Via Digby who makes the point:
We really are getting to the point where it’s easier to assume that conservative religious leaders are crooks, perverts or liars. Sometimes all three. It’s amazing that the Christian right (to which I would add the Catholic Church’s moral teachings in light of the priest scandal) has thrived as long as it did.
One of my colleague Buck’s favorite moments in the annals of televangelism was Oral Roberts’ unique fundraising campaign in 1987 in which he told his sheeple that God had put a ransom on his head. The Big Guy was demanding that Roberts’ followers cough up $8 million or else He would smite Roberts dead.
Amazing it seems, this bizarre fundraising appeal worked. In fact, it wasn’t even considered much of a scandal at the time.
Now Roberts, who is 89, may be facing real scandals in the organizations he founded and in his family — scandals that include political skullduggery, Jim and Tammy Bakker-style lavish spending and purportedly “scores” of improper text messages sent by Oral’s middle-aged daughter-in-law to underaged males:
Now, his son, Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts, says God is speaking again, telling him to deny lurid allegations in a lawsuit that threatens to engulf this 44-year-old Bible Belt college in scandal.
Richard Roberts is accused of illegal involvement in a local political campaign and lavish spending at donors’ expense, including numerous home remodeling projects, use of the university jet for his daughter’s senior trip to the Bahamas and a red Mercedes convertible and a Lexus SUV for his wife, Lindsay
She is accused of dropping tens of thousands of dollars on clothes, awarding nonacademic scholarships to friends of her children and sending scores of text messages on university-issued cell phones to people described in the lawsuit as “underage males.â€
According to Charity Navigator,Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association has negative net assets of $-12, 687,594. Richard Roberts, who is president and CEO, receives a salary of $105,000. Lindsay Roberts, executive vice president, receives salary of $77,000.
Can’t imagine for the life of me why “Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association has negative net assets of $-12, 687,594.” But a “red Mercedes convertible and a Lexus SUV for his wife, Lindsay” Could be where about $120,000 went for starters…
Rumor is that the text messages to underaged males may have been on a phone in Mrs. Roberts’ name, but that it is MR. Roberts who likes the boys. Can anyone confirm this?
for the life of me, i cannot understand what is going on with the wife. She acts and looks like she is falling apart, on drugs, etc. for the last five years. on one occasion, she had change, on the tv show, and as he started to take the change, she grabbed it, saying, you can’t have my change, screaming, ‘that’s my mcdonald’s big french fry money.’ he seems to have no control over her at all.