Richard Roberts

tulsa, okla. -- Twenty years ago, televangelist Oral Roberts said he was reading a spy novel when 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 speaking again, telling him to deny allegations in a lawsuit that threatens to engulf this 44-year-old Bible Belt college in scandal.

The president of Oral Roberts University, who is accused of misspending university funds to support a lavish lifestyle, resigned from his position, officials said Friday. Richard Roberts' resignation is effective immediately, Board of Regents Chairman George Pearsons said in an e-mailed statement. Roberts and the university have come under fire since a lawsuit was filed by three former professors.

Criticism of a lavish life style by Oklahoma-based evangelists Oral and Richard Roberts has prompted the sale of their two Southern California vacation homes, valued at more than $1 million, Richard Roberts said. The younger Roberts said the criticism resurfaced since his father asked followers to sell unneeded valuables to help raise $11 million by May 6 to keep his 41-year-old ministry afloat. Richard Roberts said he and his father sold their homes in Rancho Mirage in the last year.

Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts asked for and was granted a leave of absence Wednesday amid accusations of lavish spending at donors' expense and illegal involvement in a political campaign. The 58-year-old son of the evangelist who founded the school said he would continue in his role as chairman and chief executive of Oral Roberts Ministries, and decried what he said were untrue allegations.

Television evangelist Oral Roberts says he has raised people from the dead and that God told him Roberts will return with Jesus to reign over the Earth. "All of us in the ministry could talk about that--of certain dead ones raised--died right while I was preaching," Roberts told more than 5,000 people Thursday at the closing of the Charismatic Bible Ministries conference. "I had to stop and go back in the crowd and raise the dead person so I could go ahead with the service.

The problem with TV and print journalists, said Richard Roberts (televangelist Oral's son), is that they have no faith--which is why Roberts fils thinks the media have mixed his father's message. "Many in the media do not know Jesus as their personal savior, and how can the secular press understand the Holy Spirit when they haven't experienced it themselves?" Roberts said.

The Methodist University Senate has removed Oral Roberts University's School of Theology from its list of approved seminaries, Oral Roberts' son says. Richard Roberts said the Methodist body had so notified Paul Chappel, associate dean of Oral Roberts University's School of Theology. Chappel said the loss of certification was "somewhat of a surprise, since the school has a very strong Methodist ethos."

Evangelist Oral Roberts retired Wednesday as president of the university he founded in 1965, and the Oral Roberts University regents elected his 44-year-old son, Richard Roberts, to take his place. The elder Roberts, who has said God called him to build the university, was named chancellor by the board of regents. He said he would hold that post "for as long as I live."

Evangelist Richard Roberts was willing to turn the other cheek when a man hit him in the face during a television rehearsal. Police were less forgiving and cited Steven W. Rogers for trespassing. Roberts, son of televangelist Oral Roberts, was rehearsing a song for his show Tuesday morning when Rogers demanded to see him, said Gwen Culver, Roberts' secretary. "The fellow started coming toward him," Culver said Wednesday.

Oral Roberts will not be telling his Los Angeles television audience that he will die if his viewers don't send money on this week's show. "Expect a Miracle," the Tulsa-based evangelist's 30-minute program that airs over KHJ-TV Channel 9 at 9 a.m. on Sunday, is "clean" of such pitches from the 68-year-old Roberts, according to KHJ-TV programming chief Walt Baker. "We have seen the tape this morning and, in fact, it is clean," Baker told The Times Friday.

tulsa, okla. -- Twenty years ago, televangelist Oral Roberts said he was reading a spy novel when 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 speaking again, telling him to deny allegations in a lawsuit that threatens to engulf this 44-year-old Bible Belt college in scandal.

Actor Richard Robert Redlin, who walks with the support of forearm crutches, steadies what he calls his "sticks" and asks, "Did you ever notice how enamored movie makers are with disabled characters? And how seldom they hire disabled actors to play those roles?"

An American and a Briton whose career has been spent in the United States will share the 1993 Nobel Prize for medicine or physiology for their discovery of "split genes," the Swedish Nobel Assembly announced Monday. Richard J. Roberts of New England Biolabs in Beverly, Mass., and Phillip A. Sharp of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology independently discovered in 1977 that most genes are not simple, continuous pieces of DNA.

Evangelist Oral Roberts retired Wednesday as president of the university he founded in 1965, and the Oral Roberts University regents elected his 44-year-old son, Richard Roberts, to take his place. The elder Roberts, who has said God called him to build the university, was named chancellor by the board of regents. He said he would hold that post "for as long as I live."

Televangelist Oral Roberts was hospitalized in stable condition Wednesday after undergoing an emergency medical procedure to clear an artery. Roberts, 74, is expected to remain hospitalized at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian for about a week. Roberts' son, evangelist Richard Roberts, said in a statement at the hospital that his father began experiencing chest pain after appearing on a national television show Tuesday night at Trinity Broadcast Network in Tustin.

The day after songwriters Richard and Robert Sherman won two of the six Academy Awards that went to the 1964 Disney classic "Mary Poppins," they bounced gratefully over to Walt Disney's office, Oscars in hand. His typically restrained response was, said Robert Sherman: "The bases were loaded, we hit a home run and that's great. From now on, just try to get on base." "Walt was very feeling," Richard Sherman said, "but he didn't show his emotions.

Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts asked for and was granted a leave of absence Wednesday amid accusations of lavish spending at donors' expense and illegal involvement in a political campaign. The 58-year-old son of the evangelist who founded the school said he would continue in his role as chairman and chief executive of Oral Roberts Ministries, and decried what he said were untrue allegations.

Contrary to a recent claim that he has raised the dead, the Rev. Oral Roberts did not mention such a feat in his 1972 autobiography and Roberts' biographer says he never ran into such a claim when researching the faith healer's life. Roberts said in Tulsa on June 25 that he once had to stop his service to revive a dead person before he could continue.

Evangelist Richard Roberts was willing to turn the other cheek when a man hit him in the face during a television rehearsal. Police were less forgiving and cited Steven W. Rogers for trespassing. Roberts, son of televangelist Oral Roberts, was rehearsing a song for his show Tuesday morning when Rogers demanded to see him, said Gwen Culver, Roberts' secretary. "The fellow started coming toward him," Culver said Wednesday.

A trio of college professors have been trying to straighten out the confusion that has existed for the past two decades on the campus of Cal State Northridge. Meet Dr. Robert Docter, Dr. Richard Docter and Dr. Ronald Doctor, three psychologists who collectively perplex CSUN students, faculty members and the general public. "Everybody gets us confused. All the time," said Ronald Doctor. "Mail is always confused. Phone calls are confused.