The president of Oral Roberts University, which sits in the heart of America’s Bible Belt in Oklahoma, is accused of using donors’ money to buy his wife expensive cars, fund private jet trips for his daughter, remodel his home and maintain a stable of horses for his children.
The wife of Richard Roberts is also accused of sending hundreds of text messages to “underage males” who had been provided with university-issued mobile phones, and spending tens of thousands of dollars on clothes with university funds.
Three professors claim that they were dismissed after reporting the university’s allegedly illegal involvement in a political campaign.
The professors claim that they were dismissed after they turned over to the board of regents a copy of a report detailing moral and financial abuses by Mr Roberts and his family. The document…detailed dozens of alleged instances of misconduct. Mrs Roberts was given a red Mercedes convertible and sports utility vehicle at donors’ expense. The Roberts’s home, according to the document, has been refurbished 11 times in 14 years. Mrs Roberts spent more than $39,000 at a Chico’s clothing shop in less than a year, and had other accounts in California and Texas. According to the document, she also repeatedly said: “As long as I wear it once on TV, we can charge it off”.
Lots more details in the article. I especially like the part about Mrs. Roberts texting male students between 1AM and 3AM. Does she have some special insomnia they helped her to cure?
I’m glad I’m an atheist.
Don
Yet more proof that GASP!! Christians sin!
I love it when this stuff happens, it fortifies my argument of how the bible was just created to give people power.
I wondered how some professors knew how much she had spent at a clothing store – over a 1-year period…
The document had been prepared by Mr Roberts’s sister-in-law. A student found it when repairing her laptop computer and gave a copy of it to one of the professors, according to the lawsuit.
I guess the sister-in-law is lucky she didn’t have child-porn on her computer, or she would be in the slammer so fast her eyes would spin. 🙂
Note to self: remove hard-drive before having computer serviced.
Yet more proof that GASP!! Christians invented hypocrisy!
One of the few passages in the bible when Jesus shows anger is when he throws the money traders off the entrance to the temple. He was not angry with their business, but of the fact that they were taking advantage of the people that were coming to pray.
There is little difference between the money traders in that passage and the leaders of megachurches, they both take advantage of those that show up in sincere religious belief. And they both are condemned by god for their actions.
In God We Trust, Inc.
>>There is little difference between the money traders in that
>>passage and the leaders of megachurches, they both take
>>advantage of those that show up in sincere religious belief.
I think many DU participants have a hard time distinguishing between moneytraders/ megachurch leaders and people with sincere religious belief.
They object mightily when their Atheism is compared with the Atheism of Pol Pot, Mao, or Stalin, yet exhibit no compunction about lumping me in with Ted Haggard, Jimmy Swaggart, and desperate aging wives of Mormon university presidents who spend $800/mo texting underage males.
Too nuanced, I guess.
The biggest irony is that if he and his wife are foundt guilty, they will do the Swaggart thing and do a weeping act worthy of an Oscar and the Christians will be gullible enough to forgive these two and let them continue manage the University.
I am a Christian, and I agree with the commenter above, all this proves is that Christians sin. It’s a high probability that most of you know “Christians” who proclaim or act to be perfect but if you actually read the bible it is full of people who make major mistakes, even great than the one in his article. I am also one who sins, and have no problem admiting it.
The issue here will probably circle around the tax-free status of this operation. As for the DU readers being skeptical and bandwagon jumpers when a post like this appears it would be a sad day when we post anything about an honest church. Why? Because that would mean it was news or unusual that a church is honest. Sketchy operations like this one need to be blown out of the water whenever they are found. You just have to wonder how long they’ve been up to these antics.
here is a good rundown of some of these operations.
http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Wolves/greedy.htm
I’m sure Oral Roberts is genuine. I’m confident that when rakes in his megabucks, he throws them all up in the air for god to take what he wants. Any that falls back down is Oral Roberts’ to keep and do with as he pleases. Why does anyone have a problem with this?
(It’s so much easier to type deadpan that actually say things like this with a straight face.)
#8 – Sorry Musty, I just don’t get your comment this time. The comment by Awake demonstrates exactly the demarcation you would like to see. He strongly separated the “leaders of megachurches” from the sincere minions that “show up in sincere religious belief.”
I think you are making the mistake of which you frequently accuse others. Awake made no disparaging remark about believers. He very specifically said the leaders of megachurches. What part of that do you have a problem with?
>>Awake demonstrates exactly the demarcation you would like
>>to see.
That’s why I was NOT REFERRING TO AWAKE, Scottie. If you read my message with a keen eye, you will note that I said:
“many DU participants have a hard time distinguishing between moneytraders/ megachurch leaders and people with sincere religious belief. ”
And I stand by that. Not for a moment was I talking about Awake. I was talking about the “many DU participants” who can’t mention “Xianity” without some comment like “Praise Jesus, now where’s the sheep and the lube??”
