Category: Oral Roberts

Oral Roberts, the Pentecostal evangelist whose televised faith-healing ministry attracted millions of followers worldwide and made him one of the most recognizable and controversial religious leaders of the 20th century, died Tuesday in Newport Beach, Calif. He was 91.

He was the patriarch of the “prosperity gospel,” a scam that promotes the idea that Christians who pray and donate with sufficient fervency will be rewarded with health, wealth and happiness.

Oral Roberts says he does not think his son, who has been accused of misspending funds at the university the evangelist founded, did anything wrong.

The younger Roberts, a televangelist, was accused along with his wife, Lindsay, of spending money on shopping sprees, home improvements and a stable of horses for their daughters at a time when ORU was badly in debt. Both have denied wrongdoing.

TULSA, Okla. – Evelyn Roberts, the wife of evangelist Oral Roberts, died Wednesday in a California hospital after suffering a head injury during a fall. She was 88. Evelyn Roberts died a day after she fell in the parking lot of a dentist’s office, striking her head on the pavement and causing massive internal bleeding, said Jeremy Burton, a spokesman for Tulsa-based Oral Roberts University. She lapsed into a coma short time later. The couple’s surviving children, Richard Roberts, the university’s president, and Roberta Roberts Potts flew to Newport Beach, Calif., on Tuesday to be with their mother and father.

Since he began his small ‘healing’ ministry in Oklahoma more than 50 years ago, Oral Roberts has taught millions that prosperity and the power of the Holy Spirit are available to them Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Mar. 8, 2003 http://www.dfw.com/ By Brett Hoffman, Star-Telegram Staff Writer For more than half a century, TV evangelist Oral Roberts has laid his hands on controversy as well as on the faithful. But as he marks his 85th year, and his namesake Oral Roberts University celebrates its 40th in Tulsa, Okla., Roberts’ status as a hero to millions of Pentecostal and charismatic Christians is beyond