Update: Oral Roberts' presidential resignation

A continuation to my story from yesterday covering the recent resignation of Oral Roberts University president Richard Roberts:

In an unsurprising move, Roberts claims that God asked him to resign from the position, to which, appropriately, he conceded.


From the article:

“Roberts has previously said that God told him to deny the allegations. The week the lawsuit was filed, Richard Roberts said that God told him: ‘We live in a litigious society. Anyone can get mad and file a lawsuit against another person whether they have a legitimate case or not. This lawsuit ... is about intimidation, blackmail and extortion.’

On Wednesday, Roberts said God told him he would "do something supernatural for the university," if he stepped down from the job he held at the 5,700-student school since 1993.”

I hate to be a cynic when it comes to people claiming divine revelation, because I simply can’t prove (nor do I want to) what God may or may not be saying to them. But this challenges the view of an infallible God – why does it seem like He can’t make up His mind a lot of the time? Why would God have waffled on this, originally telling Roberts to deny the allegations of defrauding a spiritually-charged organization dedicated to the Lord's name?

However, at the same time, it appears the university has received a fortuitous gift in concert with the resignation: $70 million from an Oklahoma businessman. This clearly fits into Roberts' revelation that God would do something for the university if he resigned. Or, a faithful philanthropist wanted to help the university out of the $50 million in debt Roberts helped accrue, and made sure he was gone before making the donation. Either way.



POSTSCRIPT: In line with my previous coverage of the recent Senate investigation into several megachurch preachers, here’s an ironic (or telling) addendum from the second article (links to my former stories where appropriate):

“Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, recently announced a Senate investigation into whether six celebrity preachers violated their organizations’ tax-exempt status by living lavishly on the contributions of small donors.

Three of the six are members of the Oral Roberts board: Creflo Dollar, Benny Hinn and Fort Worth-area evangelist Kenneth Copeland.”