As I said, perhaps too nuanced.
#5 Actually hypocrisy goes far before christians. They are Johnny Come Latelys to the party.
What I find most objectionable is that no one will care three to six months fater this story is buried. Things will return to normal and more charlatans will bilk people desperate for faith of somesort.
Cursor_
“many DU participants have a hard time distinguishing between moneytraders/ megachurch leaders and people with sincere religious belief. ”
What orifice did you pull that one from? The exact opposite is true. DU anti-religious and atheists specifically and repeatedly point out that Christians are emotionally and perhaps genetically susceptible to superstition, and that megachurch leaders take full advantage of this weakness.
>>The exact opposite is true.
How’s life down the rabbit hole, Jimbo?
As to your comments regarding “genetic susceptibility”, I’ll bet you’re a big fan of ethnic cleansing too.
Dismissed.
Musty, if i could perform hypocrite cleansing, you’d be the first to go.
And everyone acts suprised this happens?? :))
I new someone that worked for Rex Humbard, their whole operations was a scam to get money.. nothing more.
They’ed turn over their staff every three years lest anyone learn enough about the operations to cause problems. When the money left the area, so did Rex and company..
now ol’ ernest angley has rex’s old place… and his erection… (last comment refers to an old inside joke about the half completed tower that rex and co. was building, see link)
http://tinyurl.com/2om58k
[You get the UKKMA award for the longest URL ever posted on DU. It went completely off the screen. Please use TinyUrl.com for overly long URLs. – ed.]
>>Musty, if i could perform hypocrite cleansing, you’d be the first to go.
So much anger, Jimbo. So much pent-up violence. You seem to be one of the Atheist worshipers rightly catetorized with Pol and Joe and Mao. The hatred you exude is stultifying.
Sounds like what happens at many other universities. Those guys spend with abandon.
#4 – I wondered how some professors knew how much she had spent at a clothing store
I wonder how someone who works at Oral Roberts University can seriously refer to themselves as a professor.
#10 – I am also one who sins, and have no problem admiting it.
I sin too. We should totally hang out 🙂
#13 – That’s because so few people have “sincere religious beliefs” as opposed to indoctrinated religious beliefs. If you got there on your own, I’m okay with it. If you just believe in Magic Skyman because Mom and Dad drilled it into you then, well, whatever… you would be a sheep in that case.
Re #9, The biggest irony is that if he and his wife are foundt guilty, they will do the Swaggart thing and do a weeping act worthy of an Oscar and the Christians will be gullible enough to forgive these two and let them continue manage the University.
That outcome is possible Angel. Otherwise the sheeple, having discovered their shepherd is a wolf, will wander around stupefied for a while until other shepherds gladly take them in, assuring them that THEY are not wolves, and the cycle will begin anew.
Musty, trying to portray me as just an irrational angry attacker, without any defense of your erroneous statements, is a little pathetic. if you must know, I thought my hypocrite cleansing comment was funny. But if you really need to see… 🙂 🙂 🙂
21 –
“If you got there on your own, I’m okay with it.”
Then you are probably only ok with nobody, since all religious belief is based on somebody else’s teachings. There are no independent religions, they all base their beliefs on history before them, on written and oral tradition, on the initial superstitions and explanations that clarified their view of the world.
Only if you make it up as you go along could you possibly come close to being “religion free”, and then you would have zero credibility, because it would mean that you believe yourself superior to every philosopher or religious thinker that came before you, and only you have seen the divine truth. People with that type of “I’m special” thinking have zero credibility… they can be lumped with all those preachers that tell you that they speak for God.
Awake, I assumed of OFTLOLOL’s comment that he was referring to children brainwashed by their religious upbringing, rather than finding out for themselves when they are adults and less susceptible to manipulation.
24 – How did Scientology get so much traction?
As the “first family” at Oracle Roberts University, I think these people would have a much better idea of God’s will for the spending of this money than all of you judgmental people. Remember, never judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his Guccis.
26 – “How did Scientology get so much traction?””
Hubbard did not ‘invent’ a religion our of nowhere, he used other religious teachings as a basis, and then embellished the result with modern mythology.
Scientology is very closely related to Buddism, to the point where Hubbard asked if he might be a reincarnated Budda. It is also heavily influenced by Shinto, with many of the teachings identical.
Hubbard himself used “ancestor”, “first cousin” and “spiritual ties” to describe connections between Asian / Indian religious beliefs and Scientology.
More than anything, Hubbard’s teaching can be seen as related to the ‘New Age’ type religious beliefs.
Did he make it all up? Yes. Was he influenced by other religions? Absolutely.
If you liked that story you’ll love this from the Smoking Gun.
http://tinyurl.com/26jf6y
@ #1
I’m glad I’m an atheist.
Because atheists don’t take advantage of people?