but not for this man whom I consider less than a charlatan. Oral Roberts needs to rest in shame as far as I am concerned. He created an entire generation of religious leaders who cared more about money than they do helping people--the sheer nonsense and evil of "the prosperity gospel": give me enough of your money and God will bless you. His influence, in my humble opinion, has had a deleterious impact on this nation beyond measure, substantially empowering the extremist religious right to have enough cash to wield its divisive and hostile influence. Evil!
He lied to people, millions of them. He took millions of dollars from good people who did without (I happen to have known some of them!) to live life large.
He supposedly healed the sick. Yet, when organizations publicized giving $1,000 to anyone who could provide medical evidence they had truly been healed by Oral Roberts, not a single person in the whole world came forward to receive the money.
He was the patriarch of the "prosperity gospel," a theology that promotes the idea that Christians who pray and donate with sufficient fervency will be rewarded with health, wealth and happiness. Mr. Roberts trained and mentored several generations of younger prosperity gospel preachers who now have television and multimedia empires of their own. Mr. Roberts was as politically conservative as his contemporaries in what became known as the "religious right," but he was known more for his religious style than for his political pronouncements. He was widely lampooned after he proclaimed on his television program in 1987 that God would "call him home" if he did not raise millions.
Source: The New York Times
I can think of nothing worse than to use people in the name of God for your own selfish, greedy gain. Therefore, I find Oral Roberts loathsome and detestable.
May he rest in the shame he deserves!
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