Roberts, Oral (1918–)

EVANGELIST ORAL ROBERTS is considered by millions of Americans to be a prophet straight from God. Scores of other Americans, however, believe that Roberts is a silver-tongued crook who has bilked millions of dollars from an unsuspecting American public in the name of religion. Regardless of their perceptions of him, few would fail to[Page 695] agree that Roberts has a knack for reading people and for using them to further his goal of becoming an internationally known evangelist. Roberts is the founder of Oral Roberts University chartered in 1963 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which represents itself as a “Christian university with a liberal arts focus” and which is a major name in college basketball.

Roberts began his ministry in 1947. Over the course of the next several decades, he wrote over 100 books, amassing millions of dollars in profits. In 1979, Jerry Sholes, the son of a Presbyterian minister, who worked with the Roberts' operation for more than three years, wrote an exposé of Roberts and his empire. Sholes wrote that Roberts' representatives had offered him millions of dollars and a lucrative contract to write a book in support of Roberts rather than the exposé. When he refused, Sholes says that he was beaten to the point that he was forced to have plastic reconstructive surgery on his face.

The book offered a devastating look at Roberts who reportedly wore thousand-dollar Brioni suits and drove $25,000 cars, replacing both every six months. Roberts' home in Tulsa was valued at $250,000, and a second home in Palm Springs, California, was valued at over $1 million. Sholes maintained that Roberts had photographers airbrush out his expensive jewelry so that he did not look too prosperous to his followers. While working for Roberts, Sholes attended a number of religious seminars where attendees were pressured to make donations from $250 to $100,000. The average take at the seminars, according to Sholes, was from $1.5 million to $3 million.

On September 7, 1977, Roberts announced to the world that God had sent him a vision in the desert telling him to build the City of Faith, a complex that would eventually include a hospital, a medical school, and a research center. The City of Faith opened its doors in 1981. Records show that Roberts had, in fact, discussed the City of Faith project with members of his staff months before he had the “vision.” As much as 20 years earlier, Roberts had said in several interviews that he had already purchased land to build the City of Faith. The project was short-lived.

In March 1986, Roberts announced to his 1.6 million television followers that God had told him that if he did not raise $8 million dollars by March 31, God would strike him down. A number of television stations around the country reacted to Roberts' announcement by canceling their broadcasts of his shows. Reportedly, more than $160,000 a day poured into the Roberts empire over the next few weeks. Roberts announced that when the devil entered his bedroom to strangle him, his wife Evelyn intervened. He than proclaimed that he had raised the necessary amount and that God would spare his life.

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