Seeing Gray

Oral Roberts died today (December 15) at the age of 91.  I shook his hand, once; heard him speak on numerous occasions while a student at Oral Roberts University; and watched a dozen video tapes of his teaching for a course all students at ORU were required to take to graduate, “The Holy Spirit in the Now.”  I attended Oral Roberts University, graduating in 1985 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Pastoral Ministry.

I knew little about Oral Roberts when I made the decision to attend the school.  What I did know was that ORU had an excellent faculty, placed an emphasis on preparing every graduate to see their vocation as a form of ministry (whether they be lawyers, teachers, doctors, or business leaders), and the university saw the work of the Holy Spirit as critically important in the life of Christians.  Their mission was to send graduates to let their light shine in the world.  True to Oral Roberts’ roots, they also placed a strong emphasis on God’s capacity to heal, but contrary to many faith healers, Oral emphasized God’s use of doctors and medicine as instruments of his healing.

Oral was something of an anomaly – not easily categorized.  He  spent much of the first half of his life in a denomination that downplayed (perhaps even, at times, disdained) academia and formal education.  But he went on to form a university that placed a heavy emphasis on high academic standards.  He was a faith healer who built a medical hospital and cancer research center.  And while he had grown up Pentecostal,  in 1968 he joined the United Methodist Church (a move that raised the eyebrows of Pentecostals and United Methodists – neither of whom knew quite what to make of this!).

My experience at ORU was really remarkable.  In so many ways the school laid important foundations in my thinking.  I arrived at ORU 18 years old, a conservative Pentecostal who saw the world in pretty black and white terms.  But at ORU I was challenged to think critically.  I met deeply committed Christians from a variety of different denominations.  I had professors who were remarkably open minded and deeply devoted to the mission of preparing thinking people to shine the light of Christ into every persons world.  At the time there were a number of professors who were United Methodists.

It was at Oral Roberts University that I first began to understand the importance of listening to thoughtful people of divergent viewpoints.  It was there that I learned that truth seldom was the exclusive property of any one side in most theological, political or sociological debates.  During my freshman year at ORU, in part because of the theological questions raised by the death of two of my closest friends, and in part due to the influence of my experiences and studies at ORU, I left the Pentecostal church and began searching for a new denominational home.  After checking out The United Methodist Book of Discipline at the ORU library I followed in the footsteps of many of my professors, and Oral himself, and joined the United Methodist Church.  And it was at ORU that I first learned the idea that “liberal” and “conservative” were both important values that should be held together as complementary virtues rather than polar opposites that divide the church and society.  In so many ways Oral modeled this, or at least was open to it and willing to hire professors and deans who modeled it.

There are so many influences of ORU that have shaped my life and faith, and which in turn have shaped the Church of the Resurrection:  an emphasis on the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives; the importance of reading and memorizing scripture; the belief in intercessory prayer for the sick; the importance of a passionate and personal faith; the idea that every person is called to see their career as a place to live their faith and be in ministry; the importance of mission trips that combine both social action and evangelism; and undoubtedly many others.

There were, of course, points at which I disagreed with Oral’s theology, particularly after I graduated.  Oral laid the foundation for the prosperity gospel and was a support to many of its proponents.  The prosperity gospel can be seen as a reaction to either the poverty out of which some Pentecostals came, or the seeming emphasis on poverty that came from some in the mainline churches.  It preached that God doesn’t want his people to be poor.  But in the process of seeking to offer a corrective the pendulum swung way too far – offering a gospel in which God wanted his people to have riches, and those riches could be had simply by “planting your seed of faith” – meaning giving donations to this or that particular ministry. Ultimately the prosperity gospel preached by so many of its proponents was a counterfeit gospel hardly recognizable as the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In the end Oral Roberts’ need to raise funds to support the vast ministry he began may have played too great a role in shaping the gospel he preached and detracted from (at least from my vantage point) the many important and wonderful ways in which he sought to call people to a holistic approach to the gospel while inviting people to “see gray” in a world of black and white.