JimBob
11-14-2008, 07:47 PM
Readers' comments included; priceless!
ORU officially severs ties with Roberts
By SHANNON MUCHMORE World Staff Writer
11/14/2008 4:42 PM
Last Modified: 11/14/2008 5:08 PM
Oral Roberts University announced today it will pay former university president Richard Roberts more than $440,000 to officially severe its ties with the son of the school's founder.
The amount reflects a buyout for the current and next academic year.
This finalizes the separation agreement with Roberts, who resigned last year after ORU was sued by three professors alleging wrongful termination. The university subsequently fought more scandal and revealed it was $55 million in debt.
The professors' lawsuit claimed the Roberts and his wife, Lindsay, misspent university funds to support a fancy home and lavish lifestyle.
That case was settled last month, but details of the agreement haven't been released. Interim President Ralph Fagin said in a news release the university appreciates its spiritual heritage, begun by the school's namesake, Richard Roberts' father.
"We value the years of investment Dr. Richard Roberts has made at ORU," Fagin said. "We move forward with a heightened sense of duty and responsibility to the fruit of this great university - its students and alumni."
ORU has been working to move beyond the controversy since receiving a $70 million gift from Yukon businessman Mart Green and his family, who founded the Hobby Lobby and the Mardel Christian stores chain.
The university has adopted a system of shared governance and financial transparency, as was required by the acceptance of Green's donation.
By SHANNON MUCHMORE World Staff Writer
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Thank you to everyone who has registered with tulsaworld.com. We have seen an increase in the number of readers' comments on stories, and people always tell us they keep coming back to see your reactions to the news.
But with that increase, we are seeing more people violating the terms and conditions when it comes to what is allowed in comments. Please help us by clicking the "Report this Comment" link next to a comment when you see one that is out of line. To review what is allowed and what is not, go to our terms and conditions. Thank you.
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Cooldaddy, Broken Arrow (11/14/2008 4:54:52 PM)
Richard Roberts and his wife are both crooks!
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Bluebird of HOPE, Osage County (11/14/2008 4:59:32 PM)
Maybe ORU can BAIL OUT the Auto Industry as well!!
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Popeye, Tulsa (11/14/2008 5:21:07 PM)
What goes around does come around! Of course, if this scumbag got everything he deserved he'd be in a box downtown... Somewhere near Skyhawk!
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woodyguthrie, (11/14/2008 5:22:12 PM)
This should be no problem for Richard. If he can really faith heal like he claims, there is plenty of demand for his services. We have lots of soldiers coming back from Iraq missing limbs, eyes and other body parts -- lets see him heal of few of them. I'm sure once he does that, the money will come pouring in. I'd pay good money to just watch.
Unless, of course, he is a fraud......
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zrs, Tulsa, Claremore (11/14/2008 5:46:34 PM)
Yeah, woody.
Had a friend who went to ORU, said in one of her classes with Roberts he told everyone in the class that they were healed of all of their ailments, and she firmly believed she was healed of her diabetes. Well, she started eating sugar again, and began having some pretty bad symptoms. Turns out, she wasn't healed. What do you know?
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Charley, (11/14/2008 5:50:18 PM)
I'll be glad when they change the name of the place. Any connection to Oral Roberts should be removed ASAP.
If they ever erect a sign, apologizing for bilking the fools around the nation, the father & the son might get some forgiveness & they might not.
Their legacy will be tarnished heavily, maybe if ol' Richard got out there in the Prayer Tower & begged for some more money, he could get enough to buy some forgiveness, but I doubt it.
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gp, (11/14/2008 6:07:01 PM)
Great. Another bailout. Why do we continue to reward people for bad behavior? I know a lot of people who could use that 400 grand to buy groceries. Such a disappointment.
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my view, America (11/14/2008 6:09:36 PM)
Well maybe he can find is Dads old revival tent and go on the road. You know back to his family roots.
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Popeye, Tulsa (11/14/2008 6:17:38 PM)
What a scumbag, his old man too!
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Joe-Allen Doty, TULSA (11/14/2008 6:22:28 PM)
The University should never had "Oral Roberts" as a part of its name in the first place. Oral Roberts said that his 1st chosen Board of Regents insisted that it be named Oral Roberts University.
Richard was not Oral Roberts' first choice to succeed him. His first choice was his first born son, Ronald. I actually heard Oral Roberts say, after he introduced Ronald, that he would take his place when he retired from the University. This was said at the 1st ORU College and Youth Seminar on the campus in June 1963.
