Oral Roberts, Charismatic Pentecostal Evangelist, Dies at 91

Oral Roberts, the charismatic Pentecostal evangelist whose televised ministry attracted millions of followers worldwide and made him one of the most recognizable and controversial religious leaders of the 20th century, died Tuesday in Newport Beach, Calif. He was 91.

The cause was complications of pneumonia, said Melany Ethridge, a spokeswoman for Mr. Roberts.

At the height of his influence, Mr. Roberts sat at the head of a religious, educational and communications enterprise based in Tulsa, Okla., that managed a university, conducted healing “crusades” on five continents, preached the gospel on prime-time national television and published dozens of books and magazines.

By 1985, the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association and the university that bore his name employed more than 2,300 people and earned $110 million in revenue. The expanse of Mr. Roberts’s ministry, coupled with his fiery preaching, tycoonlike vision and jet-set lifestyle, also attracted persistent questions throughout his career about his theology and his unorthodox fund-raising techniques, although no credible evidence of malfeasance was ever produced. Some of the harshest criticism was generated by former members of his staff.

Mr. Roberts, who rose from stifling poverty and a nearly fatal case of tuberculosis as a teenager, rarely fought back in public. He was convinced, he said, that God had spoken to him directly as a young man and ordered him on the path, pursued with uncommon entrepreneurial energy, to “put Jesus into my focus at the center of all my thoughts, my dreams, my plans, my accomplishments, my destiny and any legacy I might leave behind.”

His influence derived from his intimate understanding of those who turned to him for worship. They were white and black and Hispanic, the poor and the ill, hard-working people who could not afford an abundance of material possessions but whose dreams of health and prosperity were tied to an abiding love of God.

The rise of his ministry coincided with the development of television. Mr. Roberts was among the first American religious leaders to recognize and deploy this new communications tool to touch people, and he seized on its extraordinary national and global reach. It helped that he was a natural showman, capable of booming oratory and florid religious rhetoric. But he could also be intimate and tender, relying on a homespun speaking style, a gentle touch and extensive knowledge of scripture to connect with his followers, many of whom viewed him as a heroic figure.

He began his television career in 1954 by filming worship services conducted under a traveling tent, the largest of which held 10,000 people. He maintained that God worked in a miraculous way through his hands, and the peak of every service came when he seated himself like a prince on an elevated stage and worshipers gathered in a prayer line. One by one they paused before Mr. Roberts, spellbound, as his right hand gripped their bodies and he prayed for healing.

Leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States and other religious denominations questioned the authenticity of the healing. In the mid-1950s, in a step that would become familiar, a group of Arizona ministers offered to pay $1,000 to anyone who had been healed by Mr. Roberts and could provide medical proof, but got no response. Thousands of Mr. Roberts’s followers asserted that they had been cured by his hand alone.


CONTINUE READING HERE http://www.nytimes.com/20...berts.html

Wrong forum

you a mess

That fool was about as godly as Ho chasin' Tiger Woods. Only instead of feenin' for Hos he was feenin' for cash.

That fool was claiming to die every year unless people sent him millions of dollars. Now he finally gon on and kicked the bucket! Bout fucking time!

He was a great man, and led an incredible life for God. Everyone has hiccups along the way, but the Bible says "You'll know them by their fruits (what they produce)", and he led a lot of people to the Lord. He was one of those Christian pioneers in the 50's, along with Jack Cole and Billy Graham, that did revival tent meetings and hundreds, and thousands, came out to hear the word of God preached.

I just hope that we're not all judged by the few hiccups in our lives, opposed to the good we do. How quickly we judge. tsk tsk.

I'm glad he's with the Lord, and his wife who passed in 2005. He's lost two children too. One was killed in a car wreck in 1977 I think, and one of his sons who got addicted to drugs, ended up committing suicide in the mid 80's. Horrible time for the family. But Richard is alive and kept the University going along w/ his father. My friend Gale went to ORU and got a double degree in Computer Science, and her MBA. The ORU campus is really pretty, and they have a great school there in general.

ernestsewell said:

Are those hiccups, curses, or tests? Do you think he was only suffering the trials of Jobe or could he possibly have been punished for misuse of God's word to obtain profit. I'm sorry but saying year after year that God is going to strike you dead unless you get X number of dollars is pretty fucked up.

The only good TV Evangelist is either "crossed over" or in prison... taking advantage of peoples faith for their own personal profit

Let's not forget the ORU scandals from '07

http://www.usatoday.com/n...univ_N.htm

real assholes, all of 'em...

There is no love lost between me and people who take advantage of others for financial gain but peace to his soul anyway. If there is a God, it's up to Him to judge him now.

DesireeNevermind said:

Very, VERY bad taste from you on this one. Those are not hiccups, they're tragedies that can happen to YOU, me, or anyone. Do you have a sister? A brother? Parents? Children? If one of them had died in a car wreck, or killed themselves, I don't think you'd take it well if someone, especially a stranger, mocked you when you mourned them. Don't use a tragedy to fill your cup o' anger toward a man you've probably never met. (Yeah, I have met the man, before you ask.) I'm ashamed of you for that. No one EVER correlated his family's tragedy with money. One has nothing to do with the other.

