Oral Roberts
Encyclopedia
Granville "Oral" Roberts (January 24, 1918 – December 15, 2009) was an American
Pentecostal televangelist and a Christian
charismatic
. He founded the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association
and Oral Roberts University
.
As one of the most well-known and controversial religious leaders of the 20th century, Roberts' ministries reached millions of followers worldwide spanning a period of over six decades. His healing ministry and bringing American Pentecostalism
into the mainstream had the most impact, but he also pioneered TV evangelism
and laid the foundations of the prosperity gospel and abundant life
teachings.
, the fifth and youngest child of the Reverend Ellis Melvin Roberts and Claudius Priscilla Roberts (née Irwin) (d. 1974). According to an interview on Larry King Live
, Irwin was of Cherokee
descent. Roberts was a card-carrying member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma
. Roberts began life in poverty and nearly died of tuberculosis at age 17. After finishing high school, Roberts studied for two years each at Oklahoma Baptist University
and Phillips University
.
In 1938 he married a preacher's daughter, Evelyn Lutman Fahnestock.
Roberts became a traveling faith healer
after ending his college studies without a degree. According to a TIME Magazine profile of 1972, Roberts originally made a name for himself with a large mobile tent "that sat 3,000 on metal folding chairs" where "he shouted at petitioners who did not respond to his healing."
where verse two read: "I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." Roberts decided immediately that it was all right to be rich. The next day he said he bought a Buick
and God appeared, he said, telling him to heal the sick.
Roberts resigned his pastoral ministry with the Pentecostal Holiness Church to found Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association
(OREA). He conducted evangelistic and faith healing
crusades across America and around the world. Thousands of sick people would wait in line to stand before Oral Roberts so he could pray for them. He appeared as a guest speaker for hundreds of national and international meetings and conventions. Through the years, he conducted more than 300 crusades on six continents, and personally laid hands in prayer on more than 2 million people. He also ran direct mail campaigns of seed-faith, which appealed to poor Americans, often from ethnic minorities. At its peak in the early 1980s, Roberts was the leader of a $120 million-a-year organization employing 2,300 people. This spanned not only a university but also a medical school and hospital as well as buildings on 50 acres (202,343 m²) south of Tulsa valued at $500 million. Another part of the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association, the Abundant Life Prayer Group (ALPG), was founded in 1958.
In 1963, he founded Oral Roberts University
(ORU) in Tulsa, Oklahoma
, stating he was obeying a command from God
. The university was chartered during 1963 and received its first students in 1965. Students were required to sign an honor code pledging not to drink
, smoke
, or engage in premarital sexual activities. The Prayer Tower
, opened in 1967, is located at the center of the campus.
Roberts was a pioneer televangelist
, and attracted a vast viewership. He began broadcasting by radio in 1947, and began broadcasting his revivals by television in 1954. His television ministry continued with The Abundant Life program reaching 80% of the United States by 1957, and quarterly Prime Time Specials from 1969 through 1980. In 1996, he founded Golden Eagle Broadcasting
.
On 17 March 1968, Roberts and his wife were received as members of the Boston Avenue United Methodist Church
in Tulsa, Oklahoma by Dr. Finis Crutchfield
, then pastor. The United Methodist Church
offered more leniency in doctrinal and moral issues than the Pentecostalism. This granted Roberts some leeway, as it was expected that the strictness of the Pentecostal tradition may have impeded his rise in popularity. Before Roberts' switch to Methodism, Crutchfield arranged a meeting between Roberts and Bishop William Angie Smith
, at which the Bishop told Roberts, "We need you, but we need the Holy Spirit more than we need you and we've got to have the Holy Spirit in the Methodist Church." Roberts became an elder
in the Oklahoma Conference of the United Methodist Church. From 1968 through 1987, Roberts was a member of the United Methodist Church
’s ministry.
