Oct 31

Guys, dolls and research

Posted on October 31, 2011 by John

The American Cancer Society posted a video link to Facebook in which an amiable young researcher talked about the process of getting grant funding for his work and how important it was to him. I was watching it, to see if it was something I could use to promote Relay For Life, and I did a double take when he said he’d been applying for funding from various sources, among them “Leukemia/Lymphoma Society, Damon Runyon, American Cancer Society, the NIH.”

I had this strange vision of a man in a fedora and a pinstripe suit, talking like Nathan Detroit, handing out bundles of money to cancer researchers.

I didn’t realize that there was such a thing as the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. Yes, it is named after writer Damon Runyon, whose short stories led to gangster-with-a-heart-of-gold movies like “Guys and Dolls,” “Little Miss Marker,” and “Pocketful of Miracles”; after Runyon’s death from cancer, Walter Winchell (!) used his radio show to ask for donations towards cancer research, which led to the foundation.

I wonder if there’s a term for using a person’s name as shorthand for something associated with or named after that person? My English professor sister-in-law might know.

Back when I attended what I jokingly refer to as Famous Televangelist University, the basketball tickets usually said something like “University of Evansville vs. Oral Roberts,” which gave me the humorous image of Oral, by himself, dribbling down the court towards five enemy players.

Dec 15

Oral Roberts

Posted on December 15, 2009 by John

In the spring of 1983, a new slate of officers was elected for the Oral Roberts University Student Associations. After 2 1/2 years as campus film chairman, I had run for the office of vice president in charge of student activities, and had been elected handily, with 75 percent of the vote against two opponents (one of whom was Joel Osteen’s sister, long before anyone knew who Joel Osteen would turn out to be).

The new slate of officers was invited to have lunch with President Oral Roberts in his offices on campus. That’s when this photo was taken:

From Drop Box

Oral Roberts died this afternoon in California.

Obviously, my sympathies are with the family, and with the faculty and student body at my alma mater, ORU.

As anyone who knows me is aware, I have a lot of negative attitudes towards TV evangelism in general, towards Richard Roberts, and towards what the Oral Roberts television ministry became over time. But I also had a great deal of respect for what Oral Roberts was able to achieve. ORU was a good place for me, and in some ways my time there was one of the happiest periods of my life, and a key growth period for me spiritually (although that growth wasn’t always in the exact directions which the Powers That Be would have intended). At the period in the late 1970s when I was looking at colleges, ORU’s stated emphasis on balancing the academic, the spiritual and the athletic appealed greatly to me.
Continue reading →

Nov 29

Out of the frying pan and into the 700 Club

Posted on November 29, 2007 by John

I’ve never been a fan of Richard Roberts, and while I shouldn’t take joy in the recent scandals, I have had a little bit of satisfaction in his resignation, knowing that ORU would no longer be run by Richard Roberts.

You know the old saying, “Be careful what you ask for?”

Well, there are, it turns out, a few people who I would like to see running ORU even less than I wanted to see Richard Roberts running ORU. Here, friends and neighbors, is one of them:

Statement from George Pearsons – Chairman, ORU Board of Regents

We are pleased to report that Dr. Pat Robertson, president and chancellor of Regent University and long-time friend of Oral Roberts University, has contacted members of the board of regents and has expressed interest in exploring options for the future of ORU with Regent University. Dr. Robertson is sending a team on Monday to Tulsa to meet with ORU Regents and administrative representatives.

Nov 23

Breaking news: Richard resigns

Posted on November 23, 2007 by John

I just got this e-mail from Oral Roberts University’s alumni office:

Today, a letter was sent from Richard Roberts to the Board of Regents of Oral Roberts University tendering his resignation as President of Oral Roberts University effective today, November 23, 2007.

The Board of Regents will meet Monday and Tuesday, November 26 and 27, 2007 to determine action in the search process for a new president.

Executive Regent Billy Joe Daugherty will continue to assume administrative responsibilities of the Office of the President, working together with Chancellor Oral Roberts, until the Regents meeting.

In his letter of resignation to the Board, Richard Roberts said, “I love ORU with all my heart. I love the students, faculty, staff and administration and I want to see God’s best for all of them.”

