In October 2007 Richard Roberts, head of Tulsa Oklahoma’s Oral Roberts University, and head of Oral Robert’s Ministries, stepped aside as head of Oral Robert’s University because of a lawsuit brought by three former professors. The lawsuit claims wrongful dismissal.

He and his wife hopped on their private jet and went to do the Larry King show. In November 2007 the University faculty gave him a vote of no-confidence and Richard resigned from the University Board.
In the past 14 years revenue only exceeded expenses twice. As of the filing of the lawsuits (2007) the University was 54 million dollars in debt.
Tulsa World has a timeline of the issues facing the university, the ministry and the Robert’s family and surrounding players. Timeline of events.

The lawsuit hadn’t gone away. Nor has the information in the attached document. 
In fact a couple more lawsuits were filed by students and a former accountant.

Now Richard Roberts has announced (CBN’s 700 Club) that he is going back to his first love, his healing ministry.

 ”God will deal with people and false accusations. All I can say is that it’s not true, and leave it at that. God is the ultimate judge.”

Oh.
Well yes. Ultimately He is.
Meantime there is a flesh and blood judge and real lawyers to face in Oklahoma, the case goes to mandatory mediation first.

While I believe this scandal is far bigger than Jimmy Swaggart, Heritage USA, Ted Haggard, et al, I think the culture of deceit, fear, money and power is so entrenched that many details will never see the light of day. Books have been written on Oral Roberts and his teaching, yet parents are more than willing to spend 35 thousand dollars a year to send their children to ORU. They are raised to know nothing else. 
Oral Roberts was a pioneer of media. One of the original prosperity salesman.
This video is not safe for work. If there are kids in the room listen to it later, or put the headphones on.
I’ve often wondered if in the parallel sub-culture of fundamentalism, sermons such as this met the need pornography or romance novels filled in the lives of others not ’saved.’
This is seductive, slimy, intellectually and spiritually hollow. It is manipulative, contempt filled, villification and misinformation.
He is spouting the same lies packaged for the church crowd, prettied up with bible verses and smooth showmanship.
Vintage Oral Roberts.

This is raw word-faith lifestyle, twisted into shapes evangelicals and mainstream Christians reject. 

“The healing ministry has always been my first love,” he said. “I am immersing myself fully back into the healing ministry, which was what I was doing before I became president of ORU.”

Oh. Well, sort of.
His first love was musical theatre and singing.
He was dragged into the ministry by his father.

Roberts will remain as the CEO of the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association and as a ‘spiritual regent’ to Oral Roberts University. He will also return to full-time ministry.

…Roberts will continue the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Healing Ministry through television, books, cds and crusades around the world.

 “I have eight different countries that are after me right now for healing crusades in their nation. I’m not stopping ministry in any shape or form,” he says. “I’m going full speed ahead, and I have a good attitude.”

Me, me, me, me, me, me, me. Dough, do, do, do, do, do, dough.
Eight countries?
There is so much ethically and morally wrong with this picture.
Other word-faith televangelists remain ’spiritual’ regents at the University, it was a given the Robert’s family would not give up the ministry arm of the Tulsa operation. 
Oral Robert’s separated his Pentecostal Holiness ties years ago and went independent, developing his seed-faith heresy.

There is so much moral and ethical vacuousness and entitlement in this prosperity teaching, it’s like staring into a sink hole.  

Did’ja know that God talks to Richard?
Apparently God has talking to him a lot since the lawsuits and the salacious scandals being discussed around the legal filings became public knowledge. People got a peek inside the kingdom and it wasn’t pretty.

God supposedly talked to father Oral too.
In 1977 Oral Roberts saw a 900 foot Jesus who told him to build the now failed medical centre and 10 years later Oral told people God said he’d die if he didn’t raise 8 million dollars by a certain date. 
People gave him 9.1 million.
Claiming he’d raised the dead was a bit much even for the blindly faithful, and Oral got slammed.
In 1987 he announced he was going back to his first love - his healing ministry.  The university paid out millions to put Oral up in the lifestyle he was accustomed to in California.
Richard’s father Oral is 89 years old and still drawing a salary of 83.5 thousand dollars a year. This is a family skilled at playing the victim card while victimizing vulnerable people.

Richard knows the old man’s script well.

“After a while, it seemed to me that the University was being harmed. The case was being tried in the media, and the University attorneys were advising me not to respond or talk. I was taking it on the chin without having an opportunity to speak,” he says.

…“ORU changed my life,” he says. “The students and I have had a love affair for years. I love them, and they love me. The Roberts family stands for the healing power of Jesus Christ, and that will never change.”

I admit I’m a bit surprised at the swiftness of the Robert’s audacity here.
The lawsuits were filed only three months ago. 
The misappropriation of funds, political peddling, the lavish spending has gone on  for years, and new generations are predictably sucked in.

One final word of counsel, friends. Keep a sharp eye out for those who take bits and pieces of the teaching that you learned and then use them to make trouble. Give these people a wide berth. They have no intention of living for our Master Christ. They’re only in this for what they can get out of it, and aren’t above using pious sweet talk to dupe unsuspecting innocents.
Romans 16: 17-18 The Message