. The Crouches oversee a $100-million-plus-a-year enterprise. One of the
Crouch estates is TBN's ranch in Colleyville, TX, just minutes away from the
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The 80-plus acre ranch contains eight
houses and horse stables, is estimated to be worth about $10 million.

Jamie Buckingham a well known Christian writer in his article He is saying
something to us through the PTL scandal. The question is: How will we respond?
wrote in 1987 some very profound remarks that need to be considered even today
in light of the many religious scandal with the prominent ones in America:

Today's generation is characterized by countless Christian leaders who have named
their ministries after themselves. There is nothing wrong with name identification.
The problem lies in the super-star syndrome many attach to themselves. When I
asked the head of one of the nation's largest ministries to whom he submitted, he
quickly said: "To God."
I shudder at the personal arrogance and lack of accountability among leaders--
which is one of the major causes of faulty lifestyle and lavish spending. I know of
only one man, among the heads of America's largest ministries, who submits his
personal life to peers who are not in his employ or enamored with his position. I
believe God is calling leaders, not just the televangelists, but all pastors and lay
leaders, to be personally accountable to peers. The temptations are too great to
grow prideful or to become deceived. Today's shaking is forcing leaders to turn to
one another.
I shudder at the fund-raising techniques used by most major ministries of America.
Most of the direct mail letters sent out play fast and loose with truth. How can God
bless a computer- generated letter, signed by an automatic pen, telling the
recipient that the leader is praying for him at that very moment? How can God
bless a televangelist who goes on the air and tells people he has used up all his
money and desperately needs more contributions--while he and all his family are
driving $50,000 automobiles and living in very expensive homes?
We must be careful in judging. Oral Roberts, in standing up for Jim Bakker, made a
point of saying he was going to forgive him, because he (Oral) wanted to be
forgiven also. That is the essence of what Jesus said in Matthew 7:1: The spirit by
which we judge others will be used by those who judge us.
Now, once again, God has come down and is walking among us. He is not pleased
that we have tried to satisfy our individual obligations to minister by giving to large
ministries. We give to Jerry Falwell to build a home for unwed mothers, to PTL for
a home for handicapped children, to Jimmy Swaggart so he may support
Assemblies of God missionaries, to CBN's Operation Blessing to feed the hungry.
All are worthy ministries. But God wants each of us involved. We should be taking
these people into our homes, we should be evangelizing--not hiring a televangelist
to do it for us. God is forcing us back into our local churches, the only place where
real ministry--personal ministry--can take place.

Walter Kambulow
Burlington Ontario



Official: Oral Roberts $55M in debt
Associated Press - October 24, 2007

TULSA, Okla. (AP) - While Oral Roberts University is engulfed in accusations
of lavish spending by its president, the chairman of the school's board of
regents says the school is facing a crippling debt load.

Regents Chairman George Pearsons says the ongoing maintenance costs and
low financial support from donors have put Oral Roberts University $55
million in debt.

University president Richard Roberts has taken a temporary leave of absence
while fighting a lawsuit claiming out-of-control spending.

Meanwhile, his father, Oral Roberts, has returned to Oklahoma from
California to take a greater role in guiding the school he founded in 1963.

The university reported nearly $76 million in revenue in 2005, and one
former regent said its endowment once approached $60 million.

The school did not respond to questions Wednesday about the exact size of
its endowment, but published reports have estimated it at about $33 million.



ORU and Hagee seek national influence
Rev. Don Wilkey Jr Tue Oct 16, 2007

Patty Roberts says that Oral advised Richard to divorce her when she
became concerned about fund raising among people living in poverty in the
name of helping poor students attend the school. Meanwhile the Roberts
enjoyed the luxury that few Tulsans knew about. Some suggest that
allowing trustee John Hagee, the San Antonio minister to investigate this
saga is like asking the fox to guard the hen house. Hagee, like Richard, is
on his second wife abandoning the first for a much younger model.

More than a couple of decades ago I read the intriguing book written by Patty
Roberts, who was the famous singer associated with Oral Roberts. Married to Oral's
son Richard, Patty traveled around the nation helping raise money for the
organization. She grew disgusted that poor followers sent millions with much of it
going to the disgusting lavish life style of the family she married into. Growing up
around 50 miles from their school, I noted few took the family seriously in my
region. One example was practices like faith healing services in which Oral would
put up cables with clothes pins claiming that when a $5 bill was under each pin God
would begin healing. That movement has now grown to raising up to $75 million a
year and seeking to extend its clutches into government influence.

Recent charges against Oral Roberts University in the press have raised a larger
issue concerning the influence the university has around the nation. Fired alleged
whistle blowers from the faculty of the school claim they were let go because they
exposed dirty laundry. The claims that Richard and his second wife lived a life of
excess at the expense of donor money to the school are nothing new. Patty,
Richard's first wife claimed the same almost three decades ago in her book about
the Tulsa school. She wrote of golf trips her husband took and her mother in law's
elaborate shopping sprees using jets to fly them around the nation for such.

Don't look for any decrease in giving from the faithful since Patty's claims
caused little impact on the huge amount of money flowing into the
programs. Around $75 million according to some accounts. The fact that
the Roberts used this to qualify for lifestyles of the rich and famous brought
little concern from seed faith followers. These congregants adhere to Oral's
view of the Bible that God wants His followers to be wealthy. Oral has
written that Jesus was rich in His day and this justifies the opulence. Joel
Olsteen, pastor of the huge Houston church, was a student at
ORU. Olsteen's wife has gotten the message. She is now famous for
slapping an airline stewardess who didn't clean her first class seat properly.

Graduate Ted Haggard spared no expense to make his now famous contacts
with a gay lover in an exclusive hotel. Haggard was said to have spoken
weekly to President Bush. One wonders what theological views Ted held
about taxation of the wealthy?

Patty says that Oral advised Richard to divorce her when she became
concerned about fund raising among people living in poverty in the name of
helping poor students attend the school. Meanwhile the Roberts enjoyed the
luxury that few Tulsans knew about. Some suggest that allowing trustee
John Hagee, the San Antonio minister to investigate this saga is like asking
the fox to guard the hen house.

Hagee, like Richard, is on his second wife abandoning the first for a much
younger model. PBS's own Bill Moyers raised some recent concern about the
impact Hagee is having on the nation. Hagee is pushing the nation to go to
war against Iran.

John often announces on TV that President Bush is God's man for President
and Christians need to support his foreign policy. According to PBS, Hagee
implied God sent hurricane Katrina to America because we forced Israel to
give up occupied territory. Hagee has raised millions to support efforts to
allow Israel to occupy ancient Biblical lands. He has held rallies in
Washington with powerful GOP leaders in attendance at his pro-Israel rallies.

These allegations are wrapped in the original complaint from ORU professors
that students were used in political campaigns in Colorado and Tulsa. The
suit claims violations of 501c3 regulations. The document claims ORU used
its tax exempt collections to engage in secular GOP campaigns. Richard is
supposed to have used school resources to try to get a candidate elected as
mayor of Tulsa.

The issues smells of the influence of the university's most famous graduate,
math major David Barton. Barton is the point man for the Religious Right to
correct the nation about the "Myth of the Separaton of Church and
state." Barton advises churches to engage in election activity and suggests
that political parties that aren't with him are against free speech in the
church. He leads Black History rallies showing a cartoon with a black man
with large lips standing shivering between two white men holding guns to his
head telling him who to vote for. The white men are Democrats and Barton
says Blacks should be Republicans baecause Democrats voted against civil
rights and anti-lynching laws.

To Barton, Hagee and Richard's followers the use of the church to engage in
secular politics is not prohibited, but a Biblical mandate. If anything, the
disclosure of Richard's activity with the Colorado GOP will only hasten the
frenzy to send more money.

Barton's revision of Black History was so controversial that Lufkin, Texas, a
city who had invited him to speak, sent out an apology to all the area
churches. Oral Robert's recent legacy of claiming that God was going to kill
him if he didn't raise another million will continue to haunt him. The money
was to be raised for a hospital. When the money came in the hospital folded
in a short while. Which might raise some question about revelations Oral
gets. Though Oral's theology of God as a hit man might be the fodder for
late night comedians, Hagee's revelations might not be so funny.

Some from the left accused the administration of going to war through the
influence of Tim LaHaye-type end of times theories. Most considered the
idea that such allegations as the nation following someone's theories about
the second coming of Christ as being a basis for foreign policy too
farfetched.

The charges that Richard Robert's wife has cell phone access to several
young males on campus might not be as interesting as the other access the
university has to seats of power through its graduates and contacts. After
all, Oral always taught the seed theory. Sowing seeds into government
power might bring a harvest the nation doesn't want. One wonders if much
attention will even be paid to the investigations. Or will the story fade into
the past much like Patty's earlier charges.

Don Wilkey Jr. is the pastor of Onalaska First Baptist Church, in Onalaska,


Oral Roberts alumni say suit tarnishes school
record
Former professors allege they were forced out after bringing allegations
about Roberts family
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Article Launched: 10/27/2007

TULSA, Okla. -- Some Oral Roberts University alumni have said they wished a
dispute between university officials and several former professors could have been
resolved without a lawsuit, but the plaintiffs' attorney said he unsuccessfully tried
to handle the issue privately before going to court.

Former professors John Swails, Tim Brooker and Paulita Brooker filed a wrongful
termination lawsuit against the private university Oct. 2, saying they were fired or
forced to resign after alleging that President Richard Roberts illegally involved the
college in a political campaign.

Their legal petition also alleges the Roberts family misspent university money and
misused university resources for itself, along with accusing Roberts' wife, Lindsay,
of spending time with an underage male. The ex-professors say that turning over
the report to the board of regents got them fired.

"Although I see this could be helpful in forcing them to hold everything up to the
spotlight, all of this could have been done without all the drama," alumnus and
Alumni Association board member Gene Gregg said.

"It's concerning that the school is now in the national spotlight for all the wrong
reasons."

The university and its attorney, Jack Santee, declined to comment.

