Whether the university is still being operated in a manner that would please fundamentalist Christians is also open to question.
Oral Roberts claims the university he founded in the 1960s because God ordered him to do so is still functioning “for the glory of God.”
The colorful televangelist’s defense of the Tulsa, Okla.-based Oral Roberts University (ORU) was prompted because of a slew of alleged wrong-doings leveled against his son, Richard, who is the university’s president. In early October, three former ORU professors sued the school arguing they were wrongly dismissed after speaking out against the school’s involvement in a political race.
Although Richard Roberts has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, he decided this week to take a leave of absence. The Associated Press reported that on Wednesday Roberts asked the university’s Board of Trustees for the leave. In a statement, Roberts said, “I pray and believe that in God’s timing, and when the board feels it is appropriate, I will be back at my post as president.”
The Tulsa World reported yesterday that the Internal Revenue Service has taken an interest in the accusations that Roberts used university resources to further a politician’s run for Tulsa mayor. The newspaper said the university had confirmed that the IRS contacted the school in spring 2006 regarding the matter. In an e-mail to the World, ORU spokesperson Jeremy Burton said that the IRS sent the school a letter confirming that it was investigating “whether we participated in political programs inappropriately for a 501(c)(3) organization.”
Burton, who denied the newspaper’s request to see correspondence between the tax agency and ORU, also said that in fall 2006 the university received a notification from the IRS that “made recommendations to address certain deficiencies.” Burton said the university has complied with the recommendations but refused to describe them.
IRS regulations regarding non-profits and politicking states are straightforward. Non-profits, secular, religious or otherwise, are barred from using their resources to support or oppose a candidate’s campaign for public office. (Despite the hysterical rhetoric emanating from Religious Right entities, the tax regulation does not prohibit houses of worship from speaking out on all kinds of public policy issues, such as whether to do away with or protect reproductive rights.)
Whether the university is still being operated in a manner that would please fundamentalist Christians is also open to question. The professors’ lawsuit has been amended to include other allegations of wrongdoing that are salacious, to say the least. Roberts has been accused of remodeling his home several times and sending his daughters to exotic vacation spots all at the university’s expense.
His wife, Lindsey, has also been snared in the tawdry allegations. A university internal document prepared by Roberts’ sister-in-law, Stephanie Cantees, charges that Lindsey has had numerous questionable and inappropriate contacts with underage males on campus.
That document, the AP reported, alleges that Lindsay spent the night in the ORU guest house with an underage male “on nine separation occasions.”
As noted in a previous post, the document, which a student found while repairing Cantees’ laptop computer, also accuses Lindsay of providing underage males with university cell phones and sending text messages to them, among other accusations.
Lindsay, like her husband, has blasted the allegations and denied wrongdoing. And like her father-in-law, she is at least publicly convinced that the university is beyond reproach.
We know from this week’s news that the IRS has a different view.
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