Oral Roberts passes at 91 in California

TULSA - Many in the world are mourning the passing of pastor, healer, innovator and religious icon Oral Roberts, who died Tuesday (December 15, 2009) in Newport Beach, California at the age of 91 from complications of pneumonia a day after he was hospitalized following a fall at his home in California.

“Oral Roberts was the greatest man of God I’ve ever known,” said Oral’s son, Richard Roberts. “A modern-day apostle of the healing ministry, an author, educator, evangelist, prophet, and innovator, he was the only man of his generation to build a worldwide ministry, an accredited university, and a medical school.”

Evangelist Billy Graham issued a statement stating,  “Oral Roberts was a man of God, and a great friend in ministry.  I loved him as a brother.  We had many quiet conversations over the years.  I invited Oral to speak at one of our early international conferences on evangelism held in Berlin in the 1960’s.  Oral was preceded in death by his wonderful wife Evelyn, who I also knew and loved.  She was a woman of God, and a powerful prayer warrior.  Just three weeks ago, I was privileged to talk to Oral over the telephone.  During the short conversation, he said to me that he was near the end of his life’s journey.  I look forward to the day that I will see Oral and Evelyn Roberts again in Heaven–our eternal home.”

Roberts established Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association (OREA), a Pentecostal ministry, which in turn founded Oral Roberts University in 1963 which Roberts served as the school’s president until 1993 and trustee until his death.  GuideStar reports OREA “produces 52 weekly television and radio programs, and 260 daily television programs to help spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the United States and throughout the world. These programs reach an estimated 800,000 people per week.”

In May 2009, the Oklahoma Legislature honored Roberts with a resolution honoring his life. He spoke to lawmakers of his mission and his legacy.  “I’ll soon be going home to my heavenly father,” Roberts said on this occasion. “I look forward to that with great peace and joy. Leaving behind my legacy to bless people.”

Born on January 24, 1918, the fifth and youngest child of Reverend Ellis Melvin Roberts and Claudia Priscilla Irwin, Roberts grew up in southern Oklahoma. After finishing high school, Roberts studied for two years each at Oklahoma Baptist University and Phillips University. In 1938 he married a preacher’s daughter, Evelyn Lutman Fahnestock.  Leaving college before completing his degree, Roberts became an itinerant preacher, taking over his father’s ministry and expanding it to millions of people in tent revivals, healing the sick and saving troubled lives.  Eventually, the tents gave way to airwaves — broadcasting on radio and television.

In the early 60s, he broke even more ground, building Oral Roberts University in South Tulsa and later built the City of Faith Medical and Research Cente, intended to merge prayer and medicine in the healing process.

Two Roberts children are still living — son Richard, a well-known evangelist and former president of Oral Roberts University (ORU), and daughter Roberta Potts, an attorney.  Oral Roberts was preceded in death by his wife of 66 years, Evelyn, on May 4, 2005, ,and two of his children, Rebecca in 1977 and Ronald in 1982.

Memorial Service will be held at the ORU Mabee Center, in Tulsa Oklahoma on Monday, December 21, 2009 at 2:00PM.

(Sources:  Oral Roberts Evangelistic Assn, Oral Roberts University, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Oral Roberts Minstries, Oklahoma news outlets, Wikipedia)

OPERATION RESCUE launches Project Daniel 5:25

Project Daniel 5:25 announced by Operation Rescue

Operation Rescue

 has launched Project Daniel 5:25 — a reference to scripture dealing with handwriting on the wall.

 Operation Rescue has done extensive research to determine how many abortion clinics have closed in the last two decades. Spokesman Troy Newman believes the days of legal abortion in America are numbered.
 
“[We] come up with a number of nearly 1,500 of these abortion clinics that have closed and not reopened,” he explains. “And so just like the biblical story of Daniel, [who] reads the handwriting on the wall that says that this wicked kingdom will soon come to an end, it is absolutely true that the abortion cartel is coming to an end.”
 
According to Newman, just 713 abortion clinics are open for business now, down from almost 2,200 in 1991. Newman tells OneNewsNow that his organization has yet to find an abortion mill that has complied with the law.
 
“And I know that’s a sweeping statement, but I’ve been in this movement for almost 20 years,” says the pro-life activist, “and I’ve seen abortion clinics close again and again and again — and the major contributing factor is that they do not comply with federal [or] with state and local municipal ordinances.”
 
Through Project Daniel 5:25, Operation Rescue is raising up an army of new volunteers to pray at abortion clinics and monitor clinics’ activities, and to lodge reports with the pro-life group to challenge the remaining 713 clinics.

(Source: Operation Rescue, OneNewNow.com)

Judge nixes OK ultrasound law

OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma judge has invalidated on procedural grounds a state ultrasound law described by a national pro-life organization as the best in the country.

The 2008 law required a medical worker to perform an ultrasound on a woman seeking an abortion, display the image of the unborn child and explain the sonogram. The pregnant woman was not required to view the image.

County District Judge Vicki Robertson struck down the measure Aug. 18, saying it transgressed a state requirement that legislation have one subject, according to The Daily Oklahoman. The legislation was a combination of five proposals, including one mandating that abortion clinics display signs saying a woman cannot be forced to have the procedure and another requiring the abortion drug RU 486 be dispensed according to federal guidelines.

Supporters of the law said they believe the law deals with a single issue — the protection of unborn life. They promised to continue to work to have the law’s provisions take effect. The state attorney general could appeal the decision. If they fail to win in court, the law’s legislative advocates said they could seek passage of the measure’s provisions separately.

“I think the life issue is definitely worth fighting for,” said Rep. Pam Peterson, R.-Tulsa, the law’s sponsor in the House of Representatives.

“I think the judge ruled on a technicality and not on the true substance of the bill,” she said, according to The Oklahoman. “It’s a setback, and, if the state doesn’t appeal the ruling, we will continue to stand for life in this state.”

The National Right to Life Committee had characterized the measure as “the strongest, most protective ultrasound law in the nation.”

The Oklahoma legislature overrode the veto of Democratic Gov. Brad Henry to enact the legislation. The Oklahoma Senate voted 37-11 and the House 81-15 in April 2008 to achieve the required two-thirds majority for an override.

Sonogram machines have been important tools in pro-life pregnancy care centers’ attempts to educate pregnant women about their unborn children. Such centers have reported dramatic upswings in clients choosing to give birth after viewing ultrasound images of their babies.

(Source: Baptist Press)