Gary Richardson, attorney for the former professors, said he met with Santee and
suggested a discussion to resolve the dispute privately, but he said he moved
forward with the lawsuit after the university didn't respond after three weeks.

The biblical idea of mediation is practical "if they'll talk to you," Richardson
said. "We couldn't get them to talk to us."
http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_7298681?source=rss



Oral Roberts Shaken by Scandal

Allegations of misuse of school funds, improper political activities and an Imelda
Marcos-style closet full of shoes have led to a lawsuit and investigation at the
evangelical university.
By Catharine Skipp Newsweek Web Exclusive Updated: 8:22 PM ET Oct 19, 2007
In December 2005, Tim Brooker, a government professor at Oral Roberts University
in Tulsa, Okla., was summoned to meet with Richard Roberts, the evangelical
institution's president and son of its founder. They got together in the spectacular
penthouse suite of CityPlex, a soaring 60-story tower built by Oral Roberts, who
had raised millions as a Christian televangelist. When Brooker entered, he says,
Richard Roberts greeted him with outstretched arms and said, "I'm now taking you
into my confidence." Brooker thought to himself, "This is freaking weird," but sat
down to hear what his host had to say. According to Brooker, Roberts asked him to
mobilize his students to help the Tulsa mayoral campaign of Republican candidate
Randi Miller. Though Brooker's students had in the past worked on numerous
political campaigns, that activity had always been voluntary and out-of-state.
Brooker's longstanding mantra: "We don't do local politics because it turns
neighbors into enemies." Plus, using ORU resources for political advocacy
threatened the institution's nonprofit status. But Brooker says Roberts was so
insistent that he felt he had little choice but to assent.
That exchange unleashed a series of events that have plunged the university, some
of its professors and the Roberts family into a cauldron of lurid accusations and
litigation. Brooker and two of his colleagues in the department of history,
humanities and government--his wife, Prof. Paulita Brooker, and John Swails, the
department chair--allege that ORU forced them out to cover up Roberts's misdeeds.
Earlier this month, the trio sued the university, its board and some of its officers,
alleging breach of contract, wrongful discharge and libel, among other things. On
Wednesday, Roberts announced that he was taking a leave of absence, and the
chairman of the Board of Regents said an independent investigation into the
lawsuit's allegations was being launched. "The untrue allegations have struck a
terrible blow in my heart," said Roberts. But "I will give myself afresh and anew to
my family and to prayer and the word of God."
How did things get so nasty? After his meeting with Roberts, Brooker encouraged
his students to volunteer for Miller. While many stepped up enthusiastically, one of
them, senior Cornell Cross II, says Brooker made clear that there was pressure
from on high to do so. Before long, though, Miller's campaign ran out of money and
faltered (she lost in the GOP primary). Moreover, says Brooker, some students felt
mistreated by another university employee involved in the campaign, Stephanie
Cantees. The sister of Roberts's wife, Lindsay, Cantees was ORU's community and
government-affairs liaison and had a dictatorial streak, according to Brooker (a
university spokesman declined to make Cantees or any other family member,
administrator or regent available for comment). All of this prompted the students to
leave the campaign in early 2006.
Before departing, however, one student happened to come into possession of
documents that would prove scandalous. The student had backed-up the files on
Cantees's laptop on a CD as a precaution. At some point in the ensuing months, he
examined the CD's contents and printed out some of the documents. He handed
them over to Brooker, who then shared them with Swails, the department chair.
Swails says he read the files, which are included in his lawsuit, with "stunned
amazement." They appeared to be a confidential, detailed assessment of alleged
legal and ethical vulnerabilities that the Roberts family faced (the couple has three
daughters, ages 18, 20 and 22). What emerged was a portrait of an extravagant
lifestyle largely underwritten by university funds: a private jet often used for
personal travel, including a senior trip to Orlando for one of the Roberts girls;
shopping binges by Roberts's wife, Lindsay, that totaled tens of thousands of
dollars; 11 renovations in 14 years to the Roberts home on campus, and a stable of
horses for the kids. More disturbingly, the reports included suggestions of sexual
improprieties by Lindsay with underage young men. She allegedly spent the night
with an underage male at a university guest house on nine occasions and
repeatedly drove around with and sent text messages to underage boys late at
night, far past the citywide curfew. A university spokesman declined to comment
about these documents. Lindsay Roberts issued a statement saying, "I live my life
in a morally upright manner and throughout my marriage have never, ever
engaged in any sexual behavior with any man outside of my marriage, as the
accusations imply." Richard Roberts also issued a statement: "The untrue
allegations of sexual misconduct by my wife have hurt the most."
Though Swails says he "hoped and wished the allegations were all false," he felt
obligated to turn over the files to the university administration, which he did in April
2006. He received no response. Meanwhile, a separate problem was brewing for
ORU. In May that year, the university received a letter from the IRS that made
inquiries about whether ORU had engaged in inappropriate political activities in
connection with Randi Miller's mayoral campaign. In drafting a response, says
Brooker, ORU's provost called him in and pressured him to draft a response that
excluded any mention of Roberts's pushing for student involvement in the
campaign. Eventually, the matter was settled; the IRS made "recommendations to
address certain deficiencies," and "ORU has complied," according to a university
spokesman, who declined to address Brooker's allegations. Brooker says that
thereafter, his relationship with the ORU brass deteriorated.
Things quieted down until this summer, when Swails and Brooker began to hear
rumors that additional copies of the Cantees documents were circulating among
students. Once again, Swails says he sought to alert university leaders, this time
contacting a member of the Board of Regents. Again, nothing happened--except
that now Swails got the feeling that he too had poisoned his relationship with the
ORU administration. He soon discovered he was right. Already, the university had
dismissed Paulita Brooker at the end of May. Then in July, Swails was told to fire
Brooker, who tendered his resignation. And in August, Swails himself was fired,
after being pulled out of class and summoned to his office, where the provost
awaited him with two armed security guards, he says. (The plaintiffs maintain that
they never got an adequate explanation for why they were dismissed; a university
spokesman declined to comment.)
Given the swirl of allegations that have now engulfed ORU, many students on
campus are jittery. "My degree has been severely devalued," says Cross, the
government student who worked on the Miller campaign. He says he's even
considering suing ORU himself to recover his tuition, loans and costs of attendance-
-an $80,000 investment, by his tally. Some students are incensed by the Roberts's
lavish lifestyle. "You can see all the excesses around you here," says Michael
Branscum, who graduated from ORU last year. And yet, he says, university officials
are constantly asking students to dig deeper into their pockets because of the
institution's financial difficulties. Some of his friends have had to abandon their
studies because they couldn't make ends meet. "That got to me the most," he says.
One person who says she observed the Roberts's profligate spending up-close is
Suzanne Culpepper. After hearing news of the lawsuit, she decided to come forward
to recount her time working as a nanny for the Robertses one summer in the late
1980s, when she was an ORU student. Fed up with hearing the Robertses complain
about the university's financial hardship at the time, she snooped around their
walk-in closet one night while the couple was out and the kids were asleep. It was
"bigger than the one-bedroom apartment I live in now," says Culpepper. She
counted 275 pairs of shoes for Lindsay, all arranged by color, three rows of dresses
and "tons of jewelry." On Richard's side, there were 160 suits, 454 ties and 18 pairs
of golf shoes. (A university spokesman declined to respond to a request for
comment on Culpepper's description.) "I had a righteous anger to an injustice," she
says. "It is so sad that people have been misled, but the truth is coming out." Until
the Robertses get a chance to respond with their own version of events, they're
surely praying as fervently as ever.
URL: http://www.newsweek.com/id/57298

Lawyers for ORU, Roberts fire back

by: APRIL MARCISZEWSKI World Staff Writer 10/27/2007

Motions claim the professors are using the media, and a gag
order is sought.

Attorneys for Oral Roberts University, President Richard Roberts and three other
administrators alleged Friday in court filings that three former ORU professors are
trying their lawsuit in the media.

ORU and the administrators said in their legal motion that publicity allegedly
manipulated by the professors and their attorneys could lower the possibility of a
fair trial. They want the professors and their attorneys barred from talking about
the case outside of court.

The court filings Friday were the first made by ORU and the administrators since
the professors sued them Oct. 2 for allegedly wrongfully firing them or forcing them
to resign.

"Plaintiffs and their counsel are abusing the judicial process by using it as a basis
for press conferences and publicity," the motion states. ". . . The barrage of news
coverage is especially damaging" because the professors and their attorneys have
included unsubstantiated, detailed allegations of misconduct with their lawsuit
"when even plaintiffs admit they do not know if those statements are true."

The motion refers to a report allegedly compiled by Roberts' sister-in-law,
Stephanie Cantees, that Roberts has said consists of false rumors. The professors
claim they were fired or forced to resign because they turned over the report to
ORU's board of regents.

The report alleges the Roberts family misspent ORU and Oral Roberts Ministries
money, and Roberts' wife, Lindsay Roberts, had an inappropriate relationship with a
boy, among other claims.

In another filing Friday, Roberts' attorneys allege that the report was included with
the lawsuit "in an effort to harass and injure Dr. Roberts and his family," indicating
"the dishonorable motivations behind plaintiffs' lawsuit."

Roberts, the other administrators and ORU allege in their motion that the former
professors and their attorneys "appear to have devised a scheme to slander
defendants while hiding behind the litigation privilege, all in hope of achieving a
quick, lucrative settlement of an employment lawsuit."

Attorneys for Roberts asked the court Friday to throw out two versions of legal
petitions filed by the professors because the first version did not say which alleged
facts went with which legal claims or which claims were made against which
defendants, and the second version was filed in violation of court procedures.

Attorneys for Roberts, the other administrators and ORU also called for the second
version -- which added the ORU board of regents as a defendant -- to be dismissed
because of procedural errors. They said the second amended petition "should be
treated as if it was never filed." Therefore, the board would not be a defendant.

ORU and the administrators made another court filing Friday that asked the court to
throw out the first amended petition and order the professors and their attorneys to
rewrite their petition in a format that would allow the defendants "to either admit or
deny or otherwise respond to each fact or set of circumstances."

