Dec 16, 2009 -- 3:42AM, Kingskidd wrote:

Oral Roberts was a giant in the Christian community for so many years. It is easy for the national media to report the negative, or what they see as some type of Christian characiture. What not is reported is the thousands upon thousands of live that he touched through his ministry, and the education that he provided to countless students of Oral Roberts University. Human beings throughout the course of life is a mixture of successes, failures, good examples, along with not so good examples. In the end we should look at what was done with each life that God has given us and come to a well rounded conclusion. The national media, which has so much influence, especially on non-thinking people focuses on what they think is the story of ones life, and it usually is the negative, train wreck side of life that they think will draw the most attention.

he "educated" lots of people? like, for free? or at least chealply? and "educated" as in high quality education?

I'd be more impressed if he used his funds to send deserving but underprivelaged kids to an Ivy League school (or even a good State school).  and 'oral roberts scholarship" impresses me more than a university (that he felt had to be named after HIMSELF, which says something about him, don't you think?)

Dec 16, 2009 -- 3:42AM, Kingskidd wrote:

Oral Roberts was a giant in the Christian community for so many years. It is easy for the national media to report the negative, or what they see as some type of Christian characiture. What not is reported is the thousands upon thousands of live that he touched through his ministry, and the education that he provided to countless students of Oral Roberts University. Human beings throughout the course of life is a mixture of successes, failures, good examples, along with not so good examples. In the end we should look at what was done with each life that God has given us and come to a well rounded conclusion. The national media, which has so much influence, especially on non-thinking people focuses on what they think is the story of ones life, and it usually is the negative, train wreck side of life that they think will draw the most attention.

He made a lot of tax-free money by using desperate, gullible or ignorant people.

I didn't much like Oral Roberts, I have a good friend who graduated from ORU... he did not like him much either. OR was a brother-love-show Elmer Gantry style revivalist preacher... minus the womanizing aspects of Elmer. He started out as a Pentecostal healing evangelist, and later joined a more mainstream coalision of Christians (Methodists) in order to fund and get ORU off the ground. But he never lost his more flamboyant Pentecostal style, unorthodox teachings and associations.

I remember watching him on TV back in the 70s when I was a young man. I didn't like him much then, even though at that time I was a Pentecostal myself.

But he did have a major impact on many people for Christ, and I do not discount everything he did. He is beloved by millions accross the world, and I am not one to go out of my way to offend other Christians by disparaging the man. May God be with his family, and those who morn his passing, and may the Lord forgive his sins and recieve him into His heavenly kingdom. Amen.

~ Theophilus

Oh, I'd say that Roberts had peace...well, a piece of the action, that is, almost from the get-go. He was one of the more adept at separating people from their money.

My mother used to say that he was aptly named since the man was such a slick talker.

Dec 15, 2009 -- 7:34PM, Chokmah wrote:

Roberts found himself engulfed in new controversy when he announced that he had talked with Jesus and that he was nine hundred feet tall. By the time comedians had finished with that episode, Roberts announced that God would call him home if his followers did not send an immediate five million dollars for his ministry. The respect he had carefully acquired after playing down his charismatic tendencies washed away in the years that followed.

I remember that last disaster.  The deadline was approaching within days, and Roberts was panicking.  Comedians were having a field day, some of them being openly disgusted and not at all amused, saying that Roberts had made an extortionist out of God, who demanded a ransom or He'd kill His victim.  On the very last day, some millionaire in Florida gave Roberts the last million or so he needed before he had to admit defeat.  Part of me, of course, really wished that millionaire hadn't done that, if only to teach Roberts a a publically humiliating lesson not to be such a fool, but the other part of me recognized someone far kinder than I am, who should be admired for that kindness.  Roberts did learn to shut up and go away from that, so some good came out of it after all.  I hope and pray he became more reasonable as he got older, and that he had found peace in his relationship with God.