Oral and Evelyn Roberts should have let Richard go his own way when he was a student at Kansas University and they should not have gone of to Kansas City, Missouri when he was appearing in Summer Stock musicals after he had been a freshman.
According to Evelyn Roberts' own words (to this effect), his parents demanded that he not return to KU and enroll in ORU in the fall. They decided that he should live in the Men's dorm where they could keep track of him. (But, in more recent times, Richard claims that God told him during his freshman year at KU to drop out and go to ORU. Richard's "testimony" was written after he got an ranking position with ORU.)
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cobweb, (11/14/2008 7:19:51 PM)
Every time I feel the need to get religious, I watch a couple of minutes of this goofy huckster and realize this can't be right.
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dontaxme, Tulsa (11/14/2008 7:38:46 PM)
Why did they feel like they owed him anything to go away? His dismissal had to violate something in his contract....
Report Comment | Ignore User
ADD, (11/14/2008 7:40:15 PM)
He's a huckster, just like all the others, including Billy James Hargis, Jimmy Swaggert, and many other televangelists "exposed"... But, unlike Marjoe, he has no style. Unlike Falwell, he has no smarts. What's he going to do now? Sell used cars?
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Rosco, (11/14/2008 7:45:59 PM)
"Every time I feel the need to get religious, I watch a couple of minutes of this goofy huckster and realize this can't be right."
Cobweb, I will pray for your sould tonight. You cannot critick Gods anointed vessal. Richard was chosen by God to lead the masses as was his daddy. Oral raised dozens and dozens from the dead. This has been documented by many people who witnessed the great miricles Oral performed. Richard has also performed the same miricles in front of thousands of people. God said "thou shalt not judge less ye be judged". You must head and obay Gods word to prosper.
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Skeptic, Tulsa (11/14/2008 7:46:05 PM)
When I was a student at ORU, Richard was still married to Patti, his real wife. I was working in the Prayer Tower's Visitor Center where Oral's (ghost written) books were given out to the visitors. Immediately after the divorce was announced in chapel service, all the books were pulled and destroyed. Not only at ORU but OREA as well. Oral's PR person (I won't give out her name) decided that Patti should be written out of all ministry books. She was "disappeared" from any records that went to the partners of the ministry. Divorce isn't "Christian" or at least it impedes the flow of free money, apparently. Of course, the Roberts' also "disappeared" their gay son Ronald after his suicide in Osage county.
If someone wants to call him/hereself a christian, they should follow Christ, not these charlatons.
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marlin, (11/14/2008 8:06:32 PM)
I watched Richards show this week, him and his wife looked like warmed over death. She's ballooned to a whopping 200 pounder, she's wider than she is tall. She drank from a coffee cup the entire show and it was obvious it wasn't coffee she was drinking.
They also had the bottom of the barrel on there as guests. It was two reformed con artist that wanted you to send them your money.
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my view, America (11/14/2008 8:17:05 PM)
Rosco,
you are either joking, or you are a complete nut.
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Joe-Allen Dolty, Tulsa (11/14/2008 8:18:51 PM)
"Every time I feel the need to get religious, I watch a couple of minutes of this goofy huckster and realize this can't be right."
HAHAHAHA
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30kdm, Tulsa (11/14/2008 8:22:56 PM)
Oh man, now where are these hands going to get their dollars from?
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Breezy, Sapulpa (11/14/2008 8:23:34 PM)
Embezzlement was what Richard and (whatever her name is), was charged with, am I correct? And now, ORU wants to pay Richard MORE THAN $440,000 to sever their ties with the University? What is wrong here... did something just fly over my head without me getting the real picture? Richard and his wife steal the University's money, and the University wants to pay Roberts more than $440,000 to sever ties? Sorry, got to get back to work.
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Bud Green, (11/14/2008 8:23:39 PM)
Richard and Lindsay are selling false hope and fake healing. Oral G Roberts, Jimmy Swaggart, Benny Hinn, Jim Bakker et al are all phonies who preyed on the gullible, lonely, mentally unstable and other easily misled people.
They all capatalize and exploit because of the free pass that religions get concerning proof; religions have never, ever, proven their claims or beliefs that they refer to as "truth". Religions get free passes to spew any lies they can come up with.
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Joe-Allen Dolty, Tulsa (11/14/2008 8:25:38 PM)
I totally agree Bud
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KBR, (11/14/2008 8:32:55 PM)
Oral always said it was "God's university" so I wonder why he named it Oral Roberts University?