Oct 24

ORU response

Posted on October 24, 2007 by John

We needed a local opinion column for today’s paper, and I updated and tweaked my blog post about televangelism for use as a column. I got a great e-mail this afternoon from a much more recent ORU grad who had found the column online. He agreed with it, and — sadly enough — offered his own confirmation of at least some minor aspects of the allegations against the Roberts family from things he’d seen or heard about as a student.

This was a reconnection of sorts — even though we were 20 years apart at ORU, he’d worked on the campus newspaper during his tenure, and during that time he had run across some of my old “Speed Bumps” humor columns, as well as the 1984 April Fool’s issue which I supervised. The campus paper sometimes does profiles of successful alumni, and he took it upon himself to interview me. I found out from his e-mail today that when he tried to reprint some of my old material to accompany the interview, standards had changed — a few jokes I had gotten away with in 1983 and 1984 were no longer allowed in 2003 and 2004.

Meanwhile, I also swapped e-mail this week with Bill Meenk, the old campus chaplain with whom I reconnected back in May. That led to Bill reading the column as well. He praised it, although he also offered his positive experience as the second surgery patient at the City of Faith, and his belief in the holistic, prayer-plus-medicine approach which it was supposed to have represented.

Oct 18

Foxes guarding the henhouse

Posted on October 18, 2007 by John

My friend and fellow ORU alumnus Peter Smith has a terrific blog post pointing out that some of the university’s regents who will be investigating allegations against Richard Roberts are, themselves, sometimes accused of the same materialistic behavior.

Peter notes how many of the figures involved are not members of the Evangelical Council on Financial Accountability. One of my proudest moments as a Mountain T.O.P. board member was being a part of the board during the time when Mountain T.O.P. joined ECFA. ECFA’s rules are tough, and sometimes difficult to comply with, but at the end of the day you can look your donors in the eye and tell them what you are doing is above board and show them audits and documentation to prove it.

Oct 17

More from Tulsa

Posted on October 17, 2007 by John

The Wittenburg Door’s regular newsletter has links to a PDF of a document filed in court about the Richard and Lindsay Roberts scandal. Supposedly, it’s based on an internal analysis of potentially scandalous situations prepared by someone within the ministry. If even 10 percent of these accusations are true, the ministry is guilty of some serious mismanagement.

Oct 10

Something green is going to hop onto you

Posted on October 10, 2007 by John

My friend and ORU classmate Peter Smith, now a religion reporter in Louisville, has posted on the Richard Roberts controversy. Go read his remarks.

As for me, I watched Richard and Lindsay Tuesday night on “Larry King Live.” Right now, it’s really a case of one person’s word against another, and Larry King’s non-confrontational interviewing style didn’t really shed a lot of new light on the matter, other than Richard and Lindsay denying everything. Oral Roberts called in to support his son and daughter-in-law. At one point, you could hear a muffled voice in the background who was either prompting Oral with some talking point or perhaps just repeating the question for him.

Oct 05

World Action Singers

Posted on October 5, 2007 by John

I think I’ve told this story before, but it bears repeating.

During the time that I was a student at ORU, the Oral Roberts TV ministry offered a particular leather-bound Bible as a premium for people who donated a particular amount to the ministry. The Bible included a section with photos of the Oral Roberts ministry. I guess it takes a peculiar kind of hubris to think that your own activities are worthy of being bound into, and distributed with, the words of holy scripture, but let’s put that aside for a second.

I did not own this Bible — being a college student, I couldn’t have afforded to give quite that much to the ministry — but I recall looking through someone else’s copy one day. One of the photos in the ministry section of the Bible was of the groundbreaking for the City of Faith hospital. The City of Faith, which never turned out as planned, was supposed to be a sort of evangelical Mayo Clinic — a research hospital combining top-flight medicine and science with a holistic, prayerful outlook.

Anyway, the groundbreaking took place on a beautiful, sunny day, and there was bright blue sky at the top of the picture. Through that bright blue sky, I detected a faint vertical line. I followed the line down through the photo and realized it ended up right next to Richard Roberts.
Continue reading →