Richard Roberts (evangelist)

Infobox Person
name = Richard Roberts
residence = Tulsa, Oklahoma flagicon|USA
other_names =


image_size = 100px
caption =
birth_name = Richard L. Roberts
birth_date = Birth date and age|1948|11|12
birth_place = Tulsa, Oklahoma flagicon|USA
death_date =
death_place =
death_cause =
known =
occupation = Evangelist, broadcaster
title = CEO of Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association
salary = $477,122 [cite news | url=http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=4272 | title=Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association | publisher=Charity Navigator | date= October 2007 | first= | last= | accessdate =2007-10-05]
term =
predecessor =
successor =
party =
boards =
religion = Pentecostalism
spouse = Patti Roberts (Divorced), Lindsay Roberts
partner =
children = Christi Roberts (Hall), Juli Roberts (Mize) with 1st wife Patti - Jordan Roberts, Olivia Roberts and Chloe Roberts with 2nd wife Lindsay
parents = Oral Roberts and Evelyn Roberts
website = http://www.orm.cc/
footnotes =
employer =
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Richard Roberts (born November 12, 1948, Tulsa, Oklahoma) is an American televangelist and a former president of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is the son of televangelist Oral Roberts. Richard Roberts hosts the religious television show "Something Good Tonight". He is also president and chief executive officer of the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association and has conducted evangelistic crusades on six continents since 1980.

In October 2007 Roberts was named as a defendant in a widely publicized lawsuit alleging improper usage of university funds for political and personal purposes along with the improper use of university resources. The scandal led to his resignation the following month. [cite journal |url=http://www.star-telegram.com/190/story/258257.html|title=Scandal Brewing at Oral Roberts|journal=Fort Worth Star-Telegram |date=October 6, 2007 |accessdate=2007-10-07|format=Dead link|date=May 2008]

Career

As a young man, Richard Roberts did not initially plan to follow in the same career path as his father. Roberts was interested in becoming a lounge singer and in 1966 he began studying music and theatre at the University of Kansas. At this time in his life, Roberts described himself as an atheist who challenged the ideologies of his parents. During his second semester at the University of Kansas, Roberts developed serious colon problems which forced him to be hospitalized. In response to this issue Roberts prayed to God saying “God, if you’ll heal me, I’ll serve you.” Roberts recalls, “I felt the power of God go through my body that night on the bed.” According to Roberts, the next day the doctors could find nothing wrong with him because he had been miraculously healed. This experience led Roberts to leave the University of Kansas and enroll at Oral Roberts University in the fall of 1967. [ [http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=071014_1_A8_hThey85612 Tulsa World: Robertses steel selves for crisis with prayer ] ] Shortly thereafter, Roberts accompanied his father Oral Roberts on evangelistic crusades beginning with Haiti in 1968. He and his first wife Patti sang with the ORU World Action Singers, released recordings together, and performed on his father's television specials. In the early 1980s, he began faith healing crusades after claiming to have heard a calling from God. [cite news | url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/article-preview?article_id=4689 | title=Giving God a Hand | publisher=New York Review of Books | date=August 13, 1987 | first=Martin | last=Gardener | accessdate = 2007-10-18] Roberts has a bachelor’s, master’s, and a doctorate degree from ORU.Fact|date=May 2008 In 1985, he became executive vice president of ORU. In 1987, Time magazine reported Richard's controversial claim to have seen God raise a child from the dead while his father was praying for the individual.cite news | url=http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,964970,00.html | title=Raising Eyebrows and the Dead | publisher=Time | date= February 7, 1972 | first=Richard | last=Ostling | accessdate =2007-01-04] He was elected as the university's second president and chief executive officer on January 27 1993. He resigned these posts on November 23, 2007.

Disclosed earnings

According to Charity Navigator, Richard earned $477,122 a year as president and CEO of Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association. His wife Lindsay earned $196,818 a year as executive vice president, and his father Oral earns $161,872 a year as a trustee. [cite news | url=http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=4272 | title=Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association | publisher=Charity Navigator | date= October 2007 | first= | last= | accessdate =2007-10-05] The Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association has an overall efficiency rating of 2 out of 4 stars. [cite news | url=http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=4272 | title=Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association | publisher=Charity Navigator | date= October 2007 | first= | last= | accessdate =2007-10-05]

Family

Roberts married his first wife Patti in 1968. They had two daughters, Christine and Julene. Richard and Patti were highly visible participants in the Oral Roberts ministry, being groomed for leadership of the organization when they divorced in 1979. Patti Roberts subsequently wrote a book about her marriage to Richard called "Ashes to Gold". In a 1987 review Martin Gardner concluded Patti left Richard because of "her distress in watching Richard turn into a clone of Oral, and shameless way that she and Richard rationalized their jet-set way of life." [cite news | url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/article-preview?article_id=4689 | title=Giving God a Hand | publisher=New York Review of Books | date=August 13, 1987 | first=Martin | last=Gardener | accessdate = 2007-10-18]

