Oral Roberts

Regardless of what you may think of President Bush and his legacy, some really positive things have happened during this tenure that the media isn’t much interested in reporting. Under the direction of drug czar John Walters, teen drug use is down 25% over the last 6 years. There are 860,000 fewer teens using drugs than in 2001. The Medicare drug benefit plan has been a success – enrolling 24 million seniors with premiums running about 40% below projected costs. Even his hard stand on ... read more

Interesting news from Tulsa. The ORU Board shuffle has begun. Many have said that Richard Roberts shouldn't have taken the fall alone for the allegations in the lawsuit. I understand from news reports that the professors brought the allegations to the board first, who turned a deaf ear. Then when the profs went to Richard, they allegedly got fired. So the board seems to be as culpable as Richard. So the Tulsa World's report is very interesting. Two TV evangelists out and an ORU grad who's also a businessman in. The shaking continues.... ... read more

There have been some interesting conversations on this blog lately about criticism of different people and organizations, and the actual purpose of the blog. I’ve written before about our purpose, and I have to admit, the posts dealing with scandal and problems among ministries and non-profits seem to be the most popular. People do respond to criticism, and for whatever reason, seem to gravitate to those posts. My blogs about Randy and Paula White’s divorce, Bishops that sell anointed soap, or Juanita Bynum getting in a fist fight with her husband in a hotel parking lot always seem to get people worked up. ... read more

Oral RobertsIn what must have been an incredibly humiliating experience for former ORU President Richard Roberts, his father, Oral Roberts, asked the ORU faculty in an emergency meeting to rescind their “no confidence” vote on his son Richard. I write about this because from a perception perspective – especially in the media – at the moment when Richard needs to be seen as a strong and confident leader, he’s having his dad ask the faculty to give him a second chance? According to AP reports, the faculty turned him down. The key here is that Oral is the product of an earlier generation, when he founded the institution and could easily maintain control. He could influence faculty decisions like ... read more

A quorum of tenured Oral Roberts University faculty voted “no confidence” in President Richard Roberts and voted in favor of “greater faculty governance and transparency of university finances” in a 3 1/2-hour meeting Monday night. The Tulsa World reports. ... read more

More is developing from the ORU lawsuit story I discussed this week. You can get a good update here from Associated Press, and The Tulsa World reports that the Board of Regents have brought in an independent accounting firm to look at the finances. It's an interesting look at how to handle "crisis public relations" and regardless of guilt or innocence in this case, every non-profit or religious organization needs to have a crisis PR plan in place. A responsible board can never be sure that ... read more

Legendary Ohio Pastor Rex Humbard died last night at 88 years of age. If you were around in the 70’s, Rex was one of the biggest names in Christian media. A little known fact is that he was also one of the key influences that encouraged a young evangelist named Oral Roberts to go on television – which resulted in “The Abundant Life Program” that debuted on NBC in 1954. ... read more