Oral Roberts

Oral Roberts

Oral Roberts was 17 years old when his life was changed by a dramatic religious experience. It was late July 1935 when his older brother Elmer took him to be healed. The 6 foot tall young man who only weighed 120 pounds was stricken with Tuberculosis. In the car on the way to the revival Oral sensed that cosmic forces were focused on him. He was prepared to be healed when Geo. W. Moncey, an evangelist and divine healer prayed upon Oral. Automatically Oral was healed. Previous to the healing Oral had been too weak to stand up on his own, all of a sudden he jumped up on the stage and ran back and forth shouting he was healed..

Oral's dad, Ellis Roberts, was a preacher and evangelist for a Pentecostal Holiness church. He was against such things as infidelity, evolutionism, sexual recreation, drinking alcohol and dancing. Tobacco, jewelry, tea, coffee, transparent female garments, polygamy and theological liberalism were also amongst the vices of his father. Oral believes that his upbringing prepared him for the moment of his healing.

There were several events surrounding the birth of Oral that became part of his ministry's hagiography. Oral's mother, Claudius, went to a sick child while she was pregnant with Oral to try and heal the child. She promised God that she would give her child to him if he would heal the sick child. The child was healed and she knew God had promised her a "little preacher".

As a child Oral was mischievous and lively. But also shy, self-conscious, extrovert and poor. His self-consciousness came from his stutter and the fact that the kids made fun of him. To try and make him feel better his mom would tell him that she gave him to God. He was God's property and one da...

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...rusades for TV in the 1950's despite the financial risks. These crusades shocked and outraged many, but they tapped the curiosity of millions more. More important than his films was Oral's return to TV in a 1969 series of prime-time specials.

Oral Roberts is forever linked with religious healing. After all it was religious healing that launched his ministry and religious healing that built the City of Faith complex in 1981 in Tulsa.

Bibliography:

Works Cited

Harrell Jr., David Edwin. Oral Roberts An American Life. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1985. .

Sweet, Leonard I. Communication and Change in American Religious History. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1993.

Sholes, Jerry. Prime-Time Religion. NY, NY: Oklahoma Book Publishing Co.,1979.