Scandal rocks Oral Roberts University

Post Reply New Topic

It's been weeks since a prominent conservative institution has been rocked by scandal, so I suppose we were due for a story like this one.

Twenty years ago, televangelist Oral Roberts said he was reading a spy novel when God appeared to him and told him to raise $8 million for Roberts' university, or else he would be "called home."

Now, his son, Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts, says God is speaking again, telling him to deny lurid allegations in a lawsuit that threatens to engulf this 44-year-old Bible Belt college in scandal.

Richard Roberts is accused of illegal involvement in a local political campaign and lavish spending at donors' expense, including numerous home remodeling projects, use of the university jet for his daughter's senior trip to the Bahamas, and a red Mercedes convertible and a Lexus SUV for his wife, Lindsay.

She is accused of dropping tens of thousands of dollars on clothes, awarding nonacademic scholarships to friends of her children and sending scores of text messages on university-issued cell phones to people described in the lawsuit as "underage males."


The university, which reported nearly $76 million in revenue as recently as 2005, is reeling, despite denials from the Roberts family, which insists the lawsuit filed by three former professors at the school is "about intimidation, blackmail and extortion."

There's no shortage of serious accusations, but clearly that "underage males" angle stands out. Apparently, Mrs. Roberts, a member of ORU's board of regents, "frequently had cell-phone bills of more than $800 per month, with hundreds of text messages sent between 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. to 'underage males who had been provided phones at university expense.'"

Lambert has more, including the observation, "[A]uthoritarian systems are extremely vulnerable to fraud, because authoritarian followers aren't capable of providing checks and balances for their leaders."

hee hee, what fun... I guess Mrs. Roberts took the 'Oral' part a little too literally...

*snicker*

The late night comedians will surely have a field day with this one

I guess Religion, Money, and Power don't mix to well. BTW, I thought "The Devil Made Me Do It," was usually the excuse?

Religion, money, and power mix altogether too well. That's the problem. I long for the day when these "God tells me that you should do X" people are laughed at for the nutcases that they are.

hilarious. when will people finally relise there being bamboozeld?

I could never bear to watch those religious shows, anyway. So much BS.

what i dont understand is how god can talk to somebody. i mean really. would god be talking to you about how much money you need to raise this year? rediculous. i think god needs to talk to less people these days. it seems his agenda is a little more of the monnetry kind, or maybe it isnt his agenda at all but some greedy ass preacher mans agenda

It always struck me as fascinating that god so often tells people do do things that just so happen to be to their personal benefit. Joseph Smith finds god telling him to have sex with more women. Oral Roberts finds god telling him to fleece people in order to further his personal pet project. President Mckinley had god tell him that he had to maintian control of the Philippines. Any number of serial killers have had god tell them to kill.

Very convenient.

Sort of off topic, but I had a neighbor once, who would sneak homeless people into our secure high rise apartment building after hours, and allow them to take baths in her apartment. They would then get drunk, fight, and otherwise raise a ruckus, and get her into trouble. When the management threatened to throw her out, she explained that God had told her to do it.