He never said year after year that he'd die if he didn't get money. That's a lie, and if you wish to feed on a lie than know the truth, that's up to you. And therein lies your reward.

I've found that when people say "I'm sorry, BUT....", that "But" usually means "forget everything I just said, HERE is what I really think."
[Edited 12/15/09 18:10pm]

May your worst critics show you infinitely more grace, when you go.

ernestsewell said:

Why is it bad taste? Because I asked a legitimate question? I'm surprised you didn't say bad taste to the thread title. Hiccups was actually your word and I just borrowed it. I can role with the word tragedy. And with that said...are you seriously not even considering that maybe just maybe Oral's tragedies were punishment? Didn't Oral teach his flock of God's punishments to people who sinned? Isn't asking people to give you money because it's somehow God's will a sin? Love of money is the root of all evil. Jesus never asked people to give him money so that his father God would be pleased.

I like how you throw in the car wreck tragedy but totally ignore the drug abuse tragedy. Why does a famed preacher so favored by the lord have a son dying of drugs anyway? That my friend does not just happen to anybody out of the blue,,,,but drug abuse and death are within one's control.

And I don't need a tragedy to fill any cup of anger. It's not anger it's disappointment and mistrust for false prophets which is what he was.

And when I say I'm sorry but (fuck what other people say) I mean I'm sorry but you got it twisted like a pretzel and I'm about to douse you in some reason and rationale.

And that fool sure did ask for money for several years in a row saying that God was going to take his life. Maybe not every single year of his ministry (and I never claimed this) but he said it often enough for it to become a joke in the press.

here's one example:

Fund Raising: Did Oral Roberts Go Too Far?

Thoughts about heaven are not new to Oral Roberts. In 1975, the Tulsa evangelist told a chapel audience at Oral Roberts University (ORU) that he had asked God to take him, but God did not answer.

This time, according to Roberts, God is taking the initiative. Roberts has stated in a fund-raising appeal letter and on television that unless he raises a total of $8 million above regular ministry expenses by next month, he will die.

“I desperately need you to come into agreement with me concerning my life being extended beyond March,” states a fund-raising letter signed by Roberts.

“…God said, ‘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!’” Roberts says he received this message last March.http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/decemberweb-only/151-21.0.html

DesireeNevermind said:

I can see this is pointless. You are twisting my words to fill your cause of hate. I get that. No really, I do. I never said the hiccups in his life were his children dying horrible deaths. I referred to his choice of actions over the years, and how some might disagree with them. Even Oral might have rethought a couple of things. We'll never know that. Only he, and God, knows his heart.

I usually have so much better interactions with you, and I'm sure we will after this, but I just refuse to feed into this and cast pearls before swine on this. You can hate the man if you wish. That's your bowl of soup. I won't be sitting at that table. It's all very self-righteous for people to point fingers at preachers, when most of those people have no spiritual base, or any real knowledge of even what Christianity is about, or what God is about (although some do of course). "Oh, I'm spiritual." Oh yeah? So is a devil.

It's been odd for me to see that kind of resistance to God's men, and God's followers in general, because there are more good ones than not, yet they get heaped together as flim flam men. Yet if someone says "All blacks are lazy and unemployed and get pregnant just for welfare and food stamps," there'd be a freakin' uproar of Armageddon proportions. God said to "do no harm to my prophets, or I will cut you into tiny pieces". It's not a threat, it's a promise. I don't think Oral was a prophet (although I know of those who have that anointing), but he was a man of God, and fallible. Just like you. Just like me.

He still had a great life, and lead thousands to Christ's salvation. I've shaken the man's hand and exchanged words with him. He was one of the warmest and dearest men I'd ever met in my life.

Oh my god.

I would never hire a lawyer that graduated from Oral Roberts Law School!

ernestsewell said:

Oh please, if you think that's hate then you got a lot to learn in this world.
If you love Oral then that's fine....keep it moving. But let's not act like the man is above criticism and questioning.

Nobody is twisting your words. I have disagreed with you about Oral asking for money in the name of God. You think he didn't, I think he did.

I've disagreed with you about whether his tragedies were just coincidence or divine intervention. You imply they were coincidence and I imply that they could have been some punishment from a higher power.

And don't preachers make a living off of pointing fingers at others? Aren't some preachers in fact self-righteous? Oral is one of a handful of evangelicals that I found suspect, the others being Jerry Fallwell, Ted Haggard, Jimmy Swagger, Tony Alamo, John Hagee and Pat Robertson. Notice I did not say ALL evangelical preachers. I am bold enough to name the ones that I find fraudulent.

As for your comment about what someone might say about all black being lazy, unemployed and so on and so forth, I do not see the relevance of that comment to this thread not one freaking bit. However, if it secretly pleases you to say such a thing then have at it.

God also said "beware of false prophets" and "do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the spirit".

I'm just following God's suggestions.

DesireeNevermind said:

Damn, he got mad game. I shoulda tried this tactic to raise funds for my Louis.