Roberts had a vast impact on the Protestant community. According to one authority, in conservative Protestant culture, his ministry had a worldwide impact second only to Billy Graham
. His divine healing ministry called for prayer
to heal the whole person
— body, mind and spirit
. Many labeled him a faith healer
, but he rejected this with the comment: "God heals — I don't." He played a major role in bringing American Pentecostal Christianity
into the mainstream. Even though Roberts was often associated with the prosperity gospel and the faith movement because of his close doctrinal and personal ties with Word-Faith teachers, his abundant life
teachings did not fully identify him with that movement.
In 1977, Roberts claimed to have had a vision from a 900-foot-tall Jesus who told him to build City of Faith Medical and Research Center, and the hospital would be a success. In 1980, Roberts said he had a vision which encouraged him to continue the construction of his City of Faith Medical and Research Center in Oklahoma, which opened in 1981. At the time, it was among the largest health facilities of its kind in the world and was intended to merge prayer and medicine in the healing process. The City of Faith operated for only eight years before closing in late 1989, but the importance of treating the whole person
– spirit, mind, and body – was conveyed to many medical professionals. The Orthopedic Hospital of Oklahoma still operates on its premises. In 1983 Roberts said Jesus had appeared to him in person and commissioned him to find a cure for cancer
.
Roberts' fundraising was controversial. In January 1987, during a fundraising drive, Roberts announced to a television audience that unless he raised $8 million by that March, God would "call him home." Some were fearful that he was referring to suicide, given the impassioned pleas and tears that accompanied his statement. He raised $9.1 million. Later that year, he announced that God had raised the dead through Roberts' ministry. Some of Roberts' fundraising letters were written by Gene Ewing, who headed a business writing donation letters for other evangelicals such as Don Stewart
and Robert Tilton
.
Roberts maintained his love of finery and one obituary claimed that even when times become hard, "he continued to wear his Italian silk suits, diamond rings and gold bracelets – airbrushed out by his staff on publicity pictures".
He stirred up controversy when Time reported in 1987 that his son Richard Roberts
claimed that he had seen his father raise a child from the dead. That year, the Bloom County
comic strip recast its character Bill the Cat
as a satirized televangelist, "Fundamentally Oral Bill." In 1987 Time stated that he was "re-emphasizing faith healing and [is] reaching for his old-time constituency." However, his income continued to decrease (from $88 million in 1980 to $55 million in 1986, according to the Tulsa Tribune
) and his largely vacant City of Faith Medical Center continued to lose money.
Harry McNevin said that in 1988 the ORU Board of Regents "rubber-stamped" the "use of millions in endowment money to buy a Beverly Hills property so that Oral Roberts could have a West Coast office and house". In addition, he said a country club membership was purchased for the Roberts' home. The lavish expenses led to McNevin's resignation from the Board.
His organizations were also affected by scandals involving other televangelists and the City of Faith hospital was forced to close in 1989 after losing money. Roberts was forced to respond with the sale of his holiday homes in Palm Springs
and Beverly Hills as well as three of his Mercedes
cars.
Oral Roberts' son Richard Roberts
resigned from the presidency of ORU on November 23, 2007 after being named as a defendant in a lawsuit alleging improper use of university funds for political and personal purposes, and improper use of university resources. The university was given a donation of $8 million by entrepreneur Mart Green
, and although the lawsuit was still in process, the school submitted to an outside audit, and with a good report an additional $62 million was given by Green. Oral Roberts continued in his role as ORU chancellor, helping in the leadership of ORU along with Billy Joe Daugherty
, who was named as the executive regent to assume administrative responsibilities of the Office of the President by the ORU Board of Regents. Oral Roberts continued as the ORU chancellor until his death, but in 2009 eleven months before his death, handed over the leadership of ORU to its incoming president, Mark Rutland
.