If you want some chuckles, turn down the volume and watch the weird faces Richard makes when he's speaking to a crowd.
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tulsa native, Tulsa (11/14/2008 8:36:35 PM)
I would like for folks to remember that their relationship with God is between them and God. Don't let someone elses life negatively affect your decision to seek God and what he has for you.
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Joe-Allen Doty, TULSA (11/14/2008 8:37:04 PM)
After Ronald Roberts' death, the Roberts family still claimed that he wasn't gay.
While Police reports say that he committed suicide and no one else was involved, many of the gay people in Tulsa who personally knew him, especially those who are Christians, don't believe he actually committed suicide. They believe that someone hired a hit man to do the Roberts and the University a favor. Sometimes, Oral Roberts told his close staff members to handle problem people who came on campus. He left it up to them as to how they did it.
The reason for Richard to get a divorce from Patti came about because Patti wanted Richard and herself to have their own independent ministry. So, some folks set up a phony "caught in adultery" entrapment situation and used the guy who was the TV show set manager by having up at Richard's house to pick up something for Richard. The man did not know that he was being used. He and Patti were just friends. I went to the same church as the man and his wife at the time. His wife was so beautiful that she made Patti look somewhat ordinary.
A number of Richard and Patti's long time friends attended that same church. I remember one of them telling about talking to Richard about the divorce and the fact that it did not look good for the ministry of the Gospel.
From a professional ethics point of view, Richard dated a graduate student (the one who became his "2nd" wife) while he was a University staff member and doing that was unethical for someone involved in an institution of higher learning.
Report Comment | Ignore User
Joe-Allen Doty, TULSA (11/14/2008 8:38:31 PM)
Oral is a middle name for Granville Roberts.
ORU officially severs ties with Roberts
By SHANNON MUCHMORE World Staff Writer
11/14/2008 4:42 PM
Last Modified: 11/14/2008 5:08 PM
Oral Roberts University announced today it will pay former university president Richard Roberts more than $440,000 to officially severe its ties with the son of the school's founder.
The amount reflects a buyout for the current and next academic year.
This finalizes the separation agreement with Roberts, who resigned last year after ORU was sued by three professors alleging wrongful termination. The university subsequently fought more scandal and revealed it was $55 million in debt.
The professors' lawsuit claimed the Roberts and his wife, Lindsay, misspent university funds to support a fancy home and lavish lifestyle.
That case was settled last month, but details of the agreement haven't been released. Interim President Ralph Fagin said in a news release the university appreciates its spiritual heritage, begun by the school's namesake, Richard Roberts' father.
"We value the years of investment Dr. Richard Roberts has made at ORU," Fagin said. "We move forward with a heightened sense of duty and responsibility to the fruit of this great university - its students and alumni."
ORU has been working to move beyond the controversy since receiving a $70 million gift from Yukon businessman Mart Green and his family, who founded the Hobby Lobby and the Mardel Christian stores chain.
The university has adopted a system of shared governance and financial transparency, as was required by the acceptance of Green's donation.
By SHANNON MUCHMORE World Staff Writer
PDF IndexPrintEmail StoryCommentRSSBookmark
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Reader Comments
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Show: Most Recent Comment First Add your comment
26 readers have commented on this story so far. Tell us what you think below!
We need your help
Thank you to everyone who has registered with tulsaworld.com. We have seen an increase in the number of readers' comments on stories, and people always tell us they keep coming back to see your reactions to the news.
But with that increase, we are seeing more people violating the terms and conditions when it comes to what is allowed in comments. Please help us by clicking the "Report this Comment" link next to a comment when you see one that is out of line. To review what is allowed and what is not, go to our terms and conditions. Thank you.
-- Web Editor Jason Collington
Report Comment | Ignore User
Cooldaddy, Broken Arrow (11/14/2008 4:54:52 PM)
Richard Roberts and his wife are both crooks!
Report Comment | Ignore User
Bluebird of HOPE, Osage County (11/14/2008 4:59:32 PM)
Maybe ORU can BAIL OUT the Auto Industry as well!!
Report Comment | Ignore User
Popeye, Tulsa (11/14/2008 5:21:07 PM)
What goes around does come around! Of course, if this scumbag got everything he deserved he'd be in a box downtown... Somewhere near Skyhawk!