Ten months after the divorce, Richard married his second wife, Lindsay. They reside in Tulsa, Oklahoma with their three daughters Jordan, Olivia and Chloe. [ [http://alumni.oru.edu/oldexcellence/summer91/pages/perspective.html Captioned family portrait in ORU alumni magazine] , Summer 1991, retrieved 5 October 2007] [Digging in the Walls, Timothy magazine,Volume 7, Issue 3, " [http://cnview.com/on_line_resources/the_life_and_ministry_of_oral_roberts.htm The Life and Ministry of Oral Roberts] ", 1990, retrieved from Christian News and Views, 8 October 2007] Richard and Lindsay also had a son together, Richard Oral, who died of medical complications only thirty six hours after being born. [ [http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=071014_1_A8_hThey85612 Tulsa World: Robertses steel selves for crisis with prayer ] ] The Roberts live in a home valued at more than $1.4 million provided by ORU rent-free as a tax-exempt benefit. [cite news | url=http://newsok.com/article/3158065/1193540763 | title=How ORU's president lives compared to counterparts | publisher=The Oklahoman | date= October 28, 2007 | first= | last= | accessdate =2007-10-05] The home was built by the University with the intent that it be inhabited by the University's president and his or her family. It is unclear, whether or not the Roberts family will remain in that home much longer due to the recent changes in staffing at ORU.

ORU lawsuit and scandal

In October 2007 three former professors filed a lawsuit in Tulsa County. They claimed to have been wrongfully terminated. They also alleged Roberts misused university assets and illegally ordered the university to participate in Republican candidate Randi Miller's political campaign for Tulsa mayor. This occurred while the tax-exempt university was working lawfully with the Republican National Committee on out-of-state projects as part of a long-standing, pre-approved curriculum which had been in place for several years. [cite web |url=http://chronicle.com/subscribe/login?url=/daily/2007/10/2007100303n.htm |title=3 Former Professors Sue Oral Roberts U., |accessdate=2007-09-24 |author= |date=October 4, 2007 |Publisher=The Chronicle of Higher Education] [cite web |url=http://www.tulsaworld.com/webextra/content/2007/pdfs/Swails_vs_ORU.pdf |title=Swails, Brooker, Brooker v. Oral Roberts University, et al |accessdate=2007-09-24 |author=Tulsa World |month=October | year=2007 |Publisher=United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma|format=PDF]

Other allegations against Roberts include claims he used university funds to pay for his daughter's trip to The Bahamas by providing the university jet and billing other costs to the school, maintains a stable of horses on campus and at university expense for the exclusive use of his children, regularly summons university and ministry staff to the Roberts house to do his daughters’ homework, has remodeled his house at university expense 11 times in the past 14 years, allowed the university to be billed both for damage done by his daughters to university-owned golf carts and for video-taped vandalism caused by one of his minor daughters, later alleged to be Chloe Roberts (along with benefiting from school property she allegedly stole during the same incident, even after he was informed) and acquired a red Mercedes convertible and a white Lexus SUV for his wife Lindsay through ministry donors. [cite web |url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21156263/page/1/ |title=Oral Roberts president faces corruption lawsuit |accessdate=2007-09-24 |author= |date=October 5, 2007 |Publisher=MSNBC] [Justin Juozapavicius, Associated Press, " [http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j9XJtq8scoszIFZLWUjrR8mPuBFQD8S38PR80 Scandal Brewing at Oral Roberts U.] ", 5 October 2007 retrieved 7 October 2007.]

Lindsay Roberts, who is referred to in ORU publicity as the university's "first lady," is accused of spending tens of thousands of dollars of university funds on clothes, awarding nonacademic scholarships to the children of family friends and sending text messages on university-issued cell phones to people described in the lawsuit as "underage males." [cite web |url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21156263/page/1/ |title=Oral Roberts president faces corruption lawsuit |accessdate=2007-09-24 |author= |date=October 5, 2007 |Publisher=MSNBC] The lawsuit also alleges a longtime maintenance employee was fired for the purpose of giving the job to an underage male friend of Lindsay Roberts. [cite web |url=http://www.tulsaworld.com/webextra/content/2007/pdfs/Swails_vs_ORU.pdf |title=Swails, Brooker, Brooker v. Oral Roberts University, et al |accessdate=2007-09-24 |author=Tulsa World |month=October | year=2007 |Publisher =United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma|format=PDF]

Richard Roberts publicly responded by saying, "This lawsuit ...is about intimidation, blackmail and extortion." A former ORU professor Tim Brooker, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, questioned the university's survival. "All over that campus," said Brooker, "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.' Unfortunately, ownership has shifted." [Associated Press, " [http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071006/D8S3MC9G0.html Scandal Brewing at Oral Roberts] ", 6 October 2007, retrieved 8 October 2007]