The current format, Roberts claimed in one of his filings, "bears far greater
resemblance to a fictional short story or a press release than it does to a legally
compliant petition."

Roberts' legal motion called the lawsuit fatally flawed and baseless and said, "Dr.
Roberts denies each and every allegation or inference of wrongful conduct related
to plaintiff's claims involving wrongful termination."

ORU and the administrators asked the court to hear the case as soon as possible
"to avoid further prejudice to defendants."
President of Oral Roberts
to Take Leave of Absence
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL The New York Times October 18, 2007

The president of Oral Roberts University, Richard Roberts, said yesterday
that he was taking an indefinite leave of absence following allegations of
spending irregularities and family misconduct.
The untrue allegations have struck a terrible blow in my heart, Dr. Roberts
said in a statement. The untrue allegations of sexual misconduct by my wife
have hurt the most. It has broken her heart and the hearts of my children.
Dr. Roberts has led the university, which is in Tulsa, Okla., for 14 years. It
was founded by his father, the television evangelist Oral Roberts.
The announcement of his leave of absence came four days after more
detailed accusations of financial, political and personal irregularities by Dr.
Roberts and his wife, Lindsay, emerged in an amended lawsuit, filed Friday,
by three former professors of history and government.
The professors say they lost their jobs because of their objections to Dr.
Robertss effort to enlist students in a Republican mayoral campaign that
was later scrutinized by the Internal Revenue Service, and over their efforts
to bring to light a damaging internal report on improper spending and
personal indiscretions by the Robertses.
Dr. Roberts said he would continue as a television preacher and as chairman
and chief executive of Oral Roberts Ministries. But he said he had asked the
universitys board of regents for a leave of absence until such time as these
matters can be resolved.
The regents had said previously that they would retain an independent
outside auditor to review the accusations.
The announcement on Wednesday did not name a replacement for Dr.
Roberts, and a university spokesman did not respond to a call.
For two weeks, the university has been roiled by the professors lawsuit. Oral
Roberts, a modernistic institution with 5,300 students, describes itself as a
God-centered university that upholds a Christian worldview with a
charismatic emphasis.
In the filing on Friday, the professors, John Swails, a former history
department chairman; and Tim Brooker and his wife, Paulita Brooker,
included what was described as the full text of a confidential assessment of
potential vulnerability for legal, moral, political and ethical problems of the
Roberts family, as compiled by Mrs. Robertss sister, Stephanie Cantees, an
official with Oral Roberts Ministries.
The first filing of the lawsuit, on Oct. 2, recounted the issues Ms. Cantees
was said to have uncovered. But the filing on Friday included what were
represented as her actual notations, downloaded by a student who had been
fixing her computer.
The notations included accounts of reported encounters between Mrs.
Roberts and under age males in her sports car and a university guest
house, cellphone bills, school vandalism by a daughter of the Robertses, gifts
of luxury cars and clothing for Mrs. Roberts and family trips in the
universitys jet.
The Robertses appeared last week on Larry King Live on CNN and said the
accusations were preposterous and untrue.
In his statement yesterday, Dr. Roberts said: The last three weeks have
taken a serious toll on me and my family. The untrue allegations have struck
a terrible blow in my heart.
He added, I pray and believe that in Gods timing, and when the board feels
that it is appropriate, I will be back at my post as president.


University President's Wife
'Sickened' By Allegations

PROV 11:8 The righteous is delivered from trouble, And it comes to the
wicked instead.

JMS 1:9 Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, 1:10 but the rich in
his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away.


(CNN) -- The wife of the president of Oral Roberts University is denying allegations
of improper behavior, saying the claims "sicken" her.

Richard Roberts and wife Lindsay appear on CNN's "Larry King Live" last week.

Lindsay Roberts, in a statement on the university's Web site, said the allegations
against her "sicken me to my soul. ... I live my life in a morally upright manner and
throughout my marriage have never, ever engaged in any sexual behavior with any
man outside of my marriage as the accusations imply."

The suit, filed earlier this month, has drawn international attention to the private
Christian school in Tulsa, Oklahoma, founded by evangelist Oral Roberts, father of
university President Richard Roberts.

The new allegations come in an amended version of the wrongful termination suit
filed by three former professors, who say they lost their jobs after reporting that
Roberts and his family lavishly spent school money for personal expenses.

The amended lawsuit, filed Friday, also alleges that the university gave a "convicted
sexual deviant unrestricted access to students" while the man acted as a "mentor."
The lawsuit also claims the university shredded evidence three days after the suit
was filed against the school. The school denies both accusations in a statement on
its Web site.

The new allegations involving Lindsay Roberts come in a section titled "Scandal
Vulnerability Assessment."
It says that photos show her and an underage male smoking at the president's
residence and that she "spent the night in the ORU guest house with an underage
male on nine separate occasions." It also references 29 photos it says show her and
an underage male alone in her car, time-stamped after midnight, despite a citywide
10 p.m. curfew for minors not with their parents.

The suit does not allege sexual behavior.

The suit says Richard Roberts "sought approval from stakeholders for moving the
underage male into the family residence," and "a longtime maintenance employee
was summarily fired so that the same underage male companion could have his
position."

In her statement, Lindsay Roberts denied all the allegations against her in the
lawsuit. "The part that grieves me the most is that these accusations are being
brought forth in so many areas and being seen and heard through the media when
the parties suing have continued to say they don't even know if these allegations
are true," she said. "I believe it's grossly unfair to allow such speculation to be used
against me and attached to a lawsuit in which I am not even named as a party."

Other allegations in the amended version of the lawsuit are in a section accusing
the ORU board of negligence. It says that this past summer, the Board of Regents
allowed the president and the school "to give a convicted sexual deviant
unrestricted access to the students of the university." The man had previously
"confessed to crimes" in courts in Tulsa and the surrounding area and was
convicted, the suit says.

"In one of these convictions, this 'Mentor' for ORU students -- reportedly hired at
the direct personal instruction, and under the direct supervision of President
Richard Roberts -- confessed to the facts regarding exposing himself to a 15-year-
old boy in a school locker room," the suit says.

It also says three days after the initial lawsuit was filed on October 2, the board
allowed ORU and Roberts to fire the school's financial comptroller after 26 years of
service. Within hours, "voluminous materials and documents were shredded and
destroyed, constituting spoilation of evidence," according to witnesses, the suit
says.

Beyond the online posting, university officials did not immediately reply to a
request for comment Monday by CNN.

The suit was filed by John Swails, Tim Brooker and Paulita Brooker, who accuse
Richard and Lindsay Roberts of treating school funds like their own bank account,
using them for home renovations, expensive vacations and clothes -- allegations
the Robertses and the school have previously denied.

After complaining to the school's Board of Regents about university spending, two
of the professors were fired from their jobs and the third was thrown into conditions
"so intolerable" that he had no choice but to resign, the lawsuit says.

One of the firings, the suit says, was also in retaliation for the plaintiff refusing to
drop a sexual harassment complaint that one of his subordinates made against an
associate provost, who is named as a defendant.

The suit calls for actual damages "in excess of $10,000" and punitive damages also
"in excess of $10,000" for each plaintiff, as well as attorneys' fees, court costs,
"and any further relief that the court deems just an equitable."

In an interview last week on CNN's "Larry King Live," before the latest allegations
were added to the suit, Richard Roberts called it "the most unusual thing I've ever
witnessed in my life." Asked whether someone is out to get him, he responded, "It
sure seems that way." Lindsay Roberts called the allegations "preposterous."

The three plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit, meanwhile, accuse school officials of
making libelous public remarks about them in an effort to discredit the lawsuit.

Last week, before the amended suit was filed, the board vowed to hire an auditor to
look into "allegations made in regards to Oral Roberts University and certain
members of the administration," board Chairman George Pearsons said in an
October 7 statement posted on the ORU Web site. "The Oral Roberts University
Board of Regents is committed to operating the institution in accordance with all
ethical, legal and moral standards."


Former insider: Suit no
surprise
by: BILL SHERMAN World Religion Writer
10/10/2007

Bishop Carlton Pearson, who for 15 years was on the Oral Roberts University Board
of Regents, said Tuesday he was not surprised by the lawsuit filed against ORU, its
president Richard Roberts and others.

Pearson told the Tulsa World he had no first-hand evidence that allegations in the
lawsuit were true.

But this kind of behavior is typical in family-run and -owned ministries, he said.

Youre talking about the founders son. He does what he wants to do. Oral Roberts
University is not the only one guilty of that.

Three ORU professors who recently lost their jobs sued the school and its leaders
last week for wrongful termination and slander.

The suit alleges they were forced out for uncovering a report that Richard Roberts
family improperly benefited from ORU money, among other things.

Pearson, who attended ORU, was a regent until he fell out of favor with the school
several years ago for adopting a universalist theology, that because of what Christ
did, all people will go to heaven.

As an ORU student, he had a close relationship with Roberts, and sang in a singing
group that Roberts directed.

We were real close, Pearson said. We didnt like each other, necessarily, but we
loved each other; you know, some siblings are like that.

Pearson suggested Roberts actions may have precipitated the lawsuit.

Richard fires people abruptly, he said. He has a record of making people clear
out their desk by 5 o- clock. He humiliates them, so hes created some enemies.
You have to fire people sometimes, but theres a way to do it with dignity. These
are college-trained Ph.Ds, brilliant, Christian educators. You dont treat them like
children. I think these guys have just said, Thats enough.

He said he was concerned about the lawsuits impact on ORU.

It can hurt. Were real concerned, because the money is already tight, and if
partners stop dropping off . . . I personally think theyre making more of this than
they need to. I mean its not like Richard is squandering millions of dollars. He did
do some things that are excessive, but its not worth throwing the whole ministry
away.

Richard and (Roberts wife) Lindsays little escapades are not worth comparing to
the 40 years of a mans life (Oral Roberts) and labor to build a half-billion-dollar
entity that has trained some 25,000 students, with missions all over the world and
churches all over the world.

Pearson also said he is worried about what might happen if ORU does not survive
the crisis.

