Oral Roberts Scandel, Details To Follow.

[BruceChris]

Public Radio announced the headline half an hour ago, but didn't give us the details until just now.

ORU said to be $50 million in debt,
at least 6 faculty have filled wrongful termination suits,
an accountant has gone to the authorities after he claims that Richard Roberts had asked him to "cook the books",
the claim was made that $123,000 was spent on improvements to Richard Roberts home, and that he is trying to get ORU to pay for it, and hide the transaction.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j9XJtq8scoszIFZLWUjrR8mPuBFQD8T2BTUO0

P&L, BC

[BruceChris]

It would be wrong for us to celebrate anyone else's failings, but from what I've seen here, we do discuss them. We should pray for everyone involved.

Peace and Love, Bruce Chris

[dewdrop_world]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/24/AR2007112400776.html?hpid=sec-religion

"There was a time when the wagons would circle and we'd protect our own," said the Rev. Carlton Pearson, a former member of the ORU board of regents who is now a United Church of Christ minister. "But we don't know what our own is anymore. People are asking questions and questioning answers, and we're not used to it."

Elsewhere, the article refers to University leaders as "supposedly infallible." But some students are smart enough not to buy it:

Thompson, a senior, initially was angry about the allegations. But like other students, he separates the university administration from his university experience.

"He's just a human being," Thompson said of Richard Roberts. "If that individual man fails, that doesn't affect my faith in Christianity. It affects my faith in Richard."

But he doesn't go quite as far as questioning the version of Christianity that gives rise to such abuses.

And nowhere is mentioned Richard Roberts' wife's suspicious treatment of underage young men (which did appear in the Newsweek (http://www.newsweek.com/id/57298) coverage).

I might pray for the students' faith to be shaken to the point that they abandon the empty shell of Christianity that brought them to such a stinkhole of an institution to begin with -- and maybe find their way to the real thing.

James

[BruceChris]

The details, that is.

P&L, BC

[Steven E. Webster]

It would be wrong for us to celebrate anyone else's failings, but from what I've seen here, we do discuss them. We should pray for everyone involved.

Peace and Love, Bruce Chris

Bruce,

Agreed. We should avoid what the Germans call "Schadenfreude" (joy over the failings of others). It is useful for us to discuss these scandals as objectively as possible as a window into human nature--recognizing that we are all human. A story like this from ORU reminds me of ENRON. We all need to be careful to avoid this type of corruption which seems all too common. The accoutant in the ORU story possibly did a courageous and righteous thing--refusing to lie and "cook the books."

Remember the firm of Arthur Anderson??? It was pretty shocking to me that a major accounting firm participated so actively in the ENRON fraud.

Steven W.