The last three years have seen the passing of some of the most significant people involved in Christian mass media: D. James Kennedy, Rex Humbard, Jerry Falwell, Tammy Faye Bakker, Billy Joe Daugherty, Rev. Ike, and Bishop Earl Paulk. As this year draws to a weary close, one more giant joins the list: Granville Oral Roberts.
He has been called the second most influential Christian leader in American history after only Billy Graham. Though he never graduated from college, he launched an aggressive evangelistic faith healing tent ministry from his home base in Tulsa in the 1940s. He perceived the potential impact of Christian television already in 1955 and began broadcasting his revivals. A visionary with tireless energy, he founded Oral Robert University in Tulsa in 1963 and the City of Faith Hospital in 1981. That year was probably the high water mark for the Oral Robert Evangelistic Association, which saw an income of over $88 million. The hospital has since foundered, but the university is still going full ahead and seems to have weathered the 2007 leadership crisis which forced his son Richard from the ORU presidency.
Roberts is widely credited with bringing Pentecostalism into the Christian mainstream and popularizing it (though he was a member of the United Methodist Church from 1968-1987). Pentecostalism is a largest movement in Christianity in the last generation and seems to be the main source of Christian television programming in America today.
Roberts has rightly been criticized for being one of the early promoters of “prosperity theology,” sometimes called the “word of faith” movement in Pentecostalism. Viewers and hearers are urged, “If you have a need, give God a seed,” (i.e. send money to the televangelist if you want money from God). Though scorned at first, that message is now widely imitated and spread on Christian television. For a blistering critique of “prosperity preachers,” see Rev. John McArthur’s blog, http://www.gty.org/Blog/B091211. Roberts has also taken a lot of heat for the lavish lifestyle that he and his family have become accustomed to and for claiming various personal revelations from Jesus Christ himself.
Roberts allowed his followers to claim that he had actually raised someone from the dead, but if he did indeed possess that power, he was unable to use it on his own family. His daughter Rebecca died in a tragic plane crash along with her husband, and his oldest son Ronald committed suicide after a troubled life of drug abuse.
Oral Roberts died on December 15, 2009. R.I.P.
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Straight talk. Real hope.
2/10/2010 - Posted by J
I was an admirer of Oral Roberts as a teenager, but over the years my confidence waned. Yet I well remember an event that happened at work after the suicide of Ronald Roberts. Two of my Christian brothers (who both attended a very anti-charismatic church) were discussing the tragedy. One said sarcastically that Roberts should have have healed the boy. The other responded that it wasn't too late to raise him from the dead! I was deeply saddened by the attitude and lack of compassion from these men. Pastor Jeske's comments regarding the death of Robert's children were not stated in a mean spirited way, but I feel they were very unfair. While I doubt the claims that Roberts raised someone from the dead, the fact is that Roberts never claimed to be able to heal everybody, much less raise them from the dead. He acknowedged that many were not healed (why else build a hospital)and he often said that God was the healer, not him.
12/29/2009 - Posted by MK
I came to know Jesus as my Savior when I was 25 years old, and I am now 61. For 30 years of my Christian life I was a practicing Charismatic (the Charismatic movement being an offshoot of Pentecostalism), during which time I not only witnessed what went on in Charismatic circles but also gladly participated in the shenanigans myself. And this is not to say that my involvement in the movement was in any way less than on the up and up because the Lord knows that I was as sincere as a person can be regarding it, and had anyone even suggested that our “Miracle Services” (or whatever else was going on) were anything but a manifestation of God’s power and presence in our midst I would’ve felt it my God-ordained duty to put them in their place, even at the risk of sacrificing my very reputation for the cause, should it’ve been required. … I was around and glued to my television set on the day that Oral Roberts announced that a 900 foot tall Jesus told him to build his “City of Faith Medical Center” (1977), and I believed what he said without question, and then more recently I was around to sing in Benny Hinn’s (one of today’s most popular faith healers) “Milwaukee Miracle Crusade” choir (2003), buying into and defending everything that went on there as well. …. Do you find yourself marveling at my naivety as you read this? Do not be too quick to judge. God grants grace to see as He sees in His perfect timing and according to His plan and purpose for each of our lives, and grace to ‘repent’ (turn to go in a different direction) was not granted to me until it pleased Him to grant it only a few short years ago. And I am not discouraged by this because at the passing of Oral Roberts I am once again reminded that there are those out there to whom He never extends this grace and so along with Pastor Jeske it is for them that I pray, “may they ‘rest in peace’… a peace that belongs to all who have put their faith in the merits of Jesus Christ alone.” Amen.
12/22/2009 - Posted by JN
I thought your blog did a good job of balancing not speaking badly about the recently departed while posting a link to John MacArthur's blog that summarizes the man's shortcomings which are numerous. Frankly, although I admire his rags to riches success, I find Oral Roberts' popularity an embarrassment to Christianity. I must confess I do enjoy watching Joel O'Steen, even though his prosperity theology seeps into his sermons, but most of the pentecostal/word of faith types have little positive to offer. I think it comes down to discernment. Having visited these churches, I think a lot of people are just looking for an emotional high. In evangelical circles, I've heard a lot of criticism of Mormons, Muslims, and even Catholics. But not enough against these faith healers, who in some ways pose a bigger threat.
