Sunday, October 7

God can be a very vengeful donor

Twenty years ago, televangelist Oral Roberts said he was reading a spy novel when God appeared to him and told him to raise $8 million for Roberts' university, or else he would be "called home."

Now, his son, Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts, says God is speaking again, telling him to deny lurid allegations in a lawsuit that threatens to engulf this 44-year-old Bible Belt college in scandal.
According to Justin Juozapavicius at the Associated Press:

Richard Roberts is accused of illegal involvement in a local political campaign and lavish spending at donors' expense, including numerous home remodeling projects, use of the university jet for his daughter's senior trip to the Bahamas, and a red Mercedes convertible and a Lexus SUV for his wife, Lindsay.

She is accused of dropping tens of thousands of dollars on clothes, awarding nonacademic scholarships to friends of her children and sending scores of text messages on university-issued cell phones to people described in the lawsuit as "underage males."

I'll tell you what, if you think God told you to become a fundraiser, I say go ahead and raise the money, but be careful how you spend it... because God subscribes to some charity watchdog blogs and he's gonna come get you if you don't spend it responsibly.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why is it that fundamentalist Christian icons have so many ethical and moral behavior problems? Wait, some Catholic priests have that problem, too. Weren't there warnings in the Bible about these guys - false prophets and all that?

Marc A. Pitman, CFCC said...

Thanks for the great post! Yep, God seems to keep very close accounts. *grin*

BFuniv said...

A better and more fair appraisal than I've seen in some Christian posts.

Happily a few bad apples don't spoil the whole barrel, but they do put up a large stink.

These are still just allegations. But as you know any bureaucracy in any discipline has similar failures - top to bottom.

Too big is still too big.