God Receives Oral

Religious beggar Oral Roberts, who helped pioneer TV evangelism in the 1950s and parlayed the power of the new medium to build a multimillion-dollar ministry, died today at 91. And he was so humble...

Roberts, who built a university that bears his name, died of complications from pneumonia. He was hospitalized after a fall on Saturday - look out old people, you can now get pneumonia in addition to that broken hip!

Along with Billy Graham, he pioneered religious TV, and he played a major role in bringing American Pentecostalism into the mainstream. That's a police way of calling him a religious huckster. He also laid the foundation for the "prosperity gospel," the doctrine that has come to dominate televangelism. It holds that God rewards the faithful with material success. Its critics say it is used by preachers to enrich themselves at the expense of their followers. Another word is plain old greed.

Roberts overcame tuberculosis at 17, when his brother carried him to a revival meeting where a evangelist was praying for the sick. He said he was healed of the illness and his stuttering, and that he heard God tell him he should build a university based on the Lord's authority. Y'know, because God needs colleges. In 1963, he founded Oral Roberts University in Tulsa. Guess he wanted some credit for that...

By the 1960s and '70s, he was reaching millions around the world through radio, television, publications and personal appearances. He remained on TV into the new century, co-hosting the program "Miracles Now" with his son, Dick. He published dozens of books and conducted hundreds of crusades.

A generation of "prosperity preachers" who followed Roberts pointed to their own luxury homes and private jets as evidence of God's favor. The campus of Oral Roberts University has it's own emblems, with its 200-foot prayer tower and a 60-foot bronze sculpture of praying hands, modeled on Roberts' hands. In 2007, Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa launched an investigation of six prosperity preachers, including three who sat on the Oral Roberts University board of regents at the time. The inquiry is still under way.

Roberts' ministry hit rocky times in the 1980s. There was controversy over his City of Faith medical center, a $250 million investment that eventually folded. And Roberts was widely ridiculed when he retreated to his prayer tower and proclaimed that God would "call me home" if he failed to meet a fundraising goal of $8 million. He was off by a few decades. His organization also suffered from the effects of sex-and-money scandals involving other televangelists including Jim and Tammy Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart in the 1980s.

Roberts was semiretired in recent years and living in California when scandal roiled Oral Roberts University. His son, who succeeded him as president, resigned in 2007 after being accused of spending university money on shopping sprees and other luxuries at a time the institution was more than $50 million in debt. It was the first time in the university's history that a member of the family was not in charge. The rocky period was eased when billionaire Oklahoma City businessman Mart Green donated $70 million and helped run the school. Earlier this fall, things were looking up, with officials saying tens of millions in debt had been paid off and enrollment was up slightly. Looks like God forgives, but still wants payment and doesn't forgive debts.

There are lots of folks who claim to be messengers of God, but it's hard to take anybody serious if their name is Oral. And now that he's dead, we don't have to.