Have you ever noticed that God gets very chatty with some people?
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 that he did so because God insisted.
God told him on Thanksgiving that he should resign the next day, Roberts told students in the university’s chapel.
“Every ounce of my flesh said ‘no’” to the idea, Roberts said, but he prayed over the decision with his wife and his father, Oral Roberts, and decided to step down.
Roberts said he wanted to “strike out” against the people who were persecuting him, and considered countersuing, but “the Lord said, ‘don’t do that,’” he said.
After submitting his resignation, he said, for “first time in 60 days peace came into my heart.”
To stand up in front of students and claim that God insisted and gave direct quotes strikes me as rather, um…what’s the word… presumptuous. He could have said that he prayed and prayed, and after praying he really felt that this was the right thing to do. By claiming that God literally spoke to him, he’s making several other implied claims. 1) He can speak directly to God, unlike most people who simply hope and pray they are doing the right thing, and therefore he is special/blessed/favored; and 2) he’s not responsible for the consequences of this decision, since it’s really God’s decision, and Roberts is just following orders. It’s a very short leap to conclude that in Robert’s mind, he and God are pretty much the same guy.
A lawsuit accuses Roberts of lavish spending at a time when the university faced more than $50 million in debt, including taking shopping sprees, buying a stable of horses and paying for a daughter to travel to the Bahamas aboard the university jet.
Roberts has previously said that God told him to deny the allegations. The week the lawsuit was filed, Richard Roberts said that 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.”
On Wednesday, Roberts said God told him he would “do something supernatural for the university” if he stepped down from the job he held at the 5,700-student school since 1993.
To call Roberts’ claims preposterous would just understate the case. This man gives wishful thinking an entirely new meaning.
Roberts said he would return to the full-time evangelistic healing ministry, “which is where my heart has always been,” and told students and faculty that he will be praying for them every day of his life.
“I believe with all my heart the best is yet to come for ORU,” he said.
Roberts walked out of the chapel through a side door to more cheers. Regents Chairman George Pearsons followed, telling students the ORU administration is “endeavoring to do the right thing” during a very difficult time.
“This is a good university,” Pearsons said. “ORU is a place where love is king.”
Love of WHAT, pray tell? This is one of those linguistical hanging chads, where the unsuspecting person fills in the missing piece according to his or her own tastes. We see what we want to see, and we hear what we want to hear. But let us look at the facts: this man has done some very bad things, he will not take responsibility, and he does not appear to feel any remorse whatsoever. He is only stepping down because his father and wife God told him to, though “every ounce” of his flesh rebelled against this Godly edict. So he is very sad because he’s losing his prestigious job. About what he did? Not so very sad. In fact, he anticipates that God will reward his tearful sacrifice. God said so on Wednesday. Ho-kay.
Gary Richardson, the attorney who filed the lawsuit accusing Roberts of lavish living, said Wednesday there was a possibility for settlement with the university, but held out little hope for settling with Richard Roberts after what he said was his failure to admit in chapel he did anything wrong.
“You can’t imagine the people who say to us, ‘Don’t let it be swept under the carpet,’” Richardson said.
Actually, I can imagine.
#1 by malcontent on November 29, 2007 - 9:13 am
From what I understand, the fiscal irresponsibilities were the tip of the iceberg at ORU. His wife stands accused of regularly shopping for “pool-boys” on campus and evidence has been presented that can cast the Roberts household as avery happening, if not quite conforming to their public morals, den of sin.
I’m not sure if it more Mrs. Wormer or Mrs. Robinson but I do know they’d rather let this one pass them by, tout de suite.
#2 by malcontent on November 29, 2007 - 9:28 am
AP wire tidbits that have since been scrubbed
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.
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An ORU student repairing [the laptop of Stephanie Cantese, Richard Roberts’ sister-in-law] discovered the document and later provided a copy to one of the professors.
It details dozens of alleged instances of misconduct. Among them:
A longtime maintenance employee was fired so that an underage male friend of Mrs. Roberts could have his position.
Mrs. Roberts — who is a member of the board of regents and is referred to as ORU’s “first lady†on the university’s [sic] Web site — frequently had cell-phone bills of more than $800 per month, with hundreds of text messages sent between 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. to “underage males who had been provided phones at university expense.â€
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The university jet was used to take one daughter and several friends on a senior trip to Orlando, Fla., and the Bahamas. The $29,411 trip was billed to the ministry as an “evangelistic function of the president.â€
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Mrs. Roberts spent more than $39,000 at one Chico’s clothing store alone in less than a year, and had other accounts in Texas and California. She also repeatedly said, “As long as I wear it once on TV, we can charge it off.†(Matthew 6:5) The document cites inconsistencies in clothing purchases and actual usage on TV.
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University and ministry employees are regularly summoned to the Roberts’ home to do the daughters’ homework.
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Sounds like a scorched earth policy as far as their rule book goes.
#3 by Marlena on November 29, 2007 - 9:46 am
Wow. Thanks for the supporting detail. What was God thinking???
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