It would be a crushing blow, and a terrible loss to the city, and to what we call the
body of Christ. Theres nothing like ORU on the planet.

I dont think Tulsa can afford to lose ORU. We need to do what we need to do to
shore it up. The university has never hurt this city. Its only been a blessing.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=071010_1_A1_
spanc06475

Scandal brewing at Oral Roberts
U.
By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS, Associated Press Writer
Twenty years ago, televangelist Oral Roberts said he was reading a spy novel when
God appeared to him and told him to raise $8 million for Roberts' university, or else
he would be "called home."
Now, his son, Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts, says God is
speaking again, telling him to deny lurid allegations in a lawsuit that threatens to
engulf this 44-year-old Bible Belt college in scandal.
Richard Roberts is accused of illegal involvement in a local political campaign and
lavish spending at donors' expense, including numerous home remodeling projects,
use of the university jet for his daughter's senior trip to the Bahamas, and a red
Mercedes convertible and a Lexus SUV for his wife, Lindsay.
She is accused of dropping tens of thousands of dollars on clothes, awarding
nonacademic scholarships to friends of her children and sending scores of text
messages on university-issued cell phones to people described in the lawsuit as
"underage males."
At a chapel service this week on the 5,300-student campus known for its 60-foot-
tall bronze sculpture of praying hands, Roberts said God told him: "We live in a
litigious society. Anyone can get mad and file a lawsuit against another person
whether they have a legitimate case or not. This lawsuit ... is about intimidation,
blackmail and extortion."
San Antonio televangelist John Hagee, a member of the ORU board of regents, said
the university's executive board "is conducting a full and thorough investigation."
Colleagues fear for the reputation of the university and the future of the Roberts'
ministry, which grew from Southern tent revivals to one of the most successful
evangelical empires in the country, hauling in tens of millions of dollars in
contributions a year. The university reported nearly $76 million in revenue in 2005,
according to the IRS.
Oral Roberts is 89 and lives in California. He holds the title of chancellor, but the
university describes him as semi-retired, and his son presides over day-to-day
operations on the campus, which had a modern, space-age design when it was built
in the early 1960s but now looks dated, like Disney's Tomorrowland.
Cornell Cross II, a senior from Burlington, Vt., said he is looking to transfer to
another school because the scandal has "severely devalued and hurt the reputation
of my degree."
"We have asked and asked and asked to see the finances of our school and what
they're doing with our money, and we've been told no," said, Cross who is majoring
in government. "Now we know why. As a student, I'm not going to stand for it any
longer."
The allegations are contained in a lawsuit filed Tuesday by three former professors.
They sued ORU and Roberts, alleging they were wrongfully dismissed after
reporting the school's involvement in a local political race.
Richard Roberts, according to the suit, asked a professor in 2005 to use his
students and university resources to aid a county commissioner's bid for Tulsa
mayor. Such involvement would violate state and federal law because of the
university's nonprofit status. Up to 50 students are alleged to have worked on the
campaign.
The professors also said their dismissals came after they turned over to the board
of regents a copy of a report documenting moral and ethical lapses on the part of
Roberts and his family. The internal document was prepared by Stephanie Cantese,
Richard Roberts' sister-in-law, according to the lawsuit.
An ORU student repairing Cantese's laptop discovered the document and later
provided a copy to one of the professors.
It details dozens of alleged instances of misconduct. Among them:
A longtime maintenance employee was fired so that an underage male friend of
Mrs. Roberts could have his position.
Mrs. Roberts who is a member of the board of regents and is referred to as
ORU's "first lady" on the university's Web site frequently had cell-phone bills of
more than $800 per month, with hundreds of text messages sent between 1 a.m.
to 3 a.m. to "underage males who had been provided phones at university
expense."
The university jet was used to take one daughter and several friends on a senior
trip to Orlando, Fla., and the Bahamas. The $29,411 trip was billed to the ministry
as an "evangelistic function of the president."
Mrs. Roberts spent more than $39,000 at one Chico's clothing store alone in less
than a year, and had other accounts in Texas and California. She also repeatedly
said, "As long as I wear it once on TV, we can charge it off." The document cites
inconsistencies in clothing purchases and actual usage on TV.
Mrs. Roberts was given a white Lexus SUV and a red Mercedes convertible by
ministry donors.
University and ministry employees are regularly summoned to the Roberts' home
to do the daughters' homework.
The university and ministry maintain a stable of horses for exclusive use by the
Roberts' children.
The Roberts' home has been remodeled 11 times in the past 14 years.
Tim Brooker, one of the professors who sued, said he fears for the university's
survival if certain changes aren't made.
"All over that campus, there are signs up that say, `And God said, build me a
university, build it on my authority, and build it on the Holy Spirit,'" Brooker said.
"Unfortunately, ownership has shifted."

Roberts Says Lawsuit Is About Money

$627,582!!!! $627,582!!!!!!! $$627,582!!!!!! Has anyone reviewed the tax
schedules (from the main story)??? In 2005 (and it makes you wonder what 2006 &
2007 was/is.. but between ORU, ORM, and Traco Advertising... Lindsay and Richard
paid themselves a total of $627,582. .............. Not only were they making BANK...
but they also had free lodging (free remodeling, free gas, free cars, free flights in
the private jet, free cell phone, and select shopping spree's)


Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts told students at the regular
chapel service on Wednesday that the lawsuit three former professors filed against
the school on Tuesday is about money, but he said he is "not intimidated by
blackmail and extortion."

Roberts said the professors' attorney, Gary L. Richardson, has lost every suit he has
filed against ORU, according to an ORU transcript of Roberts' speech at the chapel
service.

"The Bible commands us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute
us and despitefully use us," he said. "And I am doing that with all of my heart."

Roberts said he could not talk about the case, on the advice of attorneys.

The lawsuit claims the professors -- John Swails, Tim Brooker and Paulita Brooker -
- were wrongfully terminated or wrongfully caused to resign after giving
administrators a report they say is by Roberts' sister-in-law Stephanie Cantese and
details how the Roberts family spent university money for personal uses.

The lawsuit also claims Roberts required Tim Brooker to make his students work on
a mayoral campaign, in violation of ORU's nonprofit, tax-exempt status.

Will Richard Roberts will tell the judge that he must drop the charges or God will
call him home?

The whole thing reeks of pride and image-preservation on the part of Roberts.

It is about money and how Richard and his family have misused money for
decades.

"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they
are ravening wolves." Matthew 7:15
"But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false
teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the
Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many
shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil
spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make
merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their
damnation slumbereth not." 2 Peter 2:1-3
"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God:
because many false prophets are gone out into the world." 1 John 4:1
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=071003_1__OralR07533
3 Former Professors Sue Oral
Roberts University
Check http://kotv.com/files/0710/oru.pdf

Oral Roberts University, ORU's president Richard Roberts, and other
school leaders are named in a wrongful termination and defamation
lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed in Tulsa County District Court. News On 6
anchor Craig Day reports the suit was filed by three former professors who
say they were forced out, after bringing up concerns about how ORU is
operated. (SOME OF THE STUFF IS DYNAMITE AND IS TYPICAL OF MANY
INDIRECTLY FAMILY OWNED AND RUN MINISTRIES INCLUDING THE
STRADERS OF LAKELAND)

