TULSA, OKLA. - Twenty years ago, televangelist Oral Roberts said God appeared to him and told him to raise $8 million for Roberts' university or else he would be "called home."
Now, his son, Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts, says God is telling him to deny lurid allegations in a lawsuit that threatens to engulf this 44-year-old college in scandal.
Richard Roberts is accused of illegal involvement in a local political campaign and lavish spending at donors' expense, including numerous house 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 and sending scores of text messages on university-issued cell phones to people described in the lawsuit as "underage males."
At a chapel service this week on the 5,300-student campus, Roberts said "This lawsuit ... is about intimidation, blackmail and extortion."
Colleagues fear for the reputation of the university and the future of the Roberts' ministry. The university reported nearly $76 million in revenue in 2005, according to the IRS.
The allegations are contained in a lawsuit filed Tuesday by three former professors. They sued ORU and Richard Roberts, alleging they were wrongfully dismissed after reporting the school's involvement in the local political race.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