Even though Roberts' prosperous lifestyle, unorthodox fund-raising techniques, and the expanse of his organizations raised criticism and controversy, there was no credible evidence of malfeasance while he was in charge, he did not have sex-and-money scandals like some other televangelists, and he was not named among the six prosperity teachers in the financial investigations launched by U.S. Senator
Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) in 2007. The Oklahoma Senate
adopted a resolution honoring the life of Oral Roberts, and he accepted this honor in 2009 at the age of 91, seven months before his death. The Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters (OAB) elected Roberts to the OAB Hall of Fame one month before his death. The legacy he left behind upon his passing was worthy of his favorite quote: "Make No Small Plans Here."
, an evangelist and former president of Oral Roberts University (ORU), and daughter Roberta Potts, an attorney. Roberts' gay grandson, Randy Roberts Potts, talked about his uncle Ronald Roberts, and wrote an article discussing growing up gay in the Oral Roberts family.
Oral Roberts died on December 15, 2009 at the age of 91. He had been "semi-retired" and living in Newport Beach, California
.
According to a 1987 article in the New York Review of Books by Martin Gardner
, the "most accurate and best documented biography
is Oral Roberts: An American Life, an objective study by David Harrell Jr., a historian at Auburn University
. Two out-of-print books take a more critical stance: James Morris' The Preachers (St. Martin's Press
, 1973) and Jerry Sholes' Give Me That Prime-Time Religion (Hawthorn, 1979)."
By Roberts
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Pentecostal televangelist and a Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
charismatic
Charismatic movement
The term charismatic movement is used in varying senses to describe 20th century developments in various Christian denominations. It describes an ongoing international, cross-denominational/non-denominational Christian movement in which individual, historically mainstream congregations adopt...
. He founded the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association
Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association
Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association is a Pentecostal ministry started by the late faith healer and televangelist Oral Roberts and currently run by his son Richard Roberts....
and Oral Roberts University
Oral Roberts University
Oral Roberts University , based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the United States, is an interdenominational, Charismatic Christian, comprehensive university with an enrollment of about 3,790 students from 49 U.S. states along with a significant number of international students from 70 countries...
.
As one of the most well-known and controversial religious leaders of the 20th century, Roberts' ministries reached millions of followers worldwide spanning a period of over six decades. His healing ministry and bringing American Pentecostalism
Pentecostalism
Pentecostalism is a diverse and complex movement within Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism in the Holy Spirit, has an eschatological focus, and is an experiential religion. The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost, the Greek...
into the mainstream had the most impact, but he also pioneered TV evangelism
Evangelism
Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....
and laid the foundations of the prosperity gospel and abundant life
Abundant life
Abundant life is a term used to refer to Christian teachings on fullness of life. It is not an organized movement or a unique doctrine, but a name applied to the teachings and expectations of the groups and people who follow the teachings...
teachings.
Early life
Roberts was born in Pontotoc County, OklahomaPontotoc County, Oklahoma
Pontotoc County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of 2000, the population was 35,143. Its county seat is Ada.-Geography:According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,879 km²...
, the fifth and youngest child of the Reverend Ellis Melvin Roberts and Claudius Priscilla Roberts (née Irwin) (d. 1974). According to an interview on Larry King Live
Larry King Live
Larry King Live is an American talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was CNN's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly....
, Irwin was of Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
descent. Roberts was a card-carrying member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma
Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma
The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma is a semi-autonomous Native American homeland comprising twelve tribal districts. The Choctaw Nation maintains a special relationship with both the United States and Oklahoma governments...
. Roberts began life in poverty and nearly died of tuberculosis at age 17. After finishing high school, Roberts studied for two years each at Oklahoma Baptist University
Oklahoma Baptist University
Oklahoma Baptist University is a co-educational Christian liberal arts university located in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and owned by the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. Established in 1910, OBU is ranked No.2 among baccalaureate colleges in the western region in the 2010 U.S...
and Phillips University
Phillips University
Phillips University was a private, coeducational institution of higher education located in Enid, Oklahoma, United States, from 1906 to 1998. It was affiliated with the Christian Church . It included an undergraduate college and a graduate seminary...
.
In 1938 he married a preacher's daughter, Evelyn Lutman Fahnestock.
Roberts became a traveling faith healer
Faith Healer
Faith Healer is a play by Brian Friel about the life of faith healer Francis Hardy as monologued through the shifting memories of Hardy, his wife, Grace, and stage manager, Teddy.-Synopsis:...
after ending his college studies without a degree. According to a TIME Magazine profile of 1972, Roberts originally made a name for himself with a large mobile tent "that sat 3,000 on metal folding chairs" where "he shouted at petitioners who did not respond to his healing."
Ministry and university
1947 came as a turning point. Up until that time Roberts had struggled as a part-time preacher in Oklahoma. But at the age of 29 Roberts claims he picked up his Bible and it fell open at the Third Epistle of JohnThird Epistle of John
The Third Epistle of John, often referred to as Third John and written 3 John, is a book of the New Testament attributed to John the Evangelist, traditionally thought to be the author of the Gospel of John and the other two epistles of John...
where verse two read: "I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." Roberts decided immediately that it was all right to be rich. The next day he said he bought a Buick
Buick
Buick is a premium brand of General Motors . Buick models are sold in the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, Taiwan, and Israel, with China being its largest market. Buick holds the distinction as the oldest active American make...
and God appeared, he said, telling him to heal the sick.
Roberts resigned his pastoral ministry with the Pentecostal Holiness Church to found Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association
Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association
Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association is a Pentecostal ministry started by the late faith healer and televangelist Oral Roberts and currently run by his son Richard Roberts....
(OREA). He conducted evangelistic and faith healing
Faith healing
Faith healing is healing through spiritual means. The healing of a person is brought about by religious faith through prayer and/or rituals that, according to adherents, stimulate a divine presence and power toward correcting disease and disability. Belief in divine intervention in illness or...
crusades across America and around the world. Thousands of sick people would wait in line to stand before Oral Roberts so he could pray for them. He appeared as a guest speaker for hundreds of national and international meetings and conventions. Through the years, he conducted more than 300 crusades on six continents, and personally laid hands in prayer on more than 2 million people. He also ran direct mail campaigns of seed-faith, which appealed to poor Americans, often from ethnic minorities. At its peak in the early 1980s, Roberts was the leader of a $120 million-a-year organization employing 2,300 people. This spanned not only a university but also a medical school and hospital as well as buildings on 50 acres (202,343 m²) south of Tulsa valued at $500 million. Another part of the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association, the Abundant Life Prayer Group (ALPG), was founded in 1958.
Oral Roberts University
Oral Roberts University , based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the United States, is an interdenominational, Charismatic Christian, comprehensive university with an enrollment of about 3,790 students from 49 U.S. states along with a significant number of international students from 70 countries...
(ORU) in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...
, stating he was obeying a command from God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
. The university was chartered during 1963 and received its first students in 1965. Students were required to sign an honor code pledging not to drink
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
, smoke
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
, or engage in premarital sexual activities. The Prayer Tower
Prayer Tower
The Prayer Tower is a Futurist tower located on the campus of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The 200 ft glass and steel structure, designed by Tulsa architect Frank Wallace, opened in 1967. An enclosed observation deck gives a 360° view of the surrounding area and enables a...
, opened in 1967, is located at the center of the campus.
Roberts was a pioneer televangelist
Televangelism
Televangelism is the use of television to communicate the Christian faith. The word is a portmanteau of television and evangelism and was coined by Time magazine. A “televangelist” is a Christian minister who devotes a large portion of his ministry to television broadcasting...
, and attracted a vast viewership. He began broadcasting by radio in 1947, and began broadcasting his revivals by television in 1954. His television ministry continued with The Abundant Life program reaching 80% of the United States by 1957, and quarterly Prime Time Specials from 1969 through 1980. In 1996, he founded Golden Eagle Broadcasting
Golden Eagle Broadcasting
Golden Eagle Broadcasting is a small digital satellite television network based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA, which airs primarily Christian and family oriented programming. The signal is broadcast over-the-air in Northeastern Oklahoma via KGEB TV-53. The network is owned and operated by Oral Roberts...
.
On 17 March 1968, Roberts and his wife were received as members of the Boston Avenue United Methodist Church
United Methodist Church
The United Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination which is both mainline Protestant and evangelical. Founded in 1968 by the union of The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church, the UMC traces its roots back to the revival movement of John and Charles Wesley...
in Tulsa, Oklahoma by Dr. Finis Crutchfield
Finis Alonzo Crutchfield, Jr.
Finis Alonzo Crutchfield, Jr. was a bishop in The United Methodist Church in the United States during the twentieth century. He was credited with bringing Oral Roberts into the Methodist Church and served as a negotiator in the 1968 merge of the Methodist Church with the Evangelical United...
, then pastor. The United Methodist Church
United Methodist Church
The United Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination which is both mainline Protestant and evangelical. Founded in 1968 by the union of The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church, the UMC traces its roots back to the revival movement of John and Charles Wesley...
offered more leniency in doctrinal and moral issues than the Pentecostalism. This granted Roberts some leeway, as it was expected that the strictness of the Pentecostal tradition may have impeded his rise in popularity. Before Roberts' switch to Methodism, Crutchfield arranged a meeting between Roberts and Bishop William Angie Smith
William Angie Smith
William Angie Smith was a Bishop of The Methodist Church and the United Methodist Church, elected in 1944.-Birth and Family:William was born 21 December 1894 in Elgin, Texas, the son of William Angie and Mary Smith. William married Bess Owens 20 July 1920...
, at which the Bishop told Roberts, "We need you, but we need the Holy Spirit more than we need you and we've got to have the Holy Spirit in the Methodist Church." Roberts became an elder
Elder (Methodism)
An Elder in the Methodist Church — sometimes called a Presbyter or Minister — is someone who has been ordained by a Bishop to the ministry of Word, Sacrament, Order, and Service...
in the Oklahoma Conference of the United Methodist Church. From 1968 through 1987, Roberts was a member of the United Methodist Church
United Methodist Church
The United Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination which is both mainline Protestant and evangelical. Founded in 1968 by the union of The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church, the UMC traces its roots back to the revival movement of John and Charles Wesley...
’s ministry.
Roberts had a vast impact on the Protestant community. According to one authority, in conservative Protestant culture, his ministry had a worldwide impact second only to Billy Graham
Billy Graham
William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. is an American evangelical Christian evangelist. As of April 25, 2010, when he met with Barack Obama, Graham has spent personal time with twelve United States Presidents dating back to Harry S. Truman, and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for...
. His divine healing ministry called for prayer
Prayer
Prayer is a form of religious practice that seeks to activate a volitional rapport to a deity through deliberate practice. Prayer may be either individual or communal and take place in public or in private. It may involve the use of words or song. When language is used, prayer may take the form of...
to heal the whole person
Abundant life
Abundant life is a term used to refer to Christian teachings on fullness of life. It is not an organized movement or a unique doctrine, but a name applied to the teachings and expectations of the groups and people who follow the teachings...
— body, mind and spirit
Soul
A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...
. Many labeled him a faith healer
Faith Healer
Faith Healer is a play by Brian Friel about the life of faith healer Francis Hardy as monologued through the shifting memories of Hardy, his wife, Grace, and stage manager, Teddy.-Synopsis:...
, but he rejected this with the comment: "God heals — I don't." He played a major role in bringing American Pentecostal Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
into the mainstream. Even though Roberts was often associated with the prosperity gospel and the faith movement because of his close doctrinal and personal ties with Word-Faith teachers, his abundant life
Abundant life
Abundant life is a term used to refer to Christian teachings on fullness of life. It is not an organized movement or a unique doctrine, but a name applied to the teachings and expectations of the groups and people who follow the teachings...
teachings did not fully identify him with that movement.
