Oral Roberts University eliminated its entire Board of Regents last night declaring a new era of transparent governance and accountability for the financially troubled institution. The new Board of Trustees made up of educators and alumni is in sharp contrast to the old board which was dominated by high profile televangelists including Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, Jerry Savelle, Jesse Duplantis and Kenneth Copeland.
In a statement, Lindsay said she lived her life in "a morally upright manner" and had never engaged in any sexual behavior with any man outside of her marriage as the accusations imply. The untrue allegations of sexual misconduct by my wife have hurt the most.
Gary Richardson, attorney for the dismissed professors, said his clients "stand ready and prepared at the appropriate time to prove the truth of those allegations, and also prove the truth of the fact they were fired after providing the information off Stephanie Cantees' computer to the board of regents.
Oral Roberts, 89, said last week that the allegations against his family had blindsided him, "but we have been through some tough experiences in building Oral Roberts University in the s, and we have surprised them all and have built a university that we believe is for the glory of God. The Roberts family ministry 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 elder Roberts founded the 5,student school, known for its foot-tall bronze sculpture of praying hands, in Either way, Richard was on the move. In March , gospel singer Mahalia Jackson was the featured guest on the first Contact special, and 10 million people tuned in. They were reaching millions of the unchurched on prime time. ORU was swimming in cash in the s, new campus buildings were going up, and the World Action Singers got to travel the world in luxury.
But I need a black son. You are my black son. Soon, Oral hired Pearson as associate evangelist, in large part to help groom Richard to take over the empire, Pearson says. As the years went on, Patti and others noticed Richard was becoming a clone of his father: how he spoke onstage, how he styled his hair.
Oral had even given the couple their marriage bed. Patti readily admits she enjoyed the fruits of seed-faith ministry: glamorous vacations, expensive cars, shopping trips, jet-setting. But, according to her memoir, she grew increasingly uncomfortable with the resemblance seed-faith bore to the selling of indulgences prior to Martin Luther and the Reformation. At an event in the mid s, Patti happened to meet young Frank Schaeffer, son of the famous Christian philosopher and anti-abortion coalition builder Francis Schaeffer.
In her mind, Christian celebrity culture was pure idolatry. Looking back, Frank remembers telling the couple that he eventually planned to make his own life, away from his paternal legacy, and they should too.
Oral took his grief and made it into a television episode. But soon Patti became pregnant. When she gave birth, she called Oral from the hospital. She apologized for not having a boy. He would be proud of his granddaughter regardless, Oral said. He hung up the phone and turned to Robinson. To be on television with his father, Richard had to have it all—the lovely wife, the kids. People had to want to be them, as any adman knows.
They were selling their image. Oral warned Richard that he needed to get her under control, Patti recalls. You will never get to the top. Patti had become an unsuitable wife. One day, Richard came back from a fishing trip with his parents and announced they had given their permission to end the marriage.
With turmoil erupting in Christendom over the divorce, year-old Richard quickly set about the business of finding another wife. She had black hair and a heart-shaped face, cute but not regal like Patti. Lindsay kept having miscarriages. Finally, she carried a baby to term. In , Lindsay gave birth to a male heir. They named him Richard Oral Roberts. So much was riding on that baby.
Oral led the family in prayer before the funeral. Not long after his daughter and son-in-law died in a tragic plane crash, Oral had a vision of a foot Jesus who told him to build a Christian medical center. The problem was that Tulsa already had more than enough hospital beds. Oral predicted—wrongly, it turned out—that believers would flock to Tulsa for a hybrid of modern medicine and faith healing. Instead, City of Faith hemorrhaged cash.
Around the same time, Oral decided that he needed a Beverly Hills home. He resigned from the board. Strapped for cash, in ORU shuttered both the dentistry and the law school.
Things reached a new low in Oral claimed he had raised the dead. But, regardless, the medical center closed in Then, the rest of City of Faith closed in Oral was growing old. Sure, Oral racked up debts, but he could also bring in the big money. Oral turned to his board of regents for reassurance. How do you think Richard did last night?
What do you think about the future? Do you think he can handle this? Billy Joe [Daugherty], myself, Larry Lea—anybody. Kenneth Copeland, all the preachers on the board. Because all those preachers understood they would want their son to succeed them.
Richard conformed; Ronnie rebelled. Marvin Shirley, a close friend from All Souls, remembers Ronnie as a liberal rationalist who read widely, was fluent in five languages, and viewed the Bible as a historical document.
This was the ultimate apostasy for a child of Oral Roberts. John Wolf. Oral would demand that Ronnie shave his beard, for a beard stood for hippies and secularism and everything that the ministry was not; Ronnie would refuse. In the programs Ronnie usually ended up in the background or off to the side of the frame somewhere.
One Sunday, the televangelist himself showed up at All Souls, Wolf remembers. Oral and Wolf were friendly antagonists in those days. He left town for college and headed to Stanford, dropped out after a year, and joined the army as a linguist, teaching Mandarin in Vietnam. He had himself removed from the family trust fund.
Lewis Ave. Oral Roberts University Prayer Tower. Louis on November 27, Prayer Tower at Oral Roberts University. Oklahoma, Tulsa, Oral Roberts University, sculpture of hands in prayer.
Designed by architect Frank Wallace. Oral Roberts University is a private evangelical liberal arts university in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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