Sunday, October 07, 2007

Pray that this isn't true


I'm not an Oral Roberts fan, but stuff like this gives the Church of Jesus Christ a very bad name. I pray that it isn't true. If it is, it's just another reason for the world to look at the church and say "Why bother?"

The list of allegations includes:
  • A longtime maintenance employee was fired so that an underage male friend of Mrs. Roberts could have his position.

  • Mrs. Roberts - who is a member of the board of regents and is referred to as ORU's "first lady" on the university's Web site - frequently had cell-phone bills of more than $800 per month, with hundreds of text messages sent between 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. to "underage males who had been provided phones at university expense."

  • The university jet was used to take one daughter and several friends on a senior trip to Orlando, Fla., and the Bahamas. The $29,411 trip was billed to the ministry as an "evangelistic function of the president."

  • Mrs. Roberts spent more than $39,000 at one Chico's clothing store alone in less than a year, and had other accounts in Texas and California. She also repeatedly said, "As long as I wear it once on TV, we can charge it off." The document cites inconsistencies in clothing purchases and actual usage on TV.

  • Mrs. Roberts was given a white Lexus SUV and a red Mercedes convertible by ministry donors.

  • University and ministry employees are regularly summoned to the Roberts' home to do the daughters' homework.

  • The university and ministry maintain a stable of horses for exclusive use by the Roberts' children.

  • The Roberts' home has been remodeled 11 times in the past 14 years.

No comments: