TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Two televangelists have resigned their posts as regents at Oral Roberts University, as the debt-ridden school tries to regroup following a spending scandal involving its former president. The university on Thursday also settled with one of three professors who filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the school.
Benny Hinn and I.V. Hilliard resigned as regents, where they were involved in making major school decisions, university spokesman Jeremy Burton said Thursday. Burton declined to say why the two resigned, but said both wrote the board to express their support for the school's mission.
The resignations come a month after the resignations from the board of regents of two other televangelists, Jesse Duplantis and Creflo [worshippin' the Almighty Dollar].
Hinn and Dollar are among six televangelists being investigated by Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley to determine if the high-profile preachers violated their organizations' tax-exempt status by living lavishly on the backs of small donors. They have denied wrongdoing.
A phone message left after-hours Thursday at Hilliard's ministry, The New Light Christian Center, was not immediately returned. Ronn Torossian, a spokesman for Hinn, did not immediately respond to an e-mail message sent after-hours Thursday seeking comment.
The resignations follow that of Richard Roberts, who stepped down as university president in November amid allegations he misspent school funds to bankroll a lavish lifestyle. Roberts, the son of school founder Oral Roberts, held the position at the 5,700-student school since 1993.
Former regent Harry McNevin, who resigned 20 years ago over what he says was excessive spending by Oral and Richard Roberts, said Thursday's resignations couldn't have come soon enough.
"The whole board needs to go," McNevin said. "I see (the university) as a corporation belonging to the Robertses."
Now if only these two would quit their jobs as professional con men.
We have a "Christian" television station here, part of the "Christian" Television Network (CTN). They have the Hinnster on in the morning, and Richard "I can fleece people just like my dear old daddy" Roberts' "Hour of Healing" at night. Maybe now this station will grow a brain and stop having these charlatans on their network. Maybe now people will realize that these people are not true ministers of the gospel of grace. Perhaps now people will realize they've been lied to, cheated, swindled, embezzled...
Or not.
