Oral Roberts passes at 91; first televangelist talked about sex

Oral Roberts passed on today after complications from pneumonia. He was 91 years old. Roberts was someone I always associated with the religious fire and brimstone speeches and hard-handed hitting of subjects to get them to rise, asserting that they were healed from an illness. 

Roberts will be remembered not just as the first person to bring religious preaching and ceremony, and his healing ministry to television - he's now called the first "televangelist" - but for talking frankly about religion and sex on the airwaves.

But beyond theatrics and a powerful set of convictions, Roberts will be remembered for the school he created and established. 

Roberts started what he later called a "healing ministry" in Tulsa, Oklahoma called Oral Roberts University. It's the largest college of its kind in the World. Upon the news of his passing, the website of Oral Roberts University contained this statement:

Oral Roberts, founder and chancellor of Oral Roberts University, passed away on December 15 at the age of 91. His departure is mourned by the ORU family, including the students, faculty, staff, alumni, and supporters who embraced his philosophy of whole-person education.


Born in 1918 in rural Oklahoma, Roberts was a preacher's kid who initially rejected his father's faith. At the age of 17, however, he was struck down with tuberculosis. A subsequent miraculous healing led to his conversion, and a call on his life from God himself to "take My healing power to your generation."


Carrying out that call took him from small churches to tent meetings to international crusades, and from radio and television to books and letters he wrote to the thousands who partnered with his ministry. The capstone of his life's work was the founding of ORU in 1963. "Raise up your students to hear My voice," God told Roberts, "to go where My light is seen dim, My voice is heard small, and My healing power is not known, even to the uttermost bounds of the earth. Their work will exceed yours, and in this I am well pleased."


As Roberts often said, "Success without a successor is failure." The graduates of ORU, he believed, would carry on the work of his healing ministry, "until Jesus comes again."

The school was not without controversy, as Oral Roberts son Richard Roberts came under fire for political and personal use of university funds in 2007.

Roberts used television to show live "healing ceremonies" where subjects would be able to walk and lift their legs allegedly just after he prayed and touched them where their ailment was located. Here's a video:



Roberts also used television to show how he was, again allegedly, casting out evil sprits from his followers:



The Young Turks' recently posted a video on Oral Roberts talking about sex.  Folks, even in today's more contemporary lens, what he has to say is still shockingly frank, regardless of your view on sex.  I'm not going to offer a text preview; just watch the video: 



You know, one is at times compelled to make fun of what Roberts has done over the years, but we can't fault him for trying to better the human condition. May he rest in peace.