Oral Roberts

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For the university, see Oral Roberts University.
Oral Roberts
Born January 24, 1918 (1918-01-24) (age 91)
Ada, Oklahoma,
United States
Residence Broken Arrow, Oklahoma,
United States
Occupation Televangelist
Salary $161,872 from Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association[1]
Spouse(s) Evelyn Roberts (Lutman) (April 22, 1917 - May 4, 2005) (widowed) (December 25, 1938), Stilwell, Oklahoma
Children Richard Roberts, Rebecca Nash (deceased), Ronald Roberts (deceased), and Roberta Potts

Granville Oral Roberts (born January 24, 1918) is an American Pentecostal television evangelist and is also a Christian charismatic.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Roberts was born in Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, as Granville Oral Roberts, the fifth and youngest child of the Rev. Ellis Melvin Roberts and Claudia Priscilla Irwin.[2]

After ending high school, Roberts furthered his education, and studied for two years at both Oklahoma Baptist University, and Phillips University. During 1938, he married a preacher's daughter, Evelyn Lutman Fahnestock.[3] Their marriage lasted 66 years until her death on May 4, 2005. During their life together, they expanded his ministry from preaching in tents to preaching by radio. Roberts was a pioneer televangelist (he began broadcasting his revivals by television during 1955)[4] and attracted a vast viewership. Furthermore, he has composed several books, such as Miracle of Seed-Faith and three autobiographies: Expect a Miracle, Oral Roberts: Life Story, and The Call.

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 According to a TIME Magazine profile of 1972, Roberts originally made a name for himself with a large mobile tent "that sat 3,000 on metal folding chairs" where "he shouted at petitioners who did not respond to his healing."[5] [5]

[edit] Ministry and university

During 1947, Roberts resigned his pastoral ministry with the Pentecostal Holiness Church to found Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association. He began conducting evangelistic and faith healing crusades, mainly in the U.S. and appeared as a guest speaker for hundreds of national and international meetings and conventions. Thousands of sick people would wait in line to stand before Oral Roberts so he could pray for them and lay his right hand on their afflicted body.

The Praying Hands, on the ORU campus in Tulsa, OK.

He founded Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1963, 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 sex. Another part of the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association is the Abundant Life Prayer Group, which operates day and night.[citation needed]

During 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.[6][7][8]

During 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 during 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 during late 1989. The Orthopedic Hospital of Oklahoma still operates on its premises. During 1983 Roberts said Jesus had appeared to him in person and commissioned him to find a cure for cancer.[9][10]

Roberts' fundraising has been 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" (a euphemism for death).[11][12] Some were fearful that he was referring to suicide given the passionate pleas and tears that accompanied his statement. He raised $9.1 million.[13] Later that year, he announced that God had raised the dead through Roberts' ministry.[14] Also some of Roberts' fundraising letters were written by Gene Ewing, who heads a multi-million dollar marketing empire, writing donation letters for other evangelicals like Don Stewart and Robert Tilton.[15]

The CityPlex office complex, originally built as Oral Robert's City of Faith Medical and Research Center in Tulsa, OK.

He stirred controversy when Time reported in J1987 that he and his son, Richard Roberts as witness, claimed that he had seen his father raise a child from the dead.[16] That year, the Bloom County comic strip recast its character Bill the Cat as a satirized televangelist, "Fundamentally Oral Bill". Also during 1987 "TIME stated that he was "re-emphasizing faith healing and [is] reaching for his old-time constituency."[16] 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 ($10.7 million in 1986 alone).[16]

Harry McNevin said that during 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."[17] In addition he said a country club membership was purchased for the Roberts's home. The lavish expenses led to McNevin's resignation from the Board.

Search Wikinews Wikinews has related news: Former Oral Roberts University Regent member speaks out

In a 2004, television broadcast of Kenneth Copeland's Believer's Voice of Victory, the elder Roberts claimed to have experienced a vision in which "Smoke, and vapor, and blood" appeared "in the clouds in the skies above New York City and the east part of the United States, and which hung there for quite some time and then spread out across America, without touching the ground, and then God diffused it away from America and sent it out to the nations of the earth..." This was purportedly a "wake up call" to tell people that Christ's return is soon and to prepare for it.

Currently Roberts, 91, is "semi retired" living in Newport Beach, California,[18] and according to Charity Navigator Roberts earns $83,505 a year.

