{"id":228,"date":"2007-10-10T10:06:48","date_gmt":"2007-10-10T10:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2007\/10\/accusations-against-son-shock.php"},"modified":"2007-10-10T10:06:48","modified_gmt":"2007-10-10T10:06:48","slug":"accusations-against-son-shock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2007\/10\/accusations-against-son-shock","title":{"rendered":"Accusations Against Son Shock Oral Roberts"},"content":{"rendered":"

By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS
\nAssociated Press<\/strong>
\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Oral Roberts was blind-sided by allegations that the university he founded was being exploited by his son and daughter-in-law, the aging televangelist said Tuesday in his first public comments on the case.
\nRoberts phoned CNN’s “Larry King Live” to weigh in on the accusations leveled in a lawsuit by three professors who claim they were fired from Oral Roberts University for questioning the school’s spending and students’ involvement in a political campaign.
\n“Like my son says, it was a surprise and sort of a shock, but we have been through some tough experiences in building Oral Roberts University in the 1960s, and we have surprised them all and have built a university that we believe is for the glory of God,” Roberts said,
\nRoberts, 89, spoke from his home in California as his son, Richard, and daughter-in-law, Lindsay, sat on King’s set in New York.
\nRichard Roberts, the Tulsa, Okla., university’s president, told King he never asked students to work on a mayoral campaign there. The fired professors allege up to 50 students worked for one candidate in what may have been a violation of state and federal law because of the university’s nonprofit status.
\n“I didn’t ask or coerce anybody to do that,” Richard Roberts said.
\nThe younger Roberts also said a Bahamas trip that the professors describe as his daughter’s senior vacation was a business trip, and that his daughter and others accompanied him as part of a university recruiting effort.
\nThe couple also said many of the remodeling projects on their university-owned home \u2014 the professors allege were 11 such projects in 14 years \u2014 were because of black mold and hail damage.
\n“I have not done anything wrong,” Richard Roberts said. “I can’t say how much this has hurt my family.”
\nThe elder Roberts founded the 5,300-student school, known for its 60-foot-tall bronze sculpture of praying hands, in 1963. He famously told viewers in 1987 that God told him to raise $8 million for the university or he would be “called home.”
\nCopyright \u00a9 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Oral Roberts was blind-sided by allegations that the university he founded was being exploited by his son and daughter-in-law, the aging televangelist said Tuesday in his first public comments on the case. Roberts phoned CNN’s “Larry King Live” to weigh in on the accusations leveled in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAccusations Against Son Shock Oral Roberts<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2007\/10\/accusations-against-son-shock\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Accusations Against Son Shock Oral Roberts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Oral Roberts was blind-sided by allegations that the university he founded was being exploited by his son and daughter-in-law, the aging televangelist said Tuesday in his first public comments on the case. 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