United Church of Christ Bishop Carlton Pearson, a former protege of Oral Roberts, said Richard Roberts was "born into privilege... What others may call extravagance he may not see it as extravagant." According to CNN, Pearson said he was disappointed but not surprised by the allegations, explaining, "These kinds of things are common among family-owned and operated businesses and ministries. They don't cross every T and dot every I." [CNN, " [http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/law/10/10/oru.suit/?iref=mpstoryview Oral Roberts' son denies he misspent school funds] ", 10 October 2007, retrieved 10 October 2007]

On 12 October the plaintiffs filed an amended version of the lawsuit alleging three days after the original lawsuit was filed, Roberts fired the university's financial comptroller (who had been employed by ORU for 26 years) and "witnesses have reported voluminous materials and documents were shredded and destroyed, constituting spoilation of evidence." The filing also alleged Lindsay Roberts had spent at least nine nights in the ORU guest house with an underage 16 year old male who also was allowed to live in the Roberts family residence on campus, a situation which made their oldest daughter so uncomfortable, she insisted deadbolt locks be installed on all bedroom doors in the house. [ [http://www.tulsaworld.com/webextra/content/2007/pdfs/orusuit.pdf Online copy of revised Swails lawsuit against ORU, October 12th, 2007] ]

In a written response to the later allegations 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. Allegations against me in a lawsuit yesterday are not true. They sicken me to my soul." In a separate written statement the university denied "purposely or improperly" destroying documents. [Tulsa World, " [http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=071013_1__OralR22105 Lindsay Roberts, ORU deny latest claims] ", 13 October 2007, retrieved 14 October 2007]

Resignation

On October 17, 2007 Roberts asked for and was granted an indefinite leave of absence from the school by the university's board of regents, citing the "toll" the lawsuit and attendant allegations have taken on him and his family.cite news |first=Ralph |last=Blumenthal |title=President of Oral Roberts to Take Leave of Absence |publisher=The New York Times |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/us/18oral.html?fta=y |date=2007-11-18 |accessdate=2007-11-17 ] In a statement Roberts said, "I don't know how long this leave of absence will last... I pray and believe that in God's timing, and when the Board feels that it is appropriate, I will be back at my post as President." Billy Joe Daugherty of Victory Christian Center was named executive regent of the board of regents and interim president.cite news |first=April |last=Marciszewski |title=Roberts takes ORU leave |publisher=Tulsa World |url=http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=071018_1_A1_hTheO62814 |date=2007-10-18 |accessdate=2007-10-18 ] Chairman of the board of regents George Pearsons noted the temporary resignation was not an admission of guilt.

On November 13 the tenured faculty of Oral Roberts University approved a nonbinding vote of no confidence in Roberts. [cite news |title=Faculty Opposes Oral Roberts President |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/14/education/14oral.html |publisher=The New York Times |work=Associated Press |date=2007-11-14 |accessdate=2007-11-16 ] The vote was nearly unanimous according to a professor in attendance. [cite news |first=April |last=Marciszewski |title=ORU faculty gives vote of no confidence |url=http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=071114_1_A1_spanc48573 |work=Tulsa World |date=2007-11-15 |accessdate=2007-11-16 ]

In a wrongful termination lawsuit filed against the university on November 21, former ORU senior accountant Trent Huddleston claimed he had been ordered to help Roberts and his wife "cook the books" by misclassifying nearly $123,000 in funds allegedly spent by the university on remodeling the Roberts home. [Justin Juozapavicius, Nov. 21, 2007, "Oral Roberts Accountant Sues Over Firing," Associated Press, at [http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j9XJtq8scoszIFZLWUjrR8mPuBFQD8T2BTUO0] .]

Roberts tendered his resignation to the university's board of regents on November 23, 2007, effective immediately. In an emailed statement he said, "I love ORU with all my heart. I love the students, faculty, staff and administration and I want to see God's best for all of them." [ [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/11/23/national/a165630S41.DTL Embattled Oral Roberts President Resigns] ]

On January 14, 2008 the outgoing ORU board of regents voted unanimously to name Richard Roberts president emeritus in honor of his work during 15 years as president. [Marciszewski, April, tulsaworld.com, " [http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=20080115_1__hThea88026 $62 million for ORU] ", 15 January 2008, retrieved 15 January 2008]

Books by Richard Roberts

* "Claim Your Inheritance" (Tulsa, 2002)
* "If You’re Going Through Hell, Don’t Stop"
* "If You Catch Hell, Don’t Hold It"
* "He's the God of a Second Chance" (Tulsa, Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association, 1985)
* "The Good News Is the Bad News Is Wrong!"

References

External links

* [http://www.tulsaworld.com/webextra/content/2007/oru-lawsuit/default.html Collection of documents regarding Roberts] from Tulsa World