Another shining example of what happens when organized religion gets too much power.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071006/ap_on_re_us/oral_roberts_scandal;_ylt=Avf98eJDkTfYHuyuYYt1GzWs0NUE

Corporate theology sure has the horns of the devil, doesn't it? From the article:

"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.

Colleagues fear for the reputation of the university and the future of the Roberts' ministry, which 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 university reported nearly $76 million in revenue in 2005, according to the IRS.

Richard Roberts is accused of illegal involvement in a local political campaign and lavish spending at donors' expense...

- A longtime maintenance employee was fired so that an underage male friend of Mrs. Roberts could have his position.

- Mrs. Roberts — who is a member of the board of regents and is referred to as ORU's "first lady" on the university's Web site — 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."

- The university jet was used to take one daughter and several friends on a senior trip to Orlando, Fla., and the Bahamas. The $29,411 trip was billed to the ministry as an "evangelistic function of the president."

- Mrs. Roberts spent more than $39,000 at one Chico's clothing store alone in less than a year, and had other accounts in Texas and California. She also repeatedly said, "As long as I wear it once on TV, we can charge it off." The document cites inconsistencies in clothing purchases and actual usage on TV.

- Mrs. Roberts was given a white Lexus SUV and a red Mercedes convertible by ministry donors.

- University and ministry employees are regularly summoned to the Roberts' home to do the daughters' homework.

- The university and ministry maintain a stable of horses for exclusive use by the Roberts' children.

- The Roberts' home has been remodeled 11 times in the past 14 years.

Tim Brooker, one of the professors who sued, said he fears for the university's survival if certain changes aren't made.

"All over that campus, there are signs up that say, 'And God said, build me a university, build it on my authority, and build it on the Holy Spirit,'" Brooker said. "Unfortunately, ownership has shifted."

I would say it has!

Curious about the vixen with a new definition of outreach?

Get a copy of Make Your Day Count: Devotions for Teens for 69% off. You cannot make this stuff up!

http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=946618&event=CF

Paul Simon is working on a song for the movie.

Hall of Fame pitcher Orel Hershiser was not available for comment.

But hey - the Oral Roberts mens basketball team is a sleeper in the NCAAs every March, sure to upset some high seed from a big conference!

Look at the BRIGHT side here! God's kids come to play!

I will give you that -- too bad the madness is not confined to March!

I love a juicy scandal, but I feel for the students. It was brave of the professors to step forward.

Here is the devilish grin behind the texting temptations:

http://www.harrisonhouse.com/images/Authors/au_lrobertslarge.jpg
http://makeyourdaycount.com/images/LR-home.jpg

Tell you something about Oral, my first job when I got out of the Army was to work for a direct mailing co, while I went to college, their main contracts were with oral ROberts, Larry Lee, World of Faith, and a few other telivision preachers.

Oral and WOF were the 2 largest customers, they each sent out over 50,000 mailings twice week.

And they both had national prayer lines, whose purpose was get info out of you.


Once they had the right info, they would send a mailing, designed to get to you the day before or on your payday, or day you got your social security check etc.

Dear Sarah (name filled in by computer), the Lord talked to me at 2:30 this morning, about your husbands (computer fills in illness) and told me, he will take care of it, if you send a seed offering (amount filled in by computer, based on what you told the prayer line person),

We even had a special mailing, that had to be hand scrutinized for errors, going to those that sent in over 10,000.

That job made me sick, I quit as soon as I could.

Oh by the way, they both averaged $20.00 per letter sent out.

There are probably no bigger hypocrites in this world than these preachers. Look at the history. Oral Roberts, Jim and Tammy Baker, and more than several I can't even remember.

Anyone sending them money is already certifiably nuts. Most are simply con artists who have found an avenue to take from the most vulnerable.

Oh , we also had a special font, made up of Orals handwritting, so the letters looked hand written, we even purposefully put in a misspeling or two (easy for me to do), Oh was I ever tempted to print a check, with his signature. What I did do, is send a copy of the computer print out, showing number of letters sent, and a summation of the returns to a couple of the television investigative journalists, and I hope that is what got nightline to do a story on WOF.

Oral and WOF would also send a memento with their mailings, like Oral sent a key to a car he had been given when he first started his ministry, because his old one broke down, and he couldnt continue the mission of the lord, until a fellow christian gave him that car. He sent the key to over 100,000 people. What they were, were a blank key, we ran through a key maker set on randome.

He also once sent a vial of holy water from the holy land, what that was, was one small bottle he ordered, mixed with gallons of tap water, and put in these little bottles.

Back in college I read a book by Jerry Sholes called "Give me that Prime-Time Religion."

Not surprising it put the university and Oral and his son in a pretty negative light. Sholes was offered a lump some of money and a $90,000 a year salary not to publish this book. Sholes used to be employed by the university and had working knowledge of what goes on.

When you walked into Oral Roberts office his desk was elevated slightly so you had to look up at him.

Richard Roberts simply has no clue how to run a university. Spends more time spending money and being a titleholder than administrator.

It wasn't anything surprising to read but it did confirm what many had thought.

Oral, and his sons all own very expensive homes in Palm Springs, or at least did.

I remember one of the tele evangilists, dont remember his name, but I think it was larry lee, his house in Tulsa burned down, so his next show he did a request for donations to rebuild, and showed him and family in clothes from goodwill, what he didnt say, was he had a million dollar house in Dallas.

It would seem to me that the burden would be on other organized religions to actively "shame" these rip off artists out of business rather than the gov't or non-believers raising a ruckus about it. Why isn't this happening?

Another thing, that I always thought someone should invistagate. Some of the mailings asked for the donation to the Church or other org, which meant it was tax deductible, and there were some restrictions on how it could be spent, although they could use a lot for "overhead/admin) expenses.

Other mailings just asked for money, implying it was for church use, but not actually saying that.

Oral Roberts and the like are scum of the earth. I hope they and the whole university go down the tubes. Good riddance.

I'll bet you feel much better now, Vitalogy.

I do. I find great enjoyment when con artists finally meet their due.

Agreed!

I agree, I would like to see Oral Roberts and co, except for the basketball team, go down, but its not going to hapen, worst case, for him, he loses the suit, then goes on his tv network, and asks for donations, to "Save the Lords work".

They will send him millions.

What do you call two gay guys named Bob?

Oral Roberts!


Hey, somebody had to post it!

Is there anyone out there anymore who can handle doing good for a God they believe in? I mean " good " all the way through.

For an organization that starts out with good intentions, man, it really smears what could have been world changing things for the better. Save some poor people. Save as many as you can. Heal some sick people. Heal as many as you can. Quit trying to scare people into getting to heaven and lead by example for once.

Man.

Rotary is getting stuff done that God himself is getting shut out from.

Shriners do a lot of good, and have a lot of fun, the 2 aren't incompatible.
Jerry Lewis, does more than can be expected from one man.
There are a lot of good charities, that use 90% or more of the money raised on helping people.
Salvation Army does a lot of good.

It is my opinion that religious organizations are the worst place to put money to help out there is. They do very little for people. As Nwokie posted, the Salvation Army is a much better place.

Here is one of my favorite local organizations: Northwest Pilot Project, a private, non-profit agency. They give back 96 cents of every dollar. Wow!

Northwest Pilot Project is Portland’s primary agency serving low-income seniors living in Portland’s downtown core.

www.nwpilotproject.org

NWPP provides housing services for seniors ages 55 and older who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. Many NWPP clients have immediate needs in connection with their housing.

Our administrative costs are among the lowest in the country at 4% of our total budget. We rely on community support and in kind donations to provide services for low income seniors in our community.
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I will never send Portland Rescue Mission any money; I'm disgusted by the amount of junk mail (I have already recieved some for their holiday blitz) they send out and how much they must spend on TV and newspaper ads. I'd much rather spend my "$1.33 buys a hot turkey dinner" money at NWPP.

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And here is a real-live angel, Sharon Straus in Beaverton and her "Sunshine Pantry"
http://blog.oregonlive.com/washingtoncounty/2007/02/hear_an_interview_with_sharo n.html

I like how this thread is kind of turning a negative(The Oral Robers con-job) into a positive(poster's suggestions on where to send donations where they will do the most good--also see Chris Taylor's thread. Instead of just sniping and griping(which IS definitely warranted), you guys are posting comments that may actually make a difference.

With that being said, now I can give you my vote as the number one tele-vangelist fraud in America/Canada today. Every night...on almost every commercial and Christian cable channel in Canada(Global, CTS, Miracle Network, Vision Channel) multiple times a night...has anybody ever heard of Peter Popoff? His programme is an absolute laugh riot...I would probably laugh a bit louder if he wasn't gleaning personal info to "fleece" the most disadvantaged of our society.

When I first saw him, he was on the air (with his wife--never a good idea, it just looks cheesy) promising to send a "free packet of MIRACLE SPRING WATER" if you just sent him your address...and then they jumped to videotape of some live event in Ottawa or Philadelphia or Queens or wherever(not held at a church, usually at some hotel's convention centre confernece hall, because NO church in their right mind would have him come within 300 metres of their building!) There would be healings, and testimonies of "divine wealth transfers"...some trailer park hillbilly stating, "I got tha' miracle spring watah in da mail three days ago and then I gots me a check from da guvment fer $243,000!" I was able to buy me a new house and a brand new car!"

Lately I have seen this same guy advertise a "NEW, LARGER, MIRACLE SPRING WATER!", uh, sure...like larger vials containing more city tap water are going to be more powerful or something!

BTW, I have seen people trying to sell bits and pieces of the "Cross of Jesus Christ."(usually as a pendant) How many pieces of the original "Cross of Jesus" can there be?(presuming you could verify them anyway!)

I just found out ORU has a private jet.

Suckers are born every 15 seconds it seems.

This is where my wife and I LOVE to give money. This place is wonderful!

http://www.dougy.org/default.asp?pid=1428187

And my wife volunteers at OHSU Dorenbecher's Children's hospital.

http://www.ohsu.edu/health/clinics-and-services/doernbecher/

These kids need all the love they can get.