They prolly look a lot like this:
Posted on 01/12/2010 5:40:21 AM PST by urroner
Oral Roberts: MANY OF 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.
At the age of 29, he was a struggling part-time preacher with church pastorates in Oklahoma, and his college studies had not brought him a degree.
He told the story of how he picked up his Bible and it fell open at the Third Epistle of John. His eye caught verse two, which read: “I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”
He had not heard this verse before and neither had his schoolteacher wife Evelyn, although both were the offspring of preachers. Roberts decided immediately that it was all right to be rich.
The next day he bought a Buick and God appeared, he said, telling him to heal people. Roberts then added this aspect to his tent revival meetings. A month later in Enid, Oklahoma, he cured, he claimed, a woman the use of whose hand had been impaired for 38 years.
After leaving the Pentecostal Holiness church to become leader of the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association, he was on his way to becoming the richest US evangelist. With his pioneering exploitation of radio and – from 1954 – television, he headed a broadcasting empire that transformed religion in America.
He also ran mailshot campaigns promising prosperity in return for financial expressions of faith in God: his message of health and wealth held enormous appeal for poor Americans.
At its height in the early 1980s, Roberts was chief of a $120 million a year business employing 2,300 people and controlling Oral Roberts University (ORU) – which opened in 1965 – a medical school and hospital and buildings on 50 acres south of Tulsa, Oklahoma, valued at $500 million.
Students at ORU, whose members were forbidden to drink, smoke or have sex before marriage, went on to reach 5,400.
Roberts’s broadcasts went to hundreds of radio and television stations, his appeals for money continued non-stop, while sales of his 120 books and hundreds of audio and video cassettes boosted the cashflow. In 1987, he created headlines by saying that unless he got another $4.5 million for his hospital in a few weeks, “God will call me home”.
He retired to his 10-storey prayer tower on campus and emerged – on the deadline – to declare that he had raised the sum. As usual, there was only his word for it.
Over the years there were various exposés of fraudulent healing practices and in 1989, he had to close his uneconomical City of Faith hospital. He even sold his holiday homes in Palm Springs and Beverly Hills, California, and three of his Mercedes cars, but continued to wear his Italian silk suits, diamond rings and gold bracelets – airbrushed out by his staff on publicity pictures.
In his last years, he retrenched the Roberts ministry, but was never engulfed in the scandals that brought down some of his peers, even though on several occasions people died at his “healing” prayer sessions.
He was ranked second only to Billy Graham in the hierarchy of US evangelists and was still referred to as “Dr” Roberts, despite having only honorary degrees.
Born into rural poverty in a log cabin near Ada, southeast of Oklahoma City, he nearly died of tuberculosis when he was 17. His family had joined the Pentecostal Holiness church and he credited God with his recovery after attending a revival meeting.
That launched his religious career, although one local newspaper sceptic wrote that Roberts treated religion the way that Tulsans went into oil: to make money.
At 18, he began preaching for the Pentecostal Holiness church.
Two years later he married Evelyn, who died in May 2005, aged 88. They had two sons and two daughters. His elder son, Ronald, shot himself dead in 1982, and his daughter Rebecca and her husband Marshall Nash died in an air crash in 1977, leaving $10 million, their proceeds from the Roberts empire. In the 1990s he had two heart attacks, and in 2006 he broke a hip.
Roberts’s daughter Roberta and his son Richard, who followed him as president of ORU until 2007, when he was forced to take leave of absence following allegations that he had used university funds for personal purposes, survive him.
You would be justified!! ;^)
... that deluxe apartment in the sky!
- - - - - -
Thanks, elsie, now I will be singing the theme from the “Jeffersons” all day. Grrrr...
They prolly look a lot like this:
You mean like this guy?
Did you read post 14?
What was it that he supposedly did for God?
What did he do with all that money people sent him? Oh, that's right, diamond rings, Rolls Royces, silk suits.....
What about feeding the poor. Having healing services for the deaf?
As far as philanthropic works, lots of people do stuff like that, which is good and good comes out of it, but just because someone claims to be doing something in the name of God or for God, doesn't mean that they are.
