Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Leaders of Embattled Oral Roberts University Accept $62 Million Gift


Associated Press is reporting:

Leaders of Oral Roberts University voted unanimously to accept a $62 million (euro41.62 million) donation from an Oklahoma City businessman that will help alleviate debt at the scandal-plagued Tulsa evangelical school.

Mart Green, the founder of the Christian office and education supply store chain Mardel, will take over as chairman of a new board of trustees that will replace the current panel of 21 voting regents as a result of his donation.

Green's family will have one vote on the board, which will be made up of nine to 22 members, including school founder and chancellor Oral Roberts. Former regents will transition to a nonvoting, newly formed Board of Reference under the plan.

...Green, who did not attend Oral Roberts, pledged a total of $70 million (euro47 million) to the 5,700-student university but allowed only $8 million (euro5.37 million) to be used immediately and withheld the rest until his family could review the school's financial records and until regents could consider other stipulations.

...In the weeks since Green's November announcement, televangelists Benny Hinn, Jesse Duplantis, Creflo Dollar and I.V. Hilliard all left the board of regents.
Was the resignation of so many Word of Faith preachers from the board a requirement of the financial assistance? Is ORU finally going to start teaching correct doctrine? Inquiring minds want to know! Let's pray that is the result.

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posted by Bob Hunter @ Tuesday, January 15, 2008 0 comments

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Richard Roberts - God Told Him....

According to an Arkansas Newspaper and Associated Press:

Bible Belt Blogger: Richard Roberts: God told me to quit

Frank Lockwood

Roberts Says God Forced His Resignation

By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS
Associated Press Writer

TULSA, Okla. (AP) - Richard Roberts told students at Oral Roberts University Wednesday that he did not want to resign as president of the scandal-plagued evangelical school, but he did so because God insisted. Roberts told students in the university's chapel that God told him on Thanksgiving that he should resign the next day.

Roberts said he resisted the idea, and that "every ounce of my flesh said 'no,'" but he prayed over the decision with his wife, Lindsay Roberts, and his father, Oral Roberts, and decided to step down.

A lawsuit accuses Roberts of lavish spending at a time when the university faced more than $50 million in debt. On Tuesday, the founder of a Christian office and education supply store chain pledged $70 million to help the university.

Roberts has previously said that God told him to deny the allegations. The week the lawsuit was filed, Richard Roberts said that God told: "We live in a litigious society. Anyone can get mad and file a lawsuit against another person whether they have a legitimate case or not. This lawsuit ... is about intimidation, blackmail and extortion."

I suppose I could believe that God told him to quit until the whole thing was cleared up, but why would God have to tell Richard Roberts to deny the allegations if he was innocent anyways? Does Roberts really think God might have told him to plead guilty even if he was innocent?

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posted by Bob Hunter @ Thursday, November 29, 2007 0 comments