According to the Draft report, Richard Roberts stated in a taped phone call, I
have the deck stackedI am elected to three year terms and if a Regent appears to
give me trouble, I remove him. I stack the deck... . (Draft report cites a numbered
tape as documentation.)
Richard Roberts receives complete housing benefits from the university which
includes all associated costs: e.g. 13 internet/cable connections wide-screen -
televisions, hot tubs, an Imperial Stove ($15,000), Washer/Dryers ($6,000), and all
furnishings. The family selects furnishings for the home, the ministry then pays for
the items and arranges for delivery.
The Roberts home has been remodeled 11 times in the last 14 years. Each
time, Mrs. Roberts demands more changes.
A longtime maintenance employee was summarily fired so that an underage
male friend of Mrs. Roberts could have his position. (Draft report cites a statement
from current employee in confirmation of this assertion.)
Richard Roberts ordered university employees to post a personal message for
his daughter on the Mabee Center electronic marquee. Mrs. Roberts called an
unspecified vice-president at 3:00 a.m. to demand the message be posted. (Draft
report cites phone. logs which show a total of seven demand calls being made to
the same vice-president that morning. Further, a dated and time-stamped copy of
written orders from the same vice-president to Mabee Center employees mandating
the immediate placement of the message.)
A total of 32 complaints were received from employees/public regarding the
personal message placed on the Mabee Center marquee. The Roberts were warned
of the legal implications of retaliation against employees expressing disapproval.
(Draft report cites copies of phone records.)
Tapes were produced of one of the minor Roberts children vandalizing and
illegally removing athletic department equipment from university property. When
confronted with the incriminating tape, Richard Roberts refused to address the
issue. Roberts personally benefited from the property stolen, and the damage
fromthe vandalization was billed to the university. (Draft report~references the
departmental video tape, two witnesses, and a statement from one of the other
students involved.)
University propertyspecifically golf cartssustained serious damage at the
hands of the Roberts children. Damages caused by the daughters was billed to the
university.
During Thanksgiving break, Mrs. Roberts repeatedly demanded searches of the
Girls Dorms for illicit male visitors. Male students felt set up as their names were
exclusive released. (Draft report indicates existence of signed affidavits by male
students of university persecution.)
Dormitories received extensive structural modifications for the exclusive use of
the Roberts daughters, and all costs passed on to the university.
Mrs. Roberts provided a key to City Plex Towers, and authorized underaged
students removal of furnishings from the Tower to private student apartments off.
campus.
Richard Roberts 2,000 square foot home office was remodeled int6 a walk-in
closet to accommodate the needs of Mrs. Roberts wardrobe. This wardrobe has
been paid for by the television production cost center.
Receipts for clothing are routinely handed to ORU/OREA staffers with orders to
cover the charges. (Original draft notes an attached document reflecting
S51,206M0 in clothing receipts) Staffers are under standing orders to modify
records/cover purchases to make personal purchases appear to be busi.ness
related.
Richard Roberts currentand previous--personal vehicles were donated for
University/Ministry use. No one outside the Roberts family every used these
vehicles. These vehicles are regularly washed, waxed, and cleaned by university
employees. Further, all fuel is provided by the university at no charge to the
presider.t.
Both Mrs. Roberts white Lexus SUV and her red Mercedes convertible are
provided by ministry donorsincluding all insurance costs. The Mercedes was
located online at a dealership in Atlanta. At the explicit direction of Richard Roberts,
Minisiry Security was flown to Atlanta to take possession of the vehicle and drive it
back to Tulsa. (Original draft notes an attachment indicating the ministry
department which paid for the plane ticket.)
Automobiles driven by Mrs. Roberts and the families daughters are routinely
washed, waxed, cleaned and fueled by university personnel.. Richard Roberts
makes token payment for compliance purposes.
The University/Ministry pays for all the families home and cell phone without
limits. (Original draft notes receipts in excess of $7,000 for phone expenses not
including overseas cell expenses.)
Cell phone bills for Mrs. Roberts and her daughters consistently run over
..$800/monthwith an average of over 1,000 text messages per month. (Original
draft notes names of numbers of recipients of calls and texts.)
Records indicate that Mrs. Roberts replaced 21 cell phones in a two year period.
Fifteen of her bills during that period exceeded $800/month. Four months had text
messages in excess of 800many of those texts from Mrs. Roberts were sent to
underage malesoften between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m.who had been provided phones
at university expense.
The university provides and stocks a commercial soda machine in the garage of
the Roberts homewith all expenses being borne by the university.
Meals are routinely prepared by a professional chef, compensated through the
television cost center, and delivered to the house for testing. Roberts make token
payment to satisfy dictates of compliance.
University and Ministry employees are regularly summoned to the Roberts
home report to do the daughters homework. (Original draft notes security records,
photos and statements to support this contention.) The daughters take the
homework completed by the employees, copy the work, and submit it to Victory
Christian School as their own work. (Original draft refers to a transcript of a phone
call where Mrs. Roberts personally arranges for employees to assist the daughters
with homework.)
The Roberts daughters were home schooled. Their teacher was on the ORM
payroll for over five years. Classes were held in ORU/ORM property which had been
classified as a guest house for IRS purposes. (According to the Draft report.. the
property had been fully converted to a school house as verified by photos of the
meetings conducted by Richard Roberts. (Original draft notes several photos
showing Mrs. Roberts shopping with numerous guests.)
Mrs Roberts routinely has ORM provide her with security personne!. as protection
while on personal vacations. On one occasion, Mrs. Roberts took one of her
daughters and a male companion on an overnight trip to Branson. All charges for
transportation, lodging and meals were paid by ORU/ORM. (Original draft
references receipts for clothing dubbed TV wardrobe, Branson, Missouri.)
According to the Draft report, nine separate statements were collected which quote
Mrs. Roberts as saying, As long as I wear it once on TV. we can charge it off...
Draft notes inconsistencies in expense account between reported TV clothing, and
actual TV usage.
Mrs. Roberts spent over $39,000 at one clothing store aloneChicosin less than
one year. Employees in the ministry assert that other accounts exist for stores in
Texas and California which greatly add to the total.
Mrs. Roberts ordered that her children be paid $200/song on the television show.
One random student was found to pay the same rate, so-as to justify the amount
paid her children.
The Roberts daughters are allowed to use Oral Robertss home in the compound for
a token payment.
ORU/ORM maintains a stable of horses for the exclusive use of the Roberts children.
All costs associated with this stable are borne by the university.
ORU/ORM Security personnel are routinely used by the family to fetch groceries,
hair bows and accessories, family meals, and even undergarments for the girlsall
while on the university payroll.
Mrs. Roberts personally awarded thirteen non-academic, non need- based
scholarships exclusively to friends of her children. Two of the recipients scored 12s
on the ACT, making them academically ineligible for admission to the university.
When informed that the two students with 12s on the ACT could be admitted
contingently and put into the Bridge program, Mrs. Roberts demanded that they be
admitted without condition and that the questioning employee be fired. (Original
draft references affidavit and copies of all transcripts of students awarded
scholarships. Additionally, copies of awards for full room, board, and tuition
scholarships, bearing Mrs. Roberts signature, were attached.)
Mrs. Roberts was informed that these unilateral scholarship awards might constitute
enurement, as she often received significant thank you gifts from the recipients or
their parents. The unfortunate aspect of these scholarship awards to questionable
students was the depletion of limited resources to fund the educations of -. more
worthy candidates.
After awarding the thirteen full academic scholarships to friends of the family, Mrs.
Roberts established the Make Your Day scholarship. This financial aid was
advertised as serving needy students. As before, Mrs. Roberts selected the
recipients from a pool of mostly friends of the family.
T BROOKER, understanding the serious nature and apparent reliability of this
information, immediately delivered this packet of material to his Supervisor,
Plaintiff S WAILS.



The False Teachings And Opinions Of Supergods

Ephesians tells us, we are one Body and one Spirit, and be eager and strive
earnestly to guard and keep the harmony and oneness of that Spirit (Eph. 4:3-4).

If you get in touch by email with any so called TV Evangelists or supergods you will
regret it for quite a while. You will get a barrage of emails or letters from Benny
Hinn, Richard Roberts, Paula White, Joyce Meyers, etc begging for money and
encouraging your giving to their ministry. They all see themselves as supergods as
the only anointed ones to carry out the work of God and it's the responsibility of
everybody else to support them with money. It's nothing but stupidity, arrogance
and pride because we are all brethren and anointed ones and they are to care
for us more than we care for them. That is what the bible teaches:

EPH 4:11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some
evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 4:12 for the equipping of the saints for
the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 4:13 till we all come
to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a
perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 4:14
that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with
every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful
plotting, 4:15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him
who is the head-Christ- 4:16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit
together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working
by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the
edifying of itself in love.

It's not supposed to be a one way giving to the supergods be it time, money or
other things. We, each joint, are to give to each other according to the effective
working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the
edifying of itself in love.

The other fact is that most of the teaching of the supergods's in not only shallow,
inept and hogash but it doesn't compare in anyway to the book of Hebrews where
Paul tells us and prays:

1:17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you
the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,
1:18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is
the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the
saints,
1:19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe,
according to the working of His mighty power

2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

2:19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow
citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
2:20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ
Himself being the chief cornerstone,
2:21 in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy
temple in the Lord,
2:22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the
Spirit.

3:16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be
strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,
3:17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and
grounded in love,
3:18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length
and depth and height-
3:19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be
filled with all the fullness of God.
3:20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we
ask or think, according to the power that works in us,

4:13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son
of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of
Christ;
4:14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about
with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of
deceitful plotting,
4:15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is
the head-Christ-
5:6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things
the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
5:7 Therefore do not be partakers with them.

5:11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but
rather expose them.
5:12 For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in
secret.
5:13 But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever
makes manifest is light.

6:10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His
might.6:11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against
the wiles of the devil.
6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual
hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
6:13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to
withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

6:18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being
watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the
saints-

6:23 Peace to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ.
6:24 Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.
Christ is the head of the church as well as everything it needs and not the
supergoods whoever they are or who they think they are. He is the answer to
problem, challange and need and no other. Only fools trust in men but God's true
ones trust in God. God's word is unchanging:

DEUT 27:19 'Cursed is the one who perverts the justice due the stranger, the
fatherless, and widow.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen!'

DEUT 27:24 'Cursed is the one who attacks his neighbor secretly.' And all
the people shall say, 'Amen!'

JER 17:5 Thus says the LORD: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man And
makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the LORD.

HEB 12:1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us,
and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 12:2 looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of
the throne of God.

1 Timothy 1:5 Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart,
from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, 1:6 from which some, having
strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, 1:7 desiring to be teachers of the
law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.


Tragedy Has Stalked Oral Roberts Life Even
Though He Says God Is A Good God And Is
Bigger Than The Devil?
Maybe Because Oral Roberts Was And Is A
Classical Money Changer?

TULSA, Okla. (AP) - Evelyn Roberts, the wife of evangelist Oral Roberts, died
Wednesday in a California hospital after suffering a head injury during a fall.
She was 88. Evelyn Roberts died a day after she fell in the parking lot of a
dentist's office, striking her head on the pavement and causing massive
internal bleeding, said Jeremy Burton, a spokesman for Tulsa-based Oral
Roberts University. She fell into a coma a short time later. May 4, 2005
PS 78:49 He cast on them the fierceness of His anger, Wrath, indignation,
and trouble, By sending angels of destruction among them.
PS 91:11 For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all
your ways.
Psalm 91 is a favorite of Word of Faith people as well as Oral Roberts - So I
was surprised at how Evelyn Roberts died.
Oral Roberts elder son, Ronald D. Roberts, 37, also died a violent death but
at a young age
Oral Roberts' Son Found Dead In Car

By Mike Kimbrell
6/10/1982

Ronald D. Roberts, elder son of Oral and Evelyn Roberts, was found dead
Wednesday, the victim of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Roberts, 37, died from a single .25-caliber gunshot wound to the heart,
Osage County Sheriff George Wayman said.

A passer-by found the Tulsa evangelist's son slumped in his car, parked on
an Osage County road about 15 miles northwest of Tulsa.

Wayman said the bullet wound that killed Roberts appeared to be self-
inflicted. He said no note or letter was discovered with the body, but "tow or
three" notes were found in Roberts' apartment at 4309 S. Owasso Ave.

Wayman declined to discuss in detail the contents of the notes. But he said
although none of the notes mentioned suicide, they left the impression
Roberts intended to take his own life.

Wayman said the victim's identity was confirmed by fingerprints Wednesday
morning, but confirmation of Roberts' death was withheld for several hours
because investigators couldn't reach his parents.

A spokesman at Oral Roberts University said Oral and Evelyn Roberts were
in the Tulsa area Wednesday, but were out of reach of a telephone most of
the day.

