Oral Roberts

He grew up poor in Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, the fifth and youngest child of a Pentecostal Holiness preacher, and by his own account he could not get through a sentence without stammering. At 17 he collapsed with tuberculosis and lay months in bed. His family took him to a tent revival, where the evangelist George Moncey prayed over him — and Roberts said afterward that the disease and the stammer both left him that night. He preached his first sermon the same evening. Ordination in the International Pentecostal Holiness Church followed in 1936, marriage to Evelyn Lutman Fahnestock in 1938, and two years each at Oklahoma Baptist and Phillips University without a degree. Then ten years in small Oklahoma pulpits, going nowhere.

In 1947, at 29, he read the second verse of Third John — God wished his people to prosper and be in health — bought a Buick the next day, and said God had told him to heal the sick. He resigned his pastorate, founded the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association, and raised a tent that seated 3,000. In 1954 he moved the healing services to television, and a practice confined to the revival circuit reached a national audience. He conducted more than 300 crusades on six continents and said he laid hands on more than 2 million people.

His doctrine was called seed faith, and it was simple: give money to the ministry, and God returns it multiplied. He preached it in books and mailed it to donors, many of them poor. At its peak the organization took in about 120 million dollars a year. Seed faith is the direct ancestor of the prosperity gospel and of the fundraising model American televangelism still runs on. In January 1987 he told his television audience that unless he raised 8 million dollars by March, God would call him home. He stayed in the Prayer Tower, fasting, while the money arrived — 1.3 million of it from a Florida dog-track owner who said he was saving Roberts from going to heaven in a hurry. He finished with 9.1 million. It was widely mocked, and his standing never recovered.

He died of complications from pneumonia on December 15, 2009, at 91, in Newport Beach, California, and was buried in Tulsa beside Evelyn. Two things he built are still standing. Oral Roberts University, chartered in 1963, has been fully accredited since 1971 and still enrolls several thousand students. The City of Faith, the medical center he said a 900-foot Jesus told him to build, closed in 1989 after eight years and 25 million dollars of debt — its towers now rent office space. Historians of American religion credit him with carrying Pentecostal and charismatic worship into the mainstream. Critics count the same career as the start of the prosperity gospel. Both are describing the same man.

Oral Roberts's life against the full span of the corpus.

• Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association other
  Founded when he left his pastorate to preach healing full time 1947
• Televised healing crusades television
  Filmed tent services, carried nationally. The Abundant Life program reached 80 percent of the country by 1957 1954
• Oral Roberts University other
  Chartered 1963, first students 1965, accredited 1971 by the North Central Association 1963
• Quarterly prime-time specials television
  Network variety specials that ran until 1980 and reached far beyond his revival audience 1969
• A Daily Guide to Miracles and Successful Living Through Seed-Faith book
  The doctrine set out plainly — give to the ministry and God returns it multiplied 1975
• City of Faith Medical and Research Center other
  A Tulsa hospital meant to join prayer and medicine. It closed in 1989 1981

• 1935 aged ~17 Tuberculosis at 17, and a tent revival he said healed him The evangelist George Moncey prayed over him near Ada, Oklahoma. Roberts said the disease and his stammer both went that night, and he preached the same evening.
• December 25, 1938 aged 20 Marries Evelyn Lutman Fahnestock The marriage lasted 66 years, until her death in 2005.
• 1947 aged ~29 Leaves his pastorate and founds the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association He said God had directed him to heal the sick. The tent seated 3,000 on metal folding chairs.
• 1954 aged ~36 Puts the healing services on television Radio had come first, in 1947. Television made the practice a mass one.
• 1963 aged ~45 Charters Oral Roberts University in Tulsa He said he was obeying a command from God. Students signed a pledge against drinking, smoking and premarital sex.
• March 17, 1968 aged 50 Received into the United Methodist Church in Tulsa He left the Pentecostal Holiness Church for Boston Avenue Methodist and stayed a Methodist minister until 1987, when his credentials were disputed and revoked.
• February 11, 1977 aged 59 His daughter Rebecca and her husband die in a plane crash His elder son Ronald died by suicide five years later, on June 10, 1982.
• January 1987 aged 68 Tells viewers God will call him home unless 8 million dollars comes in by March He had set a similar deadline the year before. He raised 9.1 million dollars, including 1.3 million from a Florida dog-track owner, and was mocked across the country for it.
• December 15, 2009 aged 91 Dies of complications from pneumonia at 91 He had been semi-retired in Newport Beach, California, and was buried in Tulsa.

• Aimee Semple McPherson 1890–1944
  Evangelist and media innovator who founded the Foursquare Church and pioneered religious broadcasting and celebrity ministry. succeeded the movement of
• Billy Graham 1918–2018
  Evangelist whose mass crusades, media reach, and presidential relationships made him a defining figure in modern American Protestantism. rival
• Pat Robertson 1930–2023
  Founded the Christian Broadcasting Network and, after a failed 1988 presidential run, the Christian Coalition. influenced
• Jerry Falwell 1933–2007
  Pastor and political organizer who helped make conservative evangelicalism a major Republican constituency. influenced
• Joel Osteen b. 1963
  Built his father's Houston church into the largest congregation in the United States and preached it to millions on television. influenced