When his son, Richard Roberts, took a leave of absence from his position as President of Oral Roberts University on November 23, 2007 following allegations of misappropriation of school funds, Oral announced he would return to help fulfill this administrative role 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.[19] Richard resigned his position on November 24, 2007.[20]

[edit] Personal life

Roberts' daughter, Rebecca Nash, died in an airplane crash on February 11, 1977, with her husband, businessman Marshall Nash.[21] Roberts' eldest son, Ronald, committed suicide during June 1982 at the age of 37, five months after receiving a court order to get counseling at a drug treatment center.[22] Two other children of Roberts are living: son Richard, a well-known evangelist and former president of Oral Roberts University (ORU), and daughter Roberta Potts, a lawyer. 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 has already been given a "bail-out" donation of $8 million by entrepreneur Mart Green, and although the lawsuit is still in process, the school has submitted to an outside audit, and with a good report will be given an additional $62 million from Green. [23]

From the late 1980s to 1992 Roberts maintained a residence in the exclusive St. Andrews Country Club in Boca Raton, Florida.[citation needed] Roberts would commute via private jet from his base in Oklahoma to Boca Raton airport for weekend visits to his golf club retreat. Most of the other residents of St. Andrews were Jewish, and since Roberts was identified by his first name of Granville when he was visiting Florida his presence went mostly unrecognized.

On May 4, 2005 Evelyn, Roberts' wife of 66 years, died in a Southern California hospital at the age of 88.[24]

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 (Indiana University Press, 1985), an objective impressive study by David Harrell Jr., a historian at the University of Alabama. Two out-of-print books take a more critical approach: James Morris' The Preachers (St Martin's, 1973) and Jerry Sholes's Give me that Prime-Time Religion (Hawthorn, 1979)."[25]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association". Charity Navigator. October 2007. http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=4272. Retrieved on 2007-10-05. 
  2. ^ Ancestry of Oral Roberts
  3. ^ Evelyn Lutman Roberts (1917–2005) - Find A Grave Memorial
  4. ^ [www.infoplease.com/biography/var/oralroberts.html Infoplease bio]
  5. ^ a b "Oral's Progress". Time. February 7, 1972. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,905738-1,00.html. Retrieved on 2007-01-04. 
  6. ^ Ideas and Trends: Oral Roberts's Word on Cancer," "New York Times" Jan 30, 1983
  7. ^ "Oral Roberts' Ministry Hits a 'Low Spot'," "Dallas Morning News" Jan 5, 1986
  8. ^ "Oral Roberts tells of talking to 900-foot Jesus", Tulsa World, October 16, 1980, http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleid=20080326_222_67873 
  9. ^ Time, July 4, 1983
  10. ^ "Oral Roberts Seeking Millions for Holy Mission Against Cancer," "Washington Post", Jan 22, 1983
  11. ^ Randi, James (1989), The Faith Healers, Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-87975-369-2 and ISBN 0-87975-535-0 pages 186
  12. ^ Ostling, Richard (July 13, 1987). "Raising Eyebrows and the Dead". Time. http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,964970,00.html. Retrieved on 2007-12-24. 
  13. ^ Oral Roberts
  14. ^ Randi, James (1989), The Faith Healers, Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-87975-369-2 and ISBN 0-87975-535-0 pages 192
  15. ^ "Direct-market evangelist brings in millions lawyer says it all goes". Dallas Morning News. Mar 10, 1996. http://docs.newsbank.com/g/GooglePM/DM/lib00376,0ED3D68534F95845.html. Retrieved on 2007-05-17. 
  16. ^ a b c Ostling, Richard (February 7, 1972). "Raising Eyebrows and the Dead". Time. http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,964970,00.html. Retrieved on 2007-01-04. 
  17. ^ "Oral Roberts' Son Accused of Misspending". Associated Press. November 8, 2007. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hts11eOY7H11NnIWiVKcH4wZJt2QD8SPM0OO0. Retrieved on 2007-12-05. 
  18. ^ "Oral Roberts' son, his wife face scandal at university". Los Angeles Times. October 5, 2007. http://www.latimes.com/features/religion/la-na-roberts6oct06,1,7279421.story?track=rss. Retrieved on 2007-10-05. 
  19. ^ Tulsa World, "[1]", 17 October 2007, retrieved 18 October 2007
  20. ^ Associated Press, "[2]", 24 November 2007, retrieved 24 November 2007
  21. ^ Check-Six.com - The Crash of Navajo #838
  22. ^ "Oral Roberts's Son, 37, Found Shot Dead in Car". New York Times. June 10, 1982. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503E3D61F38F933A25755C0A964948260. Retrieved on 2007-04-01. 
  23. ^ "Oral Roberts University takes $62M gift". USA Today. January 15, 2008. http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-01-14-oralroberts-gift_N.htm. 
  24. ^ "Oral Roberts: Founder of ORU". Oral Roberts University. 2007. http://portal1.oru.edu:7777/pls/portal/ORMCCMGR.DYN_ORM_HOME_2.show?p_arg_names=p_id&p_arg_values=1506. Retrieved on 2007-10-04. 
  25. ^ Gardener, Martin (August 13, 1987). "Giving God a Hand". New York Review of Books. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/article-preview?article_id=4689. Retrieved on 2007-10-18. 

[edit] Further reading

About

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 0785277528
  • Oral Roberts' life story, as told by himself. by Oral Roberts, Tulsa, Okla. 1952.

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