Report Comment | Ignore User
woodyguthrie, (11/14/2008 5:22:12 PM)
This should be no problem for Richard. If he can really faith heal like he claims, there is plenty of demand for his services. We have lots of soldiers coming back from Iraq missing limbs, eyes and other body parts -- lets see him heal of few of them. I'm sure once he does that, the money will come pouring in. I'd pay good money to just watch.
Unless, of course, he is a fraud......
Report Comment | Ignore User
zrs, Tulsa, Claremore (11/14/2008 5:46:34 PM)
Yeah, woody.
Had a friend who went to ORU, said in one of her classes with Roberts he told everyone in the class that they were healed of all of their ailments, and she firmly believed she was healed of her diabetes. Well, she started eating sugar again, and began having some pretty bad symptoms. Turns out, she wasn't healed. What do you know?
Report Comment | Ignore User
Charley, (11/14/2008 5:50:18 PM)
I'll be glad when they change the name of the place. Any connection to Oral Roberts should be removed ASAP.
If they ever erect a sign, apologizing for bilking the fools around the nation, the father & the son might get some forgiveness & they might not.
Their legacy will be tarnished heavily, maybe if ol' Richard got out there in the Prayer Tower & begged for some more money, he could get enough to buy some forgiveness, but I doubt it.
Report Comment | Ignore User
gp, (11/14/2008 6:07:01 PM)
Great. Another bailout. Why do we continue to reward people for bad behavior? I know a lot of people who could use that 400 grand to buy groceries. Such a disappointment.
Report Comment | Ignore User
my view, America (11/14/2008 6:09:36 PM)
Well maybe he can find is Dads old revival tent and go on the road. You know back to his family roots.
Report Comment | Ignore User
Popeye, Tulsa (11/14/2008 6:17:38 PM)
What a scumbag, his old man too!
Report Comment | Ignore User
Joe-Allen Doty, TULSA (11/14/2008 6:22:28 PM)
The University should never had "Oral Roberts" as a part of its name in the first place. Oral Roberts said that his 1st chosen Board of Regents insisted that it be named Oral Roberts University.
Richard was not Oral Roberts' first choice to succeed him. His first choice was his first born son, Ronald. I actually heard Oral Roberts say, after he introduced Ronald, that he would take his place when he retired from the University. This was said at the 1st ORU College and Youth Seminar on the campus in June 1963.
Oral and Evelyn Roberts should have let Richard go his own way when he was a student at Kansas University and they should not have gone of to Kansas City, Missouri when he was appearing in Summer Stock musicals after he had been a freshman.
According to Evelyn Roberts' own words (to this effect), his parents demanded that he not return to KU and enroll in ORU in the fall. They decided that he should live in the Men's dorm where they could keep track of him. (But, in more recent times, Richard claims that God told him during his freshman year at KU to drop out and go to ORU. Richard's "testimony" was written after he got an ranking position with ORU.)
Report Comment | Ignore User
cobweb, (11/14/2008 7:19:51 PM)
Every time I feel the need to get religious, I watch a couple of minutes of this goofy huckster and realize this can't be right.
Report Comment | Ignore User
dontaxme, Tulsa (11/14/2008 7:38:46 PM)
Why did they feel like they owed him anything to go away? His dismissal had to violate something in his contract....
Report Comment | Ignore User
ADD, (11/14/2008 7:40:15 PM)
He's a huckster, just like all the others, including Billy James Hargis, Jimmy Swaggert, and many other televangelists "exposed"... But, unlike Marjoe, he has no style. Unlike Falwell, he has no smarts. What's he going to do now? Sell used cars?
Report Comment | Ignore User
Rosco, (11/14/2008 7:45:59 PM)
"Every time I feel the need to get religious, I watch a couple of minutes of this goofy huckster and realize this can't be right."
Cobweb, I will pray for your sould tonight. You cannot critick Gods anointed vessal. Richard was chosen by God to lead the masses as was his daddy. Oral raised dozens and dozens from the dead. This has been documented by many people who witnessed the great miricles Oral performed. Richard has also performed the same miricles in front of thousands of people. God said "thou shalt not judge less ye be judged". You must head and obay Gods word to prosper.