In 1977, Roberts claimed to have had a vision from a 900-foot-tall Jesus who told him to build City of Faith Medical and Research Center, and the hospital would be a success. In 1980, Roberts said he had a vision which encouraged him to continue the construction of his City of Faith Medical and Research Center in Oklahoma, which opened in 1981. At the time, it was among the largest health facilities of its kind in the world and was intended to merge prayer and medicine in the healing process. The City of Faith operated for only eight years before closing in late 1989, but the importance of treating the whole person
Holistic health
Holistic health is a concept in medical practice upholding that all aspects of people's needs, psychological, physical and social should be taken into account and seen as a whole. As defined above, the holistic view on treatment is widely accepted in medicine...
– spirit, mind, and body – was conveyed to many medical professionals. The Orthopedic Hospital of Oklahoma still operates on its premises. In 1983 Roberts said Jesus had appeared to him in person and commissioned him to find a cure for cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
.
Roberts' fundraising was controversial. In January 1987, during a fundraising drive, Roberts announced to a television audience that unless he raised $8 million by that March, God would "call him home." Some were fearful that he was referring to suicide, given the impassioned pleas and tears that accompanied his statement. He raised $9.1 million. Later that year, he announced that God had raised the dead through Roberts' ministry. Some of Roberts' fundraising letters were written by Gene Ewing, who headed a business writing donation letters for other evangelicals such as Don Stewart
Don Stewart (preacher)
Don Stewart is a Pentecostal minister and faith healer. He is a televangelist who hosts "Power and Mercy" on Black Entertainment Television, The Word Network, and other television channels...
and Robert Tilton
Robert Tilton
Robert Tilton is an American televangelist who achieved notoriety in the 1980s and early 1990s through his infomercial-styled religious television program Success-N-Life, which at its peak in 1991 aired in all 235 American TV markets , brought in nearly $80 million per year, and was described as...
.
Roberts maintained his love of finery and one obituary claimed that even when times become hard, "he continued to wear his Italian silk suits, diamond rings and gold bracelets – airbrushed out by his staff on publicity pictures".
Richard Roberts (evangelist)
Richard Roberts is an American evangelist. Roberts is chairman and chief executive officer of the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association. Since his healing ministry began in 1980, he has preached on six continents. Holding his first overseas crusade in South Africa in 1982, he has since traveled...
claimed that he had seen his father raise a child from the dead. That year, the Bloom County
Bloom County
Bloom County is an American comic strip by Berkeley Breathed which ran from December 8, 1980, until August 6, 1989. It examined events in politics and culture through the viewpoint of a fanciful small town in Middle America, where children often have adult personalities and vocabularies and where...
comic strip recast its character Bill the Cat
Bill the Cat
Bill the Cat, or Bill D. Cat, according to the final Outland strip, is a fictional cat appearing in the works of cartoonist Berkeley Breathed, beginning with the comic strip Bloom County in the 1980s and continuing in Outland and Opus in the following decades...
as a satirized televangelist, "Fundamentally Oral Bill." In 1987 Time stated that he was "re-emphasizing faith healing and [is] reaching for his old-time constituency." However, his income continued to decrease (from $88 million in 1980 to $55 million in 1986, according to the Tulsa Tribune
Tulsa Tribune
The Tulsa Tribune was an afternoon daily newspaper published in Tulsa, Oklahoma from 1919 to 1992. Owned and run by three generations of the Jones family, the Tribune closed in 1992 after the termination of its joint operating agreement with the morning Tulsa World.-Antecedents:In 1895, a group of...
) and his largely vacant City of Faith Medical Center continued to lose money.
Harry McNevin said that in 1988 the ORU Board of Regents "rubber-stamped" the "use of millions in endowment money to buy a Beverly Hills property so that Oral Roberts could have a West Coast office and house". In addition, he said a country club membership was purchased for the Roberts' home. The lavish expenses led to McNevin's resignation from the Board.
