Robertses steel selves for crisis with prayer
BY APRIL MARCISZEWSKI World Staff Writer
Sunday, October 14, 2007
6/22/08 at 1:37 AM
They talk about their lives and the current controversy.
One thing about Richard and Lindsay Roberts: They pray all the time.
In a darkened plane returning to Tulsa after their interview on CNN's "Larry King Live" on Tuesday, Lindsay Roberts stepped into the aisle to hug her husband, the president of Oral Roberts University, and to pray.
She could not sleep. The night before, Richard Roberts got four hours of sleep and Lindsay Roberts, more like one.
Earlier in the day, she had eaten her first real meal -- bread and cheese -- since three former professors sued ORU, her husband and three campus administrators Oct. 2.
The Tulsa County District Court lawsuit alleges that Richard Roberts illegally involved the university in politics and that the Roberts family misused ORU and Oral Roberts Ministries money for themselves. The former professors charge that they were wrongfully fired or wrongfully forced to resign. The Robertses deny the allegations.
Little about them communicates crisis. They joked, they held hands and they seemingly were forthright in responding to the allegations during an interview Tuesday on the flight to New York for their CNN appearance.
But Lindsay Roberts said this is the toughest circumstance she has seen her husband experience, and he said, "I can't remember a time in my life, growing up under my father's ministries, when there's not been criticism."
The Robertses have been praying with their daughters, but their prayer has not been, "Oh, my God, help our daddy," Lindsay Roberts said.
Richard Roberts added: "And our prayer has not been to strike them down. We're called to pray for them, love them, forgive them."
Facing criticism
The Robertses said the lawsuit took aim at their character. It contains a report at least partially written by Lindsay Roberts' sister, Stephanie Cantees, whose job is to record happenings and rumors around town and in government and report to Richard Roberts.
The report claimed that the Robertses used ministry vehicles for themselves, had ORU and ministry employees do their daughters' homework, charged personal clothing expenses to business accounts, used the ORU "jet" to take one daughter and her friends on a senior trip, and more.
When the Roberts daughters heard those allegations, they said, "All right, here we go again," Lindsay Roberts said.
The family has been the subject of false rumors before: that Lindsay Roberts was pregnant when she and Richard Roberts married, that the family had installed a wall-length aquarium in their home to house a shark, and that Oral Roberts died in surgery, to name a few, they said.
The report referenced in the lawsuit "was so ridiculous, I just dismissed it out of hand" when he received it from Cantees three years ago, Richard Roberts said.
He is having a harder time dealing with the lawsuit's claims now. One plaintiff, Tim Brooker, alleges that he was forced to resign. At the mention of this, Richard Roberts became visibly agitated and repeated "That is not true" several times until his wife came over and patted him on the arm.
At the heart of the report is the implication that the Roberts family, kin to the former tent preacher who started his namesake university in 1965, lives in opulence.
Riding in the eight-passenger airplane that ORU leases, Lindsay Roberts mocked that claim by holding out her arm and pulling up her sleeve to reveal three simple golden bracelets she received from her father and a silver charm bracelet she got from her daughter Jordan, 22.
In the 2005-2006 tax year, Lindsay Roberts was paid $196,298 by the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association and its for-profit subsidiary Traco Advertising. Richard Roberts was paid $431,554 by those entities and ORU, the association's IRS 990 form says.
The couple defended Richard Roberts' presidential salary of $228,000 as in line with what other university presidents make. The ORU board of regents sets the salary.
"I think we are compensated for the job we do," Lindsay Roberts said.
God "says he calls his children to prosper," she said, adding that the couple tithe a share of their income to ORU and other ministries.
Change of plans
This is not the life either Roberts envisioned.
Lindsay Roberts expected to become a lawyer. She described herself as being shy when she met Richard Roberts at ORU. Since that day, she knew she wanted to marry him. Now she appears on television 10 or more times a week.
Her husband wanted to be
an athlete and night-club
singer. Not yet a Christian,
he wanted to get out of his
parents’ house. He started
singing and acting at the University
of Kansas and had
plans to sing in Las Vegas
lounges for the summer. But
in his second semester, he
was hospitalized with a colon
problem that would require
surgery. He prayed, “God, if
you’ll heal me, I’ll serve you.”
“I felt the power of God go
through my body that night
on the bed,” he said. His doctor
asked the next day what
had happened because the
colon problem was nowhere
to be found, he said.
Two weeks passed, and
Richard Roberts forgot about
his promise to God. He was
lying in bed in his dorm room
when he heard a voice say,
“You’re in the wrong place.”
He sat up and realized he
was alone. He heard the voice
again.
“I realized, for the first time
in my life I was hearing the
voice of God,” who told him
his destiny was at ORU, he
said.
He returned to ORU, became
a Christian at 19 and began
to remember his worldwide
travels with his
evangelist father.
“Words of prophesy had
been spoken over me when I
was a little boy that I would
be in the ministry someday,”
he said.
Faith challenged
The couple’s daughters are
now 18, 20 and 22, but before
them was a baby boy, Richard
Oral, who lived 36 hours.
Lindsay Roberts said a
nurse in the hospital asked,
“Are you still going to be a
Christian?” and she answered,
“More than ever.”
Another person who was not
a Christian asked, “What do
you think of God when your
back’s up against the wall?”
She told him, “ That is where I
have found him.”
She realized that in hard
times, “it’s not always easy,
but it’s always right to do the
right thing. It’s always right
to raise up Jesus,” she said.
The couple said they spoke
with Oral Roberts on the
phone last Monday night, and
that he told them: “You must
reassure your children to
trust God. This can in no way
shake their faith in God.”
The allegations have been
“exceptionally hard” on their
daughters, Lindsay Roberts
said, but the youngest, Chloe,
left a sky-blue sticky note on
her mother’s Bible before the
couple left for the Larry King
show. Referring to the couple’s
chance to talk publicly,
the note said: “This is good!
Fear and accusations are under
our feet.” It was signed
with a heart and “Chloe.”
Lindsay Roberts said she
wants to be an example for
her children, but she admitted:
“Do I cry sometimes? Do
I walk out of the room?” Her
husband interrupted: “Honey,
you’re a human being.”
After the TV show, Lindsay
Roberts’ expression was
heavier. She talked to one
daughter on her cell phone,
saying: “I don’t want to attack
anyone, honestly I don’t. We
just have to stay full of integrity.”
Richard Roberts scanned
through text messages of
support that started rolling in
as soon as he was off camera.
New Yorkers with umbrellas
passed by the rain-dotted
windows of their limousine,
provided by CNN, while the
Robertses listened to encouragement
from their daughters
and friends.
“We should have been talking
about this on Day One,”
Richard Roberts said into his
phone.
ORU’s regents gave the
couple permission to speak
publicly a week after the suit
was filed. But in that first
week, the Robertses said, the
campus “daddy” was not providing
his understanding of
the situation to students, and
his wife felt that her silence
was like holding back hugs
from her “babies,” the students.
April Marciszewski 581-8475
april.marciszewski@tulsaworld.com
Associated Images:
The Praying Hands statue stands near the main
entrance to Oral Roberts University at 7777 S. Lewis
Ave. Three former professors have filed a lawsuit against
ORU President Richard Roberts, the university and others.
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