Report Comment | Ignore User
Skeptic, Tulsa (11/14/2008 7:46:05 PM)
When I was a student at ORU, Richard was still married to Patti, his real wife. I was working in the Prayer Tower's Visitor Center where Oral's (ghost written) books were given out to the visitors. Immediately after the divorce was announced in chapel service, all the books were pulled and destroyed. Not only at ORU but OREA as well. Oral's PR person (I won't give out her name) decided that Patti should be written out of all ministry books. She was "disappeared" from any records that went to the partners of the ministry. Divorce isn't "Christian" or at least it impedes the flow of free money, apparently. Of course, the Roberts' also "disappeared" their gay son Ronald after his suicide in Osage county.
If someone wants to call him/hereself a christian, they should follow Christ, not these charlatons.
Report Comment | Ignore User
marlin, (11/14/2008 8:06:32 PM)
I watched Richards show this week, him and his wife looked like warmed over death. She's ballooned to a whopping 200 pounder, she's wider than she is tall. She drank from a coffee cup the entire show and it was obvious it wasn't coffee she was drinking.
They also had the bottom of the barrel on there as guests. It was two reformed con artist that wanted you to send them your money.
Report Comment | Ignore User
my view, America (11/14/2008 8:17:05 PM)
Rosco,
you are either joking, or you are a complete nut.
Report Comment | Ignore User
Joe-Allen Dolty, Tulsa (11/14/2008 8:18:51 PM)
"Every time I feel the need to get religious, I watch a couple of minutes of this goofy huckster and realize this can't be right."
HAHAHAHA
Report Comment | Ignore User
30kdm, Tulsa (11/14/2008 8:22:56 PM)
Oh man, now where are these hands going to get their dollars from?
Report Comment | Ignore User
Breezy, Sapulpa (11/14/2008 8:23:34 PM)
Embezzlement was what Richard and (whatever her name is), was charged with, am I correct? And now, ORU wants to pay Richard MORE THAN $440,000 to sever their ties with the University? What is wrong here... did something just fly over my head without me getting the real picture? Richard and his wife steal the University's money, and the University wants to pay Roberts more than $440,000 to sever ties? Sorry, got to get back to work.
Report Comment | Ignore User
Bud Green, (11/14/2008 8:23:39 PM)
Richard and Lindsay are selling false hope and fake healing. Oral G Roberts, Jimmy Swaggart, Benny Hinn, Jim Bakker et al are all phonies who preyed on the gullible, lonely, mentally unstable and other easily misled people.
They all capatalize and exploit because of the free pass that religions get concerning proof; religions have never, ever, proven their claims or beliefs that they refer to as "truth". Religions get free passes to spew any lies they can come up with.
Report Comment | Ignore User
Joe-Allen Dolty, Tulsa (11/14/2008 8:25:38 PM)
I totally agree Bud
Report Comment | Ignore User
KBR, (11/14/2008 8:32:55 PM)
Oral always said it was "God's university" so I wonder why he named it Oral Roberts University?
If you want some chuckles, turn down the volume and watch the weird faces Richard makes when he's speaking to a crowd.
Report Comment | Ignore User
tulsa native, Tulsa (11/14/2008 8:36:35 PM)
I would like for folks to remember that their relationship with God is between them and God. Don't let someone elses life negatively affect your decision to seek God and what he has for you.
Report Comment | Ignore User
Joe-Allen Doty, TULSA (11/14/2008 8:37:04 PM)
After Ronald Roberts' death, the Roberts family still claimed that he wasn't gay.
While Police reports say that he committed suicide and no one else was involved, many of the gay people in Tulsa who personally knew him, especially those who are Christians, don't believe he actually committed suicide. They believe that someone hired a hit man to do the Roberts and the University a favor. Sometimes, Oral Roberts told his close staff members to handle problem people who came on campus. He left it up to them as to how they did it.
The reason for Richard to get a divorce from Patti came about because Patti wanted Richard and herself to have their own independent ministry. So, some folks set up a phony "caught in adultery" entrapment situation and used the guy who was the TV show set manager by having up at Richard's house to pick up something for Richard. The man did not know that he was being used. He and Patti were just friends. I went to the same church as the man and his wife at the time. His wife was so beautiful that she made Patti look somewhat ordinary.
A number of Richard and Patti's long time friends attended that same church. I remember one of them telling about talking to Richard about the divorce and the fact that it did not look good for the ministry of the Gospel.
From a professional ethics point of view, Richard dated a graduate student (the one who became his "2nd" wife) while he was a University staff member and doing that was unethical for someone involved in an institution of higher learning.
Report Comment | Ignore User
Joe-Allen Doty, TULSA (11/14/2008 8:38:31 PM)
Oral is a middle name for Granville Roberts.