Ronald Roberts was arrested in September after police accused him of
obtaining a controlled drug with forged prescriptions. Three felony charges
filed against him accused him of obtaining 500 tablets of Tussionex, a cough
suppressant, over a three-week period with forged prescriptions.

He later pleaded guilty to one charge and received a one-year deferred
sentence on the condition he undergo counseling at a Tulsa drug treatment
center, and submit to medical tests to prove he no longer was taking
Tussionex.

Roberts, who largely divorced himself from his father's evangelical work, was
best-known in Tulsa as an antique dealer. He specialized in Chinese
porcelain.

A spokesman for the family said funeral services have been set for 10:30
a.m. Thursday in Christ's Chapel at ORU, the Rev. Robert DeWeese
officiation. Burial will be in Memorial Park Cemetery, officials said.

Moore's Funeral Home is handling arrangements.

Roberts was married to Carol Lou Croskery in 1966 but the couple reportedly
was separated. He had taken her name and was listed in the telephone
directory as Ron Croskery-Roberts. The couple had two children, Rachel, 11
and Damon, 7.

He had a bachelor's degree in French and a master's degree in linguistics. He
completed work for his doctorate in linguistics at the University of Southern
California and spoke five languages.

Oral Roberts' younger son, Richard, is active in the evangelist's religious
organization.

Oral Roberts has one other daughter, Mrs. Roberta Potts, of Denver, Colo.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleid=20080326_222_63032
What Were The Details Of Richard And Patti Roberts Divorce?
In: Celebrity Relationships
Basically Patti saw that the ministry was consuming Richard and he was
being a clone of Oral. She say the error of seed faith and questioned many
of their fund raising practices. while Richard wanted the divorce as much as
Patti, the ministry forced her into the position of filing. Just a sad end to a
marriage
Patti Roberts,Richards First Wife Exposes Heresy of Richard and Oral.
Before Richard married Lindsey,he was married to Patti.He and Patti had two
daughters.After Richard divorced Patti,with Orals approval,Patti wrote a
book,Ashes to Gold.In this book,Patti Roberts compares the seed
faithtactic of former father-in-law Oral Roberts to Johann Tetzels practice
of selling indulgences.She points out that she had a very difficult time
distinguishing between the selling of indulgences and the concept of seed-
faith inflated to the degree to which we had inflated it.
One distinction Patti did observe was that Oral was more subtle than
Tetzel.Rather than offering salvation in exchange for money,Oral appealed to
such basic instincts as fear and greed.
Hank Hanegraaff in his book,Christianity in Crisisexposes the manipulative
techniques of Richard Roberts.When Oral told the world that unless he raised
millions of dollars God was going to call him home,Richard took pen in hand
to warn of his fathers impending doom.Without the additional
$4,500,000,explains Richard,God will not extend Dads life.He then
pleads,Partner,we cannot let this man of God die. There is no reason for
him to die.And this is no idle threat,Richard claims.As he puts it,When he
(Oral) says God speaks to him,hes not bluffing.And just in case someone
should doubt or suspect his motives,Richard offers this stirring assurance:I
feel totally called by God to do this.Im writing to you as an anointed
servant of God-doing what God has called me to do.
After several pages Richard finally gets to the seed-faith solution.Take the
enclosed birthday card,slip in a seed-faith gift check,and then RUSH IT TO
ME TODAY.
By the end of the letter,Richard Roberts had done virtually everything to
assure his partners that this was a deal they couldnt afford to pass up.Send
your seed-faith gift and Richard will be proud of you.Oral will pray for
you,and God will prosper you.
Without the additional four and one half million dollars,explains Richard,God
will not extend Dads life.He then pleads,Partner,we cannot let this man of
God die.There is no reason for him to die. ROBERTS' PERSONAL FINANCES

Harrell writes:

"Roberts' two California homes, partly for security reasons, were not much
discussed by the ministry. Oral also remained sensitive about press criticism
of his lifestyle. His house in Palm Springs, purchased for $285,000 and
financed by a Tulsa bank, was his only privately owned home. In 1982 ORU
endowment funds were used to purchase a $2,400,000 house in a high-
security development in Beverly Hills. Considered a potentially profitable
investment, the house served as Oral's West Coast office and residence." (p.
355)

"Oral's homes in California inevitably kept alive the old questions about his
personal wealth and lifestyle. While probably not as probing as the press had
been fifteen years earlier, reporters still took a keen interest in Oral's
financial affairs. In 1981, the Associated Press published Roberts' personal
income figures for the preceding five years--ranging from $70,000 in 1976
to $178,000 in 1978.

"In addition to his healthy income, derived mostly from book royalties, Oral
continued to enjoy generous expense accounts: `The Robertses wear
expensive clothes and jewelry and travel in a company-owned eight-
passenger fanjet.'

Patti Roberts' book [following her divorce from Oral's son, Robert] and an
earlier expose written by Jerry Sholes, renewed curiosity about the family's
financial affairs, although Patti confessed that her own `extravagance' while
she was Richard's wife had `blunted' her protest.

Tax records indicate that Oral's partners donated in excess of $38,000,000
in the fiscal year 1977-78, "surpassing every other religious association in
the nation." (p. 389)

In 1979 a book was published by Jerry Sholes, a former employee of Oral
Robert ministries, which detailed deep deception and hypocrisy:

"Here is a portrait of the real Oral Roberts, the man not too many of his
admirers know. He dresses in Brioni suits that cost $500 to $1000; walks in
$100 shoes; lives in a $250,000 house in Tulsa and has a million dollar
home in Palm Springs; wears diamond rings and solid gold bracelets
employees `airbrush' out of his publicity photos; drives $25,000 automobiles
which are replaced every 6 months; flies around the country in a $2 million
fanjet falcon; has membership, as does his son Richard, in `the most
prestigious and elite country club in Tulsa,' the Southern Hills (the
membership fee alone was $18,000 for each, with $130 monthly dues) and
in `the ultra-posh Thunderbird Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California'
(both father and son joined when memberships were $20,000 each--they
are now $25,000); and plays games of financial hanky-panky that have
made him and his family members independently wealthy (millionaires) for
life. (When his daughter and son-in-law were killed, they left a $10 million
estate!)" (Evangelist R.L. Sumner's review of Give Me that Prime- time
Religion by Jerry Sholes)

"By the mid-1980s, Oral Roberts had come to be the chief executive officer
of an organization that employed about 2,300 people and did an annual
business of about 110 million dollars, about 60 percent of which was raised
through contributions." (p. 485)
ROBERTS AND THE FULL GOSPEL BUSINESS MEN INTERNATIONAL
Harrell says that: "The Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International
proved to be an extraordinarily effective tool for spreading the Pentecostal
message to the American middle class. By 1975 it had 1,650 chapters, in
every state and in fifty-two foreign countries ... But the relationship between
Oral Roberts and the FGBMFI remained constant--he was the organization's
high priest and most coveted friend. The members of the fellowship were
probably the most important reservoir of funds in the building of Oral
Roberts University; Shakarian and Roberts never faltered in their belief that
each was specially raised up to spread the baptism and the Holy Spirit to the
wider world." (pp. 288,289)
The Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship also helped to finance the
ultramodern Oral Roberts University in Tulsa in 1965 and sowed the seeds
for the prosperity gospel that emerged in 1970s featuring some of the
early faith preachers such as Kenneth Hagain Sr. and Kenneth Copeland at
its conventions.
BUT FOR ALL PURPOSES FULL GOSPEL BUSINESS MEN INTERNATIONAL
IS A SHELL OF WHAT IT USED TO BE ESPECIALLY AFTER DEMOS
SHAKARIAN WAS OUSTED AS PRESIDENT BY BROUGHT IN BY THE OLD
GUARD IN 1980S
TRAGEDY STALKS ROBERTS LIFE
The last two decades have been marked by tragedy in the Roberts family.
His daughter Rebecca and her husband Marshall Nash were killed in an
airplane crash in 1977. His son Richard and daughter-in-law Patti, who were
being groomed to take over the ministry, were divorced in 1979. Three
years later, his rebellious older son Ronnie committed suicide. And last year
[1984], his 10th grandchild--the son of Richard and his second wife Lindsay
and the only heir to be named after him--died two days after birth.
Harrell describes the death of the grandchild
"Within a few hours after his birth, doctors discovered the child was having
difficulty breathing. The news, Evelyn recalled, `just tore Oral to pieces.' For
over thirty hours, while doctors fought to save the baby, Oral, Richard, and
others prayed. Lindsay was wheeled up to the baby's side to pray; Kenneth
Hagin and his wife, and other ministers, came to pray for healing. When
Richard Oral finally died, on January 19, it `devastated Oral.' He called it the
worst tragedy of his scarred life. `I think' Evelyn reflected, `because he felt
there was so much healing power in that room that they could have healed a
thousand people ... But he said there was something in that baby and he got
it as far as the head and it would not leave ... Some obstacle would not
leave. It was stubborn.'
"The family once again faced misfortune bravely, searching for meaning in
the death. They immediately announced the addition of an obstetrics suite in
the City of Faith Medical Center in memory of Richard Oral Roberts." (p. 347,
348)
Richard Roberts Did It, So Tonight, Paula White's Doing It Too
November 26, 2007

Apparently, Larry King has become TV ministry's confessor of sorts. Shortly
after allegations of alleged ORU financial mismanagement went public with
Richard Roberts, he and wife Lindsay appeared on Larry King to speak up for
their side of the story. Now, after a divorce from her husband Randy, Paula
White is doing the same tonight. Is it because of Larry's history of throwing
softballs?
According to the CNN website:
"Televangelist Paula White gets personal! How shes coping with the divorce
from her husband of 18 years. How did she go from a troubled past to a life
of ministry?
Plus, Paula responds to accusations of taking the churchs money to spend
on her own lavish lifestyle. She is among six well-known televangelists under
investigation by the Senate for alleged financial wrongdoing."
Check it out tonight on Larry King Live.
ORU campus relieved about lawsuit settlement One of the lawsuits still
pending is from a former accountant who claimed he was threatened with
losing his job unless he agreed to false and illegal accounting practices.
ORU campus relieved about lawsuit settlement
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=20081024_11_A1_The
atm846566

by: SHANNON MUCHMORE World Staff Writer
10/24/2008 12:00 AM


Sow Your Seed To Meet Your ---
Greed!


Here is another message by my husband Carl. It
addresses the issue of giving. As we all know, there has
been such a perversion of this topic in the Body of
Christ. This message brings things into a beautiful
Scriptural balance.

May you read this and be enlightened on what God says
about the "seed."

************************************************************************
**

Sow Your Seed To Meet Your -- Greed !
by Carl Giordano

___________________________________


"For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while
some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced
themselves through with many sorrows" ---1st Timothy 6:10

( please, at your convenience, read all of chapter 6 of 1st Timothy to see
this verse in it's entire context )

_____________________________________________________


Do you remember the "good ol' days", when amongst Christians who
knew their Bibles, the "Seed" used to be--The Word of God ?

Well, lo and behold, while nobody was looking, all of a sudden somebody
changed the "Seed" into---MONEY !

It seems in our modern day church, especially the "Charismatic" version
( of which I am one, so to speak ), it does not matter so much what The
Word of Almighty God says, as much as what the slick talking Evangelist /
Bible Teacher says. In other words, the Holy Bible teaches that the Seed to
be sown is---The Word of God. But, if you have watched "Christian
TV" any time, in the last few years, you may have noticed that the slick
talkers --who call themselves "Minister" "Reverend" "Doctor" "Bishop"
"Evangelist" "Pastor" "Teacher"-- have now changed the Seed from the
Word of God into ---Money ! And, boy oh boy, they want you to sow a
whole lot of this new seed into their "ministry" ( pockets ) .

It's kind of a neat little Magic Trick ! You know, where the magician turns
his empty hand upside down, and then back again, and now there is a coin
in it ! Abra-Cadabra ! Bingo ! "Now there is nothing in my hand, as you so
plainly see....but, a little 'slight of hand' ( slick talking ) and now my hand
is full of -- Money-- Your Money ! " And "God's People" keep on being
ignorant enough to say---" That's neat ! Let's see that trick again, and
again, and again "....

In the book of Exodus Pharaoh had a lot magicians in his court... and we
have a whole lot of them in our churches, and on "Christian TV" . They say,
so to speak,---"You thought these Bible verse meant this -- but I have had
a 'new revelation' and Wallah !--now they mean something altogether
different--and if you're smart, you will get in on the action ! "

Now, hopefully, I'm going to make this present message of mine short.
Basically, what I want to get across to you, the reader, is
this---Beware ! Wolves still do dress up in sheep's clothing ! You may
have heard the old saying--"If it waddles like a duck, quacks
like a duck, swims like a duck and flies like a duck--that's because -
-It's a DUCK ! " I'd like to warn you, today, that if it looks like a
False Teacher, acts like a False Teacher, lives like a False Teacher, talks
like a False Teacher, and TWISTS SCRIPTURE like a False Teacher --that's
because--It's a FALSE TEACHER !

Study. I said Study. Study the Bible for yourself. Stop being lazy
wanting somebody else ( the Reverend, Doctor, Bishop, Pastor,
Teacher etc. ) to do it for you. The SCRIPTURE TWISTERS are
counting on you being ignorant of the Bible; because, if you are not
ignorant of the Bible, they will not be able to CON you.

Now, the worst part of all this is not so much that the seed is now money,
whereas it used to be The Word of God--this is sure enough blasphemous
enough--but, along with the "Sow your Seed" ( Money ) teaching is the
grandiose, as well as blasphemous promises made to you--"That if you
will just sow that One Thousand Dollar seed, my friend, then God
will surely bring salvation your way and all your kids, grand kids,
and your grandma will surely be swept into the kingdom ! Yes Sir !
My Brother and My Sister, go to that phone right now ! Call in !
Don't Doubt ! Get that seed sown into 'good ground' (MY POCKET )
and God will save everybody you know... and don't know; and then,
guess what, ---God will make you RICH ! "..... ( and then you can
send in some BIGGER seeds )

Let's go to the BIBLE. What a novel idea. The BIBLE ?! Well,
ok...guess it can't hurt.

Now, when we open our Bibles, rather than turn on Christian TV, we see
that THE LORD JESUS CHRIST says that the SOWER SOWS the SEED and
that the SEED is---THE WORD OF GOD ! So, put your check book away.
Get out a PACK OF GOSPEL TRACTS , instead, and start SOWING ! Go over
to your neighbor's house, hand them a TRACT, then open your BIBLE, and
get to SOWING ! Go to a street corner, open your Bible and let er' rip !
Throw those SEEDS all up and down the streets, on your job, at your
neighbors ! Throw some SEEDS at your friends ! Chuck a bunch of them at
your enemies ! SEEDS ! SEEDS! SEEDS! Go and show "Johnny Apple Seed "
that he ain't got nothin' on you! He threw his seed, everywhere, and grew
trees. You go and throw your SEED, everywhere, and GROW DISCIPLES for
JESUS !

Amen !!! If I have to shout it myself ! Glory !!!!!!!!

Now, let's calm down, Brother Carl, and actually quote some
SCRIPTURE here. Ok ? Ok.

Jesus said--- " A sower went out to sow his seed "....Luke 8:5 ( later,
during your study time, read the rest down to verse 11 )

In verse 11 of Luke 8 we see that Jesus says--- " Now the parable is
this: The seed is the Word of God ."

"But, brother Carl ?! Evangelists Slick Sam, Brother Twister the Teacher,
and Dr. Dumbbell, all said that the SEED is-- my LOVE OFFERING --sent in
to them...and that if I would just 'have enough faith to obey ( them ), then
God would get my son and daughter off of drugs, and all, and everything
else I ever wanted will be mine. "

..... " I sent my thousand dollar seed in...my kids are still on
drugs...I'm still broke....but, maybe, it will take a LARGER
SEED ...ok...ok...ok...Where's my Check Book !? "

Do you want your loved ones saved ? ASK JESUS to SAVE THEM. He
doesn't NEED your SEED---It's only HIS SEED that will get the job done--
and His SEED is---FREE OF CHARGE ! So, don't send any "seeds" to
Jesus...( or those who pretend to work for Him)...rather, ASK JESUS to
send HIS SEED ( the Word of God ) to your loved ones.

Again, what a novel idea. Jesus IS the seed and HAS the seed ?!
Yes, a thousand times--Yes !

Do you or your loved ones need a healing in body. I've got GOOD NEWS !
You can keep your money in the bank and your pocket. Don't send any
SEEDS to anybody. Don't send for your lucky handkerchief, or rabbit's foot
( it's almost become this bad ) but rather just KEEP ON sending UP your
PRAYERS to---THE LORD JESUS CHRIST !!! HE IS WHAT HE IS !!! He said-
"I AM". Brother ! Sister !---He ( JESUS ) is---the SAVIOR, the HEALER, the
BAPTIZER with THE HOLY GHOST and FIRE, and THE SOON COMING KING
of all kings, and LORD of all lords !

Now, in closing, let's be fair and balanced. ( "But, brother Carl all
these CAPITAL LETTERS and EXCLAMATION POINTS--- !!!!!! ---
Brother Carl, you don't write, nor act like one who is very--
'BALANCED' ?! " )

Yeah, Yeah, I know. I get a little carried away...I even bounce up and
down, sometimes, as I sit on my chair, while I type here at the
computer. But, still, we will now briefly mention something, in the name of
balance.... so that, hopefully, we ( me ) will not become a Scripture Twister
ourselves---

In God's Word ( Bible ), we DO find reference to money--a LOVE
OFFERING--being SEED SOWN. But these are the very
Scriptures that the SCRIPTURE TWISTERS--TWIST--in order to line
their OWN POCKETS.

Because I'm tired of typing, I'll let you STUDY it out for yourself. In 2nd
Corinthians chapters 8 & 9, we find the Apostle Paul lifting a Love
Offering and he does refer to it as-- SEED SOWN. See Chapter 9 verse 6
etc. etc.. But, Paul was NOT lifting this offering for himself nor to enrich
himself . He WAS taking this offering from one particular church group to
HELP OTHER POOR CHRISTIANS who were SUFFERING because of their
faith in The Lord Jesus.

Now, again, let's be fair and balanced. Should we SUPPORT
true
Ministers of The Gospel with our MONEY ???

Of course !!! That's also BIBLE. Study it out. "The laborer is worthy of
his reward" etc. etc. etc.. All over the BIBLE we are taught to GIVE to
help the TRUE man or woman of God. But, a REAL man or woman of God
will not suck you dry like some sort of foul leech! They will feed you ALL
THE COUNSEL OF GOD, and they will NOT major on LOVE OFFERINGS,
TITHES, etc. BUT, rather they will FEED YOU GOD'S WORD, AS HE GIVES
IT TO THEM, AS THEY FAITHFULLY STUDY HIS WORD AND SEEK HIS FACE
IN PRAYER.

If these "preachers" and "teachers" would REPENT of their CON
GAMES, and get on TV and in their pulpits, and PREACH and TEACH
so as to get PRECIOUS SOULS delivered, saved, healed and ready
for the soon coming KING---Then I believe ALL THE MONEY--that
they would ever NEED-- would come FLOWING IN like a MIGHTY
STREAM.

Let's stop all the BEGGING. Let's stop giving
to all the Beggars.

Let's stop PLAYING
CON GAMES. Let's stop being
CONNED.

May God Bless His Word,


Connie

Lucrative 'seed faith' mail ministry has Tulsa
ties

Once a traveling tent-revival preacher, the Rev. James Eugene Ewing built a
direct-mail empire from his mansion in Los Angeles that brings millions of
dollars flowing into a Tulsa post office box.

Ewing's computerized mailing operation, Saint Matthew's Churches, mails
more than 1 million letters per month, many to poor, uneducated people,
while Ewing lives in a mansion and drives luxury cars.

