Richard Roberts On His Father's Work

By LeAnne Taylor, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- Oral Roberts felt that God called him to preach the gospel and heal people and to build a university to raise up students who would go into the world and make a difference. 

Oral really didn't worry about what others thought. He knew he was to be obedient to his calling, but there were those who didn't understand.

Richard Roberts spoke exclusively to News on 6 anchor LeAnne Taylor.

LeAnne Taylor: "Your dad was not without controversy. You mentioned the jokes and the criticism."

Richard Roberts: "I don't remember when he wasn't criticized."

LeAnne Taylor: "The 900 foot Jesus, the God's gonna call me home... people know the story, critics bring it up. Did that bother your dad?"

Richard Roberts: "To some extent because he was misquoted. The media had a field day. They took what he said and they turned it around and they made it something that he didn't say and the media often does that.

"He was not the type to defend himself," Richard said. "He said, ‘God is my defense and God will sustain me and he will uphold me and he will preserve me.' And he always did and I think that's one reason why there has been such an outpouring of love from all over the world.

"I noticed this past week he was all over the front cover of 800 newspapers worldwide. The day after he passed, the number one name searched on yahoo was Oral Roberts. He was beloved around the world because he stood for healing. He brought America a front row seat to miracles. They saw cancer falling off bodies, they saw cripple children walking and blind eyes healed, they saw deaf ears healed. They saw the miraculous.

"In the 1960's, he developed a new format to television and that format was to bring great stars who also loved the Lord on the television and developed a musical group. He asked me to develop a musical group called the World Action Singers and he would preach in the setting of having these major stars, Johnny Cash, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Mel Tillis, Roy Clark, Pearl Bailey… and the list, Jerry Lewis, the list goes on and on… people who he'd bring on to get a national audience and have up-to-date music by young people as well as the stars he'd have on the program to sing. Then, he would preach the gospel and pray for the sick. It was a new and innovative way for doing television.

"Then of course the merging of medicine and prayer. In those days, people gave their souls to the church and their bodies to the doctor. When the Apostle Paul and Luke were, and evangelist and a medical doctor, they're working side by side. And he saw that God is the source of all healing through prayer and medical science working together. And thus came the medical school and the city of faith. And the liaison committee for medical education told him when he closed the City of Faith and closed the medical school, he said ‘Dr. Roberts you're discouraged because you closed it.' He said ‘don't ever be discouraged. You have forever changed the way medicine is practiced in America. Every hospital in America is now adding prayer. They realize they have a better chance of getting a patient well through the good skill of the doctors and the good skill and the faith of prayer.' He was so innovative.

"The building of the university... like none other in the world. He's always been innovative. In fact, we've always joked in the family that when my father died, he would raise his hand from the grave and say, Lord let me build one more building."

The university was certainly one of the things Oral Roberts was most proud of. He served as president and then more recently Chancellor until his death. 

His son took over the presidency years ago, but in 2007, controversy surrounded him and he resigned. 

12/20/2009  Related Story: Memorial Service Monday For Oral Roberts