Matthew 7: 21-23 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
So, maybe you can explain why he wouldn't have a healing service for the deaf when asked.
Perhaps you could explain why he lived like a king off the donations of his followers.
What's your connection to him that you're taking such offense at criticism of him?
Just a question: Do you think any people came into the kingdom of God as a result of Oral Roberts’ ministry?
I wouldn't have a clue, but numbers are not a measure of godliness of the minister or ministry or the truth or integrity of it.
Just sayin.
sw
I always LOVED the Reverend Ike...(paraphrasing)...”get it now...don’t look for the pie in the sky in the great by and by...”
That's exactly the kind of thing I learned in the Mormon Temple ceremony. Have you been? ...just sayin'
Your comments will be followed by mine. I cant seem to format italics...sorry.
Did you read post 14?
Yes.
What was it that he supposedly did for God?
Preached salvation, healing and deliverance for over 50 years.
What did he do with all that money people sent him?
Built a world class Christian university in addition to his other ministries.
What about feeding the poor.
I don’t know, but I don’t doubt his influence has had an overall positive impact on the poor through the many lives and ministries he has influenced for the better.
Having healing services for the deaf?
You’re condemning someone for something he didn’t do rather than what he did do. Would you condemn Jesus for not healing everyone in Israel during his day, or not responding to every invitation and request to show forth His miraculous power.
As far as philanthropic works, lots of people do stuff like that, which is good and good comes out of it, but just because someone claims to be doing something in the name of God or for God, doesn’t mean that they are.
OK.
Matthew 7: 21-23 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
Can’t argue with Jesus. Nor will I condemn my brother, who cannot defend his reputation, and assert that Jesus will reject him.
So, maybe you can explain why he wouldn’t have a healing service for the deaf when asked.
Perhaps he didn’t feel it advisable to come into a doubt-charged situation (the pastor who invited him) and try and overcome the environment of unbelief. Actually, I have no idea, but even Jesus couldn’t do any great miracles at Nazareth because of unbelief. Perhaps this pastor, if he felt Roberts was a charlatan, should instruct his deaf people not to send their money to him and provide for their healing through his own faith in our Lord Jesus. Sounds like sour grapes to me.
Perhaps you could explain why he lived like a king off the donations of his followers.
Could you explain what you mean? Do you know his salary? How does he compare to an average CEO, and do you comdemn them as well? If his followers don’t feel they were robbed, why do you? Are you jealous that people found his ministry so significant to them that they were willing to give to his ministry?
What’s your connection to him that you’re taking such offense at criticism of him?
No connection, other than a fellow Christian who hates to see cheap shots taken at a brother in the Lord. I think the lack of demonstrable unity and love in the body of Christ does more damage to the kingdom of God and the church’s witness than television evangelists.
I wouldn’t have a clue (whether people were saved through Oral Roberts’ ministry), but numbers are not a measure of godliness of the minister or ministry or the truth or integrity of it.
True enough, but even Paul rejoiced at those who preached the gospel from wrong motives...as the gospel was being preached!
urroner,
Have you looked into prolotherapy and the new form
of platelet prolotherapy? It isn’t invasive and
is having real success...
best,
ampu
bump
I wonder why these threads turn into Mormon/Anti-Mormon discussions. Also, I’m offended by the title of the article, too, even though I’ve had doubts about Oral Roberts.
I thought this was going to be about Rick Warren.
Because the poster of the thread, dear urroner, is LDS and posted this as a “counter”.
IMO, the thread was created to “bash” Evangelicals.
Well...
It was POSTED by a MORMON.
One who has had little luck in DEFENDing MORMONism, so perhaps trying to get CHRISTIANS to defend what he considers to be a BAD example of a christian would divert some attention away from the HERESY of MORMONism.
Thanks aMPU. When I get back from the hospital, I look into those things.
reaganaut said:
“IMO, the thread was created to “bash” Evangelicals.”
I ask:
I point out that there could be corruption in the Evangelical community and I get accused of “bashing” Evangelicals, yet I don’t hear too many complaints of the many, many threads “bashing” the Mormon Church.
reaganaut, was I wrong in doing so?
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