Who ever dies with the most toys... Oral Roberts' Son Accused of Misspending

[devilgrrl]

Oral Roberts' Son Accused of Misspending
By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
November 08, 2007 2:25 PM EST

TULSA, Okla. - A Beverly Hills house and country club membership. Vacations in Palm Springs and the South Seas. A closet as big as an apartment, stuffed with hundreds of pairs of shoes, suits, dresses and golf shoes.

People with close ties to TV evangelist Oral Roberts and his son, Richard, say they witnessed such extravagances years before a recent lawsuit accusing them of lavish spending engulfed the ministers and their debt-ridden university in scandal.

Harry McNevin said in a recent interview that he quit the Board of Regents at Oral Roberts University in disgust in 1987 after it became clear that the Robertses were dipping into the school's endowment fund for their personal use.

"We were dealing in millions," he said.

The luxurious ways of some of America's top evangelists have come under scrutiny on various fronts recently. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley announced a Senate investigation this week into whether six celebrity preachers violated their organizations' tax-exempt status by living lavishly on the backs of small donors.

http://enews.earthlink.net/article/nat?guid=20071108/473297d0_3ca6_1552620071108127184657

[MiniMe]

1. Is Oral Roberts son one of them?

[karlrschneider]

2. I grew up a block from Oral's house. His son Ronnie was a friend of mine,

we went to school together. Even back in those days (late 1950s) they were amassing huge sums of filthy lucre.
Another of my friends, Chuck R. knew all about it - his dad was in charge of opening the bags of money for
the Roberts gang.

I think Ronnie would have continued to be an honest guy but unfortunately he committed suicide a few years after we
graduated from H.S. in Tulsa.
:-(

[rwork]

5. Karl

Was'nt he a Vietnam veteran? I always wondered if the suicide was partly his shame of the corruption.

[karlrschneider]

10. I don't think so but I'm not certain - I mostly lost touch with him after we

went off to college. I do know he spent some time in Europe which I seem to recall was in the early 60s. He never liked to talk about daddy's "ministry", he obviously knew perfectly well it was nothing but a money-grubbing scam.

[Beaverhausen]

3. I have to admit I am loving following this story

I hope these people - Roberts and his wife- go down big time! I hope they are exposed far and wide for the frauds they are and I hope they end up disgraced and in jail.

[malaise]

4. That makes two of us

Nothing I love like watching con men crash :popcorn: :rofl:

[TlalocW]

8. To make the schadenfreude even more delicious

You should read, "The Faith Healers," by noted skeptic, James Randi. Oral is covered a lot in there (not as much as say, Peter Poppoff, who Randi made go bankrupt for a time). Chapter 10 is dedicated to Oral, and even though the info is 20 years out of date, it just makes you sick. People like Oral, Pat Robertson, Tilton, etc. who do or have done the whole faith healing schtick... I can't even begin to describe my contempt for these shitbags. It drives me crazy considering I live in Tulsa that there are so many people still willing to defend these people. I honestly hope that ORU is taken away from them and just closed down completely. Knock down all the ridiculous looking early 1970s-architecture buildings and turn the place into a park or something. Hell, from the looks of some of them close up, they're in the process of falling down anyway as the Roberts never seemed to care about using money for general upkeep and repairs of the "university" in the first place.

TlalocW

[RiverStone]

6. do unto others ONLY after I have gotten all to myself...

Not what Jesus would do eh preacher man?

[kestrel91316]

7. Isn't this the one whose wifey was texting cute HS boys all night long???

[ljm2002]

9. Yes, that's the one...

...it is nothing short of amazing how deep the corruption runs in these circles.

No wonder they love promoting Republics for office. Birds of a feather, and all that...

[Initech]

11. What part of "thou shalt not steal" do they not understand?

:shrug:

This is why we need to tax the churches. We could end the deficit right now if we did that. You should see some of these churches going up in So Cal, these things are insane. Like palaces almost.