2nd evangelist resigns from ORU's board
BY ZIVA BRANSTETTER World Projects Editor
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
1/17/08 at 11:23 AM
For more: Read the latest ORU stories, view the lawsuit and other documents and watch slide shows and video.
Jesse Duplantis
of Louisiana cites
"the demands of
ministry" for his
departure.
ORU announced Tuesday
that another evangelist has
resigned from its board of
regents, and the board continued its work to sever the
university from its founding
ministry.
In a statement released
Tuesday, Oral Roberts University announced that Louisiana minister Jesse Duplantis had resigned from the
board.
Duplantis said in a letter
to the board: "The demands
of ministry have made it increasingly difficult to continue to effectively serve on the
Board of Regents of ORU."
One regent, evangelist
Creflo Dollar, resigned from
the board recently, and another, evangelist Benny
Hinn, lost his status as a voting member of the board.
Both had refused to respond to a U.S. Senate inquiry into lavish spending by
evangelists.
The board now has 22 voting members; 19 were present at Tuesday's meeting,
ORU's statement says.
In the statement, board
Chairman George Pearsons
said he has appointed a committee to oversee the separa
tion of ORU and the Oral
Roberts Evangelistic Association.
"The committee will analyze any overlap of the two
entities, including financial,
accounting, administrative,
legal, physical and governance," the statement says.
Pearsons said he hopes
that most of the separation
will conclude by the end of
ORU's fiscal year on April
30.
The spiritual connection
between the two entities will
remain, Pearsons said. The
board decided Tuesday to allow the Abundant Life
prayer group, which is part
of the Evangelistic Association, to remain in ORU's
Prayer Tower, he said.
"The Prayer Tower is at
the heart of the campus," he
said "Prayer is and always
has been at the center of this
university."
ORU also announced that
it had hired a consultant to
aid in the search for a new
president.
A search committee includes regents, administrators, faculty and staff members, students, alumni,
parents and members of the
community, ORU said.
Richard Roberts resigned
as ORU's president Nov. 23
after three former professors filed a lawsuit.
The suit alleges that Roberts and his family misspent
university and ministry money to support a lavish life-
style.
The Rev. Billy Joe Daugherty of Victory Christian Center has been the school's acting president during its
search for a new president.
Regents are expected to
meet with Yukon businessman Mart Green, whose family has promised a $70 million
gift to ORU on certain conditions.
Green's family founded the
Hobby Lobby chain of craft
stores.
Green has called for reforms in the university's business practices, greater trans
parency and changes to its
board of regents following a
months-long controversy.
He gave ORU $8 million in
late November and said he
planned a 90-day review period before giving the school
the remaining $62 million.
ORU has refused to release
the findings from an outside
investigation of the school's
finances but said reforms
stemming from the investigation are in the works.
ORU's board has 22 business regents and 18 others
who are spiritual regents, associate regents and regents
emeritus. Those 18 regents
do not have a vote in business
and financial matters, according to ORU's bylaws.
The bylaws give Richard
and Oral Roberts wide authority on spiritual matters,
including the right to veto decisions by business regents
on such matters.
Richard Roberts' wife, Lindsay Roberts, resigned as a
spiritual regent after the lawsuit was filed.
After a regents meeting
Nov. 27, Pearsons announced
that the university would take
steps to split the ministry, the
Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association, from ORU.
Pearsons said then that
Richard and Oral Roberts
would not have any role in
business decisions involving
ORU.
Richard Roberts remains as
CEO of the Evangelistic Association. Although the two are
separate nonprofit entities, 14
of the 15 key officers and
trustees of the Evangelistic
Association are also listed as
key officers and trustees of
ORU, records show.
The ministry spent most of
its $12 million in revenue last
fiscal year on its weekly television shows, direct mail and
other outreach efforts.
Ziva Branstetter 581-8378
ziva.branstetter@tulsaworld.com