"God came to me in a dream and said: 'SCNDLS go to the people and beseech them to assist you in the worthy goal of givin' 'em fashion!' So, my good people, I desperately need you to understand that God said it was imperative that I swing this season's LV Alma bag or I will surely die of mortification if seen carrying last season's Gucci."

Shit, I coulda came up

SCNDLS said:

ernestsewell said:

I can't say that I understand your particular faith and devotion, Ernest, but I do try to respect it because I don't know the what's, when's and who's of your journey, and we've all got one (a journey).

Mr. Roberts was not among my favorite folk (I can't think of many evangelists who are) but I never take joy in the loss of anyone's life, so good, bad or indifference, I wish him peace wherever he may or may not be.

DesireeNevermind said:

I never said that.


I never said that.


No they don't. And sure there are always rotten ones in a bunch, but you cannot fairly blanket a whole bunch based on that.


Falwell was a bigot. Haggard is confused, but had a good heart. Swaggart was a bigot too, and even made truly homophobic comments from the pulpit. Alamo....come on. That guy is just wacky. Hagee I know, but don't know much about him. Robertson...oh please. Most Christians don't even agree w/ that guy.


Of course you didn't. You were glazed over in hate. My point (sigh, explaining it AGAIN) was that you cannot blanket any one group of people with a statement like "They all suck!" or whatever. No secrets here. What, like I've ever held back before?


Yes, and the REST of that verse, if we're using the Bible as a guide, and NOT cherry picking God's word, he said "you'll know them by their fruits", meaning what they produce. Oral had a great ministry, and delivered some great people from his university, his old time tent revivals in the 50's and 60's. He had more good in his ministry, than bad. WAY more. Everyone missteps at times. "Hiccups". Was his asking for money wrong? No. God said to support the church, and even gave an amount to use as a guide so people weren't robbed. Did Oral ask for money wrongly, and in a factious way? Only Oral knows that, and God. I can't speak on that, or judge it.

oh well.

johnart said:

When you read my book, you will.

it's sad how people get it twisted! Religion is not God and God is above and beyong religion. Religion might be the single most destructive thing on this planet. So many of them, and most of them are just plain twisted. And little baa baa sheep-humans sucking up all hypocrisy and handing over their money and laying down their mental facilities, trying to get into heaven on a check and a prayer, sinning on Friday and trying to get absolved on Sunday, so they can get right back to sinning by Tuesday.

ernestsewell said:

I don't think it's fair to automatically assume that she is twisting your words. It's just a misunderstanding of written words. When I read your post I assumed that's what you meant as well. It doesn't mean I, nor Desiree, was looking to manipulate what you said to sabotage you.

^ alright Ernest
So what are you saying here? It sounds like you are saying the man didn't ask for money in the name of his lord even though you claim you are not saying that.



When you criticize me for criticizing Roberts then you are in fact saying that the man is above criticism or maybe you are saying that he is above my criticism which doesn't make sense at all.

What do you mean preachers don't make a living off of pointing fingers? Seriously? So when preachers talk about God's children versus, um , everybody else and sinners versus, um, those of us who don't sin...that's not pointing the finger? Um...okay.

So um, neither of us are fans of Falwell, Swagger, Alamo, Hagee, and Roberts. Okay we have something in common.

You have no point when it comes to hate cuz you toss the word around like a frisbee. If I hated Roberts, he would have personally known so. And I've not blanketly held any group in contempt other than child rapists/molesters and I will continue to do so. Again not relevant to this thread but if that's your basis for accusing me of hate and lumping people together then so be it.

As for the rest of the bible verse and how you want to accuse one of cherry picking....let's apply it to all the preachers we both dislike.

Haggard had a large ministry and his ministry has forgiven him. He also ministered to the president. Fruit of his labor.
Roberts still has a large ministry and his ministry is televised worldwide. If I'm not mistaken, he also has a college or university. Fruit of his labor.
Jimmy Swagger and John Hagee are also very successful evangelical ministers with a large following. Fruit of his labor.
Alamo, well he went to jail for kiddie porn or some shit but I've no doubt that if he gets out he will be able to start a new life and ministry. Fruit of his labor and many more fruit to come probably.

So all the above ministers that you seem to imply are incomparable to Roberts cuz they are homophobes, bigots, confused and what not...they are all quite successful. Their labors have yielded the kind of fruit that Robert's labor has yielded wouldn't you say?


Fruits of one's labor are not necessarily marked by profit or popularity IMHO. But I guess you don't agree with that being a member of the OR club.

It's okay, I'm not gonna dismiss your commentary or put words in your mouth as you have done. I'm not even going to call you hateful cuz I reserve that word for truly evil people. I will consider this a hiccup between us.

Wow. This is better than Dynasty

Folks, the guy is dead. Isn't it enough that he'll never have a sticky thread like one of the Golden girls? Let him rest.

Imago said:

Amen.

Imago said:

true....but good riddance to him anyway.

Wow, I usually like reading your posts, but I'm sorry that this was the first thread I opened today.