Correction
This story misspelled the name of Stephanie Cantees, the sister-in-law of Richard Roberts and an employee of Oral Roberts Ministries.
For more: Read the latest stories, view the lawsuit and other documents and watch slide shows and video.
Tulsans have seen
upheaval before but
are concerned how it
affects students.
Oral Roberts University captured attention for money
woes and messages from God
long before a lawsuit filed last
week alleged illegal political
involvement and misspending
for the benefit of the university president's family.
But Tulsans said they are
waiting for evidence to back
up the recent accusations before guessing at the fate of the
city's charismatic Christian
icon.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday
in Tulsa County District
Court, claims ORU President
Richard Roberts required a
government professor to
make his students help with a
local mayoral campaign, in violation of laws for tax-exempt organizations. The suit also
includes the summary of a report, allegedly written by
Roberts' sister-in-law Stephanie Cantese, that claims
the Roberts family used university and Oral Roberts Ministries money for personal
purposes. Plaintiffs said they
hope the report
isn't true.
Three former professors --
John Swails, Tim Brooker
and Paulita Brooker --
amended their lawsuit Thursday to add a claim of "libel/slander/defamation" after Roberts told ORU
students in a chapel service
Wednesday that he was "not
intimidated by blackmail and
extortion."
A recent ORU graduate,
Michael Branscun, said he's
almost come to expect scandals from the charismatic
Christian world.
The Rev. Ted Haggard resigned last year as the president of the National Association of Evangelicals and was
dismissed as the leader of the
14,000-member New Life
Church that he founded. He
admitted to "sexual immorality" -- paying a man for a massage and methamphetamine.
The televangelist Benny
Hinn testified in court earlier
last year that he returned
profits from investments discovered to be made in a Ponzi
scheme.
In "the whole charismatic
movement . . . stuff like this
seems to always happen,"
Branscun said.
"In the words of Notorious
B.I.G., 'Mo' money, mo' problems,' (and) the easier it is to
think you're invincible," he
said.
People who appear on television and ask for money "are
held to a higher standard,"
Branscun said.
Roberts issued a statement
Friday outlining a variety of
procedures to keep ORU and
the Oral Roberts Evangelistic
Association financially accountable. He said he pays
his family's personal expenses.
Amy Sawyer said she was
concerned for ORU students,
who "don't want their degree
to be associated with the reputation (ORU) is accumulating right now."
Branscun said he thinks
parents will think twice about
paying almost $30,000 a year to send their children to ORU
because they'll wonder how
the money is being spent.
Jayne Emerson said she
thinks people have their
minds made up about whether they like ORU. She respects the fact that ORU has a
vision and has stuck to it.
As for the lawsuit's effects
on ORU, she said, "You
know, it's survived a lot."
Oral Roberts, Richard Roberts' father, started the university in 1965. Now 89, he
lives in California.
In 1977, Oral Roberts said
God told him to build the City
of Faith medical complex.
The plan faced immediate opposition; state officials were
concerned that the city didn't
need more hospital beds. The
plan was eventually approved.
During the hospital's construction in 1980, Oral Roberts spoke of a vision he had
of a 900-foot Jesus assuring
him, "I told you I would speak
through your partners and
through them, I would build
it!"
In 1989, with the City of
Faith $25 million in debt, Oral
Roberts announced it would
close.
Oral Roberts told media in
1989 that he was "laughed at,
mocked, scoffed" for saying
on national television that
God would "call me home" if
he didn't raise $8 million in
early 1987 for a medical missionary program. ORU
reached the fundraising goal.
"I myself have been
blamed, not immorally or not
irresponsible in finances, but
because I heard the voice of
God," he said in 1989.
Richard Roberts asked supporters in 1989 to donate $11
million within about one
month to keep university and
ministry operations afloat.
Oral and Richard Roberts
again asked for money in
1991 to pay the bills "or all
hell is going to break loose
against this ministry."
Richard Roberts told students last week that he wanted to "tell you what I know."
"I am bursting to tell somebody what I know, but I have
been advised by our attorneys not to do that at this
time," he said.
Branscun, who said he
wasn't surprised when he
heard about the lawsuit, said
he loved his ORU classes and
the dorm life. He wants to
wait until he sees evidence of
wrongdoing before he forms
an opinion. He said that even
if administrators made "mistakes," that "doesn't mean
the whole university is bad."
April Marciszewski 581-8475
april.marciszewski@tulsaworld.com