The letters contain an alluring promise of "seed faith": send Saint Matthew's
your money and God will reward you with cash, a cure to your illness, a new
home and other blessings. They often contain items such as prayer cloths, a
"Jesus eyes handkerchief," golden coins, communion wafers and "sackcloth
billfolds." Recipients are often warned to open the letters in private and not
discuss them with others.

The approach reaped Ewing and his organization a gross income of more
than $100 million since 1993, including $26 million in 1999, the last year
Saint Matthew's made its tax records public. And while much of the money is
spent on postage and salaries, Ewing's company receives nonprofit status
and pays no federal taxes.

Though Ewing claims it is a church, Saint Matthew's Churches, once called
St. Matthew Publishing Inc., has no address other than a Tulsa post office
box. It has two listed phone numbers in Tulsa and both are answered by a
recorded religious message.

Donations to Roberts' ministry had plummeted after Roberts built Oral
Roberts University and joined the United Methodist Church. His top advisers
were seeking a buyer for the ministry's corporate airplane.

The Rev. Wayne A. Robinson, then the vice president of public affairs for the
Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association, called Ewing about the plane.
Robinson was the executive producer of Roberts' television shows and
editor-in-chief of his publications. He also was the ghostwriter for Roberts'
autobiography.

Ewing expressed interest in the plane, which was dispatched to California to
pick up Ewing and several other associates.

"I brought them in to see Oral," Robinson recalled. "I was expecting the
appropriate deference of these guys to Oral, the big man. About the first
thing Gene said was, 'Oral, you are in trouble, and I can help you.' "

During a second meeting with Roberts, Ewing laid out his seed-faith
philosophy.

"Gene laid out one of the most sophisticated fund-raising campaigns I had
ever seen. He said, 'Oral, I want you to write your supporters and tell them
you are going in the prayer tower, and you are going to read their prayer
requests and pray over them.' He stayed there three days. I forget how
many hundred thousands of letters we had, but it was huge."

Robinson said that on Ewing's advice, Roberts responded to the letters with
a letter outlining seed faith.

"You give and you get from God. It was a kind of prosperity gospel,"
Robinson said.

Roberts was so happy with Ewing's advice that he gave Ewing the plane,
Robinson said.

The next year, income to Roberts' ministry doubled, to $12 million from
about $6 million, Robinson said.

Despite the prosperous times, Robinson said, he was unhappy in the job and
soon quit. Today, he is a pastor of the All Faiths Unitarian Congregation
Church in Fort Myers, Fla.

Once Ewing rescued Roberts' finances, other well-known evangelists came
calling, Robinson said.

"Once he did it with the biggest man of all, then all the others were just
tickled to get on board."

Ewing's flair for effective, dramatic direct-mail appeals won him jobs writing
for evangelists including Tilton, Rex Humbard and "Rev. Ike." In many
cases, the letters are identical but contain different signatures.

Ewing, McElrath and their nonprofit and for-profit companies leased
numerous luxury cars from a Tulsa auto leasing company during the 1980s
in deals arranged by Joyce, records show. The cars included four Rolls-
Royces, two Jaguars, three Mercedes sedans and a Ferrari.

Oral purchased his seed faith idea from James Eugene Ewing as well as his
phony mass mailing methods. The same material was used by other phony
thieving TV evangelists as Rev. Ike. and Rex Humbard. It was nothing but
lies! There was no anointing on his material and as a result it didn't work for
most people. And then Oral defended bi-sexual Jim Bakker for what was not
defendable robbing, raping and using the sheep. Oral Roberts doesn't talk
about how the City of Faith failed? How the accreditation of their law school
failed? How they went 40 millions dollars into debt when he forgave and
defended Jim Bakker?

The life of Jim Bakker, the world's most famous fallen tele-evangelist, has
always been about numbers, and we are not just talking hymns and psalms.
There was the $1.9m salary he paid himself in 1986, the last full year that
he led the Praise The Lord (PTL) Ministry that he founded in 1972 with his
thickly mascara'd wife, Tammy Faye. At the time, he owned six luxury
mansions, 47 bank accounts and a single Rolls-Royce. He was accustomed to
raising $1m from his TV-goggling disciples across America every two days.
Then came 1989, when he was charged, and convicted, on 24 counts of
fraud and conspiracy for stealing $3.7m from his flock to fund his fabulous
lifestyle just like Rex Humbard.*

It was never exactly clear how many sexual partners (allegedly both women
and men) he enjoyed in those crazy days before his reckoning with the law
and crushing humiliation. We do know he paid $265,000 in cash to buy the
silence of a church secretary he had been involved with in 1980.

The opulence of the Bakkers' lifestyle at the height of their reign could not
be measured in simple figures, however. They enjoyed the American Dream,
but a garishly inflated version of it. They had an air-conditioned dog kennel
and gold-plated bathrooms. Theirs was the kind of money that bought
everything except good taste. Tammy Faye, who used glove puppets to help
explain the Word of the Lord on air, is still seen today as the gold standard
for eye shadow run amok. There is even a documentary film about her
simply called The Eyes of Tammy Faye Bakker. Jim had a monkey face. His
apple-shiny cheeks contrived to look at once bloated and stretched.

The Bakkers flaunted their wealth and used it to raise more and more of it.
They offered a model of extravagant living that viewers drank in,
presumably not in a spirit of post-modern irony. At its peak, the PTL
broadcasts touched 13.5 million American households every day. The
Bakkers are still being pursued for $3m in unpaid income tax.

He did write a book, however, simply called I Was Wrong. But in the book he
never admitted that he stole any money or he was bisexual although David
Taggart was one of his lovers? Bakker has downplayed the role of the
bisexual evangelist John Wesley Fletcher, who arranged his tryst with Jessica
Hahn. Fletcher was bitter and said Bakker had failed to keep promises and
had forsaken him during tough times. Fletcher stated during the
"Pearlygate" media storm that he, too, had been sexually involved with
bisexual Bakker, reported Christianity Today.

Oral Roberts "divinely berated" the Assemblies of God leadership, the
Charlotte Observer newspaper, and evangelist Jimmy Swaggart over the
disclosure of his friend Jim Bakker's sexual and financial indiscretions.
Roberts told his nationwide audience:

"And the Word of the Lord in my mouth is to you, my brother, whom we all
love, you're sowing discord. And the Lord said, 'Discord will come back to
you.' Flee my brother, repent, and ask God to cleanse you. For you're a
good man and we love you. And the Word of the Lord is saying to those
people in the headquarters of that denomination, where Jim out of
graciousness turned in his ordination papers because they wanted him to,
and you've not accepted it. You've said, 'No we're gonna strip him. We're
gonna crush him.'...The Word of the Lord is coming to you from Oral
Roberts' mouth today, if you strip Jim Bakker, you've touched God's
annointed, you've harmed God's prophet. And the Word of the Lord says,
'Touch not my annointed, do no harm to my prophets.'...I beg you,
headquarters of a great denomination, one that we respect and love, desist,
move back, and treat Jim Bakker as what he is, an annointed man, a
prophet of God. And the hand of the Lord will not fall upon you. But the
Lord will bless you. And to the great newspaper: You seem so immune to
what our God can do, You've touched God's annointed and you've tried to
harm God's prophet, Jim Bakker. You've come into an unholy alliance with
these others in the name of religion and morality. You've set yourself up to
be a standard of morality, when you're not. The Word of the Lord comes
unto you from my mouth. And the Lord says that He'll create great
dissension in your ranks. You'll have such dissension in your ranks. You'll
have such dissension that it'll spread across the news media of America and
you will not know what you're doing. There'll be much falling out and falling
apart, anger among yourselves. And you'll wonder why this has happened."
(Pfo Quarterly Journal, January-March, 2003, pg. 6-7. Oral Roberts, Richard
Roberts Live broadcast, March 1987)

However, when the facts all confirmed the allegations and vindicated
Swaggart, the Assemblies of God denomination, and the Charlotte Observer,
Oral Roberts admitted:

"Out of this experience I went on nationwide television and preached a
message of forgiveness and that after a period of time, there should be
restoration. I also said some harsh words about a great church, the
Assemblies of God, and the fellow brother, Jimmy Swaggart. At that time, I
did not have all the information that they possessed and I did not perceive
that they were ever going to forgive Jim Bakker in their hearts. I also did
not understand their full procedure for withdrawing ordination papers and
working to restore a minister. Also, at the time I didn't know the full story
about finances and other alledged irregularities." (Oral Roberts, "The Media
Have Had Their say, Now The Truth," Abundant Life, September-October
1987, pg. 9)
* Note: In 1973 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and West
Virginia Securities Division issued cease-and-desist orders on $12 million
worth of gospel bonds sold by TV evangelist Rex Humbard of Akron. The
authorities warned that -- despite his $4 million cathedral, $250,000
mansion, private jet, $10 million office tower, church-owned girdle factory,
and other holdings -- Humbard lacked enough assets to back up the bonds.
Humbard begged emergency donations and reaped enough millions to lift
the government freezes. (He also sold the unprofitable girdle factory
because "panty hose killed us.") And in June, Humbard and his sons bought
a $650,000 vacation home complex, in addition to their mansions in Akron
from the emergency donations.
Note: Have you noticed that many preachers are a broken record and their
preaching is very narrow minded especially concerning giving that it's all
about money? They ignore the word of god that tells us that our giving is to
be tempered according to what one has and not according to what one does
not have! And we are to give ourselves first to God and then everything
else!

2 Corinthians 8:5 And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave
themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God.
8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was
rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might
become rich. 8:10 And in this I give advice: It is to your advantage not only
to be doing what you began and were desiring to do a year ago; 8:11 but
now you also must complete the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to
desire it, so there also may be a completion out of what you have. 8:12 For
if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and
not according to what he does not have. 8:13 For I do not mean that others
should be eased and you burdened; 8:14 but by an equality, that now at this
time your abundance may supply their lack, that their abundance also may
supply your lack-that there may be equality.

We are to give out of our abundance not out of our lack and this goes
against the teaching of the principle of seed faith of giving out of your need?