A Minister’s Son Ends His Life

Drugs were the “beginning of the end” for Oral Roberts’ son.

Ronald Roberts, the oldest son of evangelist Oral Roberts, died June 9 of what authorities called “a self-inflicted wound to the heart with a .25 caliber pistol.”

The deceased Roberts, 38, was described as a quiet and withdrawn man, fluent in five languages. He held a doctorate in linguistics from the University of Southern California and owned an antique store specializing in Chinese porcelain.

Roberts’s body was found in his car northwest of Tulsa. He indicated in a note that drugs were “the beginning of the end for me” and pleaded for his two children never to use them. His family later said Roberts’s drug problems began during his military service in Vietnam.

The death was the latest in a series of misfortunes affecting the Roberts family. The evangelist’s oldest child, Rebecca Roberts Nash, was killed in an airplane crash in 1977. The third child, Richard, is a singer and preacher who works with his evangelist father. Richard was divorced in 1980.

In the four hours after he learned of Ronald’s suicide, Oral Roberts made notes of his feelings. Excerpts of those notes follow:

My older son, Ronald David, born October 22, 1943, died last night, apparently by his own hands.

We gave Ronnie to God at his birth and reared him in God’s love