TULSA — Evangelist Oral Roberts died Dec. 15 at 91, but the legacy of charismatic Christianity he brought to the religious community continues on the south Tulsa campus of Oral Roberts University and beyond.
While students in the 1960s and 1970s may have flocked to the evangelical liberal arts school because of Roberts’ name, the next generation came because of the school’s unchanging mission: to train students to enter their chosen professions and succeed on the world’s terms, while giving God the glory.
As for future students, “they’ll come because of the mission, and the mission can’t be separated from the founder himself,” ORU President Mark Rutland told The Associated Press. “His mission and vision have thoroughly informed the DNA of this university.”
Claiming God told him to build the university to spread the Christian faith, Roberts chartered ORU in 1963 as a place where Pentecostals could live, study and pray together.
While today’s student body has changed - it represents 40 Christian denominations, as well as nonbelievers- ORU students still adhere to the honor code the founder introduced that prohibits them from cursing, using drugs and alcohol, and having premarital sex.
Only 6 percent of today’s students are preparing for the ministry - media studies and business administration are the most popular majors. Nevertheless, Roberts’ original goals for the school are still strongly present, even though he long ago retired to California.
Pictures of Roberts praying for sick children at crusades hang on school walls. But perhaps the most visible thumbprints are the 60-foottall bronze statue of praying hands - modeled after Roberts’ - at the entrance to campus and the 200-foot-high prayer tower that rises above the school.
Roberts is also credited with helping put Tulsa on the map, building his university up from a pasture south of the city limits into a school that has tens of thousands of alumni. The campus, with its 1960s architecture, is an Oklahoma landmark.
“He’ll still be very present,” says Tresa Johnson, who wasenrolling at ORU during winter break and recalls watching Oral Roberts preach on her family’s black-and-white television. “Whether it’s in his videos, what’s written on the walls, the curriculum.
“They’re not going to be [here] without knowing about Oral Roberts,” she said.
School officials have no intention of changing the name of the university - a concern that arose among some influential alumni after Roberts’ son, Richard, resigned as president in 2007amid allegations his family used school money to live a life of luxury.
Religion, Pages 29 on 12/24/2009