His organizations were also affected by scandals involving other televangelists and the City of Faith hospital was forced to close in 1989 after losing money. Roberts was forced to respond with the sale of his holiday homes in Palm Springs
Palm Springs
Palm Springs is a desert city in CaliforniaPalm Springs may also refer to:* Palm Springs, Florida* Palm Springs, Hong Kong, a residential development in Yuen Long, Hong Kong* Coachella Valley, also known as the Palm Springs area...
and Beverly Hills as well as three of his Mercedes
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
cars.
Oral Roberts' son Richard Roberts
Richard Roberts (evangelist)
Richard Roberts is an American evangelist. Roberts is chairman and chief executive officer of the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association. Since his healing ministry began in 1980, he has preached on six continents. Holding his first overseas crusade in South Africa in 1982, he has since traveled...
resigned from the presidency of ORU on November 23, 2007 after being named as a defendant in a lawsuit alleging improper use of university funds for political and personal purposes, and improper use of university resources. The university was given a donation of $8 million by entrepreneur Mart Green
Mart Green
Mart Green is the founder and CEO of Mardel Christian and Educational Supply and of Every Tribe Entertainment, and an heir to the Hobby Lobby family of companies which was founded by Mart's father David Green....
, and although the lawsuit was still in process, the school submitted to an outside audit, and with a good report an additional $62 million was given by Green. Oral Roberts continued in his role as ORU chancellor, helping in the leadership of ORU along with Billy Joe Daugherty
Billy Joe Daugherty
Billy Joe Daugherty was founder and pastor of Victory Christian Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was also the founder of Victory Christian School, Victory Bible Institute and Victory World Missions Training Center. Nine hundred and eighty Victory Bible Institutes have been started in eighty-five...
, who was named as the executive regent to assume administrative responsibilities of the Office of the President by the ORU Board of Regents. Oral Roberts continued as the ORU chancellor until his death, but in 2009 eleven months before his death, handed over the leadership of ORU to its incoming president, Mark Rutland
Mark Rutland
Mark Rutland is a missionary, evangelist, ordained minister of the International Ministerial Fellowship, and the third and current President of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was elected to that position following a vote by the Oral Roberts University Board of Trustees on January...
.
Even though Roberts' prosperous lifestyle, unorthodox fund-raising techniques, and the expanse of his organizations raised criticism and controversy, there was no credible evidence of malfeasance while he was in charge, he did not have sex-and-money scandals like some other televangelists, and he was not named among the six prosperity teachers in the financial investigations launched by U.S. Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) in 2007. The Oklahoma Senate
Oklahoma Senate
The Oklahoma Senate is the upper house of the two houses of the Legislature of Oklahoma, the other being the Oklahoma House of Representatives. The total number of Senators is set at 48 by the Oklahoma Constitution....
adopted a resolution honoring the life of Oral Roberts, and he accepted this honor in 2009 at the age of 91, seven months before his death. The Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters (OAB) elected Roberts to the OAB Hall of Fame one month before his death. The legacy he left behind upon his passing was worthy of his favorite quote: "Make No Small Plans Here."
Personal life
Roberts was married to Evelyn Lutman Fahnestock (April 22, 1917 - May 4, 2005) for 66 years from December 25, 1938 until her death from a fall at the age of 88. Their daughter Rebecca Nash died in an airplane crash on February 11, 1977 with her husband, businessman Marshall Nash. Their elder son, Ronald Roberts, committed suicide by shooting himself in the heart on 10 June 1982, five months after receiving a court order to undergo counseling at a drug treatment center and six months after coming out as gay. The other two Roberts children are son RichardRichard Roberts (evangelist)
Richard Roberts is an American evangelist. Roberts is chairman and chief executive officer of the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association. Since his healing ministry began in 1980, he has preached on six continents. Holding his first overseas crusade in South Africa in 1982, he has since traveled...
, an evangelist and former president of Oral Roberts University (ORU), and daughter Roberta Potts, an attorney. Roberts' gay grandson, Randy Roberts Potts, talked about his uncle Ronald Roberts, and wrote an article discussing growing up gay in the Oral Roberts family.
Oral Roberts died on December 15, 2009 at the age of 91. He had been "semi-retired" and living in Newport Beach, California
Newport Beach, California
Newport Beach, incorporated in 1906, is a city in Orange County, California, south of downtown Santa Ana. The population was 85,186 at the 2010 census.The city's median family income and property values consistently place high in national rankings...
.
According to a 1987 article in the New York Review of Books by Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner was an American mathematics and science writer specializing in recreational mathematics, but with interests encompassing micromagic, stage magic, literature , philosophy, scientific skepticism, and religion...
, the "most accurate and best documented biography
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
is Oral Roberts: An American Life, an objective study by David Harrell Jr., a historian at Auburn University
Auburn University
Auburn University is a public university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 25,000 students and 1,200 faculty members, it is one of the largest universities in the state. Auburn was chartered on February 7, 1856, as the East Alabama Male College, a private liberal arts...
. Two out-of-print books take a more critical stance: James Morris' The Preachers (St. Martin's Press
St. Martin's Press
St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in the Flatiron Building in New York City. Currently, St. Martin's Press is one of the United States' largest publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under eight imprints, which include St. Martin's Press , St...
, 1973) and Jerry Sholes' Give Me That Prime-Time Religion (Hawthorn, 1979)."
See also
- Healing RevivalHealing RevivalThe Healing Revival is a term used by many American Charismatics in reference to a revival movement in the late 1940s and 1950s. Although it was concurrent with the more well known evangelical revival led by Billy Graham, and in some ways more broad, it is not recognized in either standard...
- Charismatic ChristianityCharismatic ChristianityCharismatic Christianity is a Christian doctrine that maintains that modern-day believers experience miracles, prophecy, speaking in tongues, and other spiritual gifts as described in of the Bible...
- List of television evangelists
Further reading
About Roberts- The Faith HealersThe Faith HealersThe Faith Healers is a 1987 book by magician and skeptic James Randi with a foreword by Carl Sagan, that documents Randi's exploration of the world of faith healing, and his exposing the sleight of hand trickery and deceit by its practitioners....
, by James RandiJames RandiJames Randi is a Canadian-American stage magician and scientific skeptic best known as a challenger of paranormal claims and pseudoscience. Randi is the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation...
, Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus BooksPrometheus BooksPrometheus Books is a publishing company founded in August 1969 by Paul Kurtz, who also founded the Council for Secular Humanism and co-founded the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He is currently the chairman of all three organizations. Prometheus Books publishes a range of books, including many...
, 1987. ISBN 0-87975-369-2 - Oral Roberts: An American Life, by David Edwin Harrell, Jr., Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-15844-3
By Roberts
- The Call: An autobiography. by Oral Roberts, Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, 1972.
- Expect a miracle: my life and ministry. by Oral Roberts, Nashville : T. Nelson, 1995. ISBN 0-7852-7752-8
- Oral Roberts' life story, as told by himself. by Oral Roberts, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1952.
External links
- Webcast of Chancellor Oral Roberts' Memorial Service
- Oral Roberts Ministries
- Oral Roberts University
- Oral Roberts: The Man. The Mission. The Ministry., online archive at Tulsa WorldTulsa WorldTulsa World is the daily newspaper for the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, is the primary newspaper for the northeastern and eastern portions of Oklahoma, and is the second-most widely circulated newspaper in the state, after The Oklahoman. It was founded in 1905 and remains an independent newspaper,...
- Life With Oral Roberts slideshow by Life magazine
- Voices of Oklahoma interview with Oral Roberts. First person interview conducted with Oral Roberts on August 11, 2009. Last interview before his death. Original audio and transcript archived with Voices of Oklahoma oral history project.