Another televangelist in hot water.....

Richard Roberts asks ORU board for leave

By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS, Associated Press

TULSA, Okla. - Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts asked for and was granted a leave of absence Wednesday amid accusations of lavish spending at donors' expense and illegal involvement in a political campaign.

The 58-year-old son of the evangelist who founded the school said he would continue in his role as chairman and chief executive of Oral Roberts Ministries, and decried what he said were untrue allegations.

The board said Billy Joe Daugherty, the senior pastor of Victory Christian Center in Tulsa, will temporarily assume the president's duties with help from Oral Roberts, 89, who is chancellor of the 5,700-student university but has left day-to-day operations to his son.

An Oct. 2 lawsuit filed by three former ORU professors says they were wrongfully dismissed and accuses Roberts of misspending at donors' expense, including numerous home remodels and a senior trip to the Bahamas for one daughter on the ministry's dime.

It also accuses Roberts of illegal involvement in a local political campaign, which would jeopardize the university's nonprofit status.

The professors' suit was amended last week to include new allegations that documents were shredded and destroyed days after the initial lawsuit was filed, and hours after ORU and Richard Roberts fired the school's comptroller.

The amended complaint also included an internal ministry report, titled "Scandal Vulnerability Assessment," documenting allegations of misconduct by the university and the Roberts family. Only a partial report was included in the Oct. 2 lawsuit.

The more detailed account alleges Richard Roberts' wife, Lindsay, spent the night in the ORU guest house with an underage male "on nine separate occasions," and was photographed 29 times with an underage male in her sports car, among other allegations.

In a statement issued Saturday, Lindsay Roberts said, "I live my life in a morally upright manner and throughout my marriage have never, ever engaged in any sexual behavior with any man outside of my marriage as the accusations imply."

"The last three weeks have taken a serious toll on me and my family," Richard Roberts said in the news release Wednesday. "The untrue allegations have struck a terrible blow in my heart. The untrue allegations of sexual misconduct by my wife have hurt the most."

Gary Richardson, attorney for the dismissed professors, said his clients "stand ready and prepared at the appropriate time to prove the truth of those allegations, and also prove the truth of the fact they were fired after providing the information off Stephanie Cantees' computer to the Board of Regents.

"I want to know why they fired these guys," Richardson said.

The Roberts family ministry 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.

The elder Roberts founded the school, known for its 60-foot-tall bronze sculpture of praying hands, in 1963. He famously told viewers in 1987 that God told him to raise $8 million for the university or he would be "called home."

The week the lawsuit was filed, Richard Roberts said at a chapel service that God told him to deny the allegations. He said God told him: "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."

Richard Roberts asks ORU board for leave - Yahoo! News

Whenever someone says "God told me" you know there full of crap.

Amen!

"God told me to strike at al-Qaida and I struck them, and then He instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me, I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them." ~ G.W. Bush
Diebold, Hear This: We Won't Rest

I believe today that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator. - Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Vol. 1 Chapter 2

Your preaching to the quire now. If GWB was within the will of God, no way would he even think to divide the land of Israel. Its obvious he hasnt spent much time reading his bible.

"God told me" GWB was an idiot and I shouldn't vote for him. Obviously others didn't get that message. Maybe "my" God knows more than their God.

...so what he is really saying is that God told him to lie. To deny the "allegations" and that only because the ones filing the lawsuit have, in his opinion, impure motives for making the case at all.

Note he never said that God told him to deny the claims because they are untrue, only because they were said to be filed out of intimidation, blackmail and extortion.

OhDear

Since the only One and true God created the earth and all that is contain therein I am sure HE has it under control no matter who is president.

"I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded." Isaiah 45:12

"Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy." Isaiah 54:16


"Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; for thou, thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;" 1 King 8:39

I for one cannot say it any better than what has already been spoken.

"Hell and destruction are before the LORD: how much more then the hearts of the children of men?" Proverbs 15:11

Rod, with total respect for your perspective...but still, I do not think too many, if any here, are upset and wondering and shaking in their boots, "Yikes!!! If Richard Roberts ain't in charge, WHO IS???"

And that perspective you share does truly go into every arena of life. So if the conservative Republicans who are the Christian Right do not win the elections, guess it will be another case to remember God is in control.

OhDear

They were not speaking of Roberts. There was a bash on Bush. Heck even Saul was chosen by God in the Old Testament OD. God also dethrone his rule and chose David.

If the demoncrats get control I will have to say it is because God allowed it to happen. Fact is when the children of Israel went their own way He let them and when they cried out and he saved them. He gives the dictates of the heart. If one allows evil to dictate the heart then evil it is.

Rod, I see where I-child swung the conversation into the Bush-rant realm and that is what you were addressing.

Still, you and I can both believe that there are a fair share of Christians who are quite taken back, hurt and disillusioned by the Richard Roberts scandal. And just as many non-Christians who are gloating. Neither reaction wears with the sweet comfort you share of God being in control.

And we do, by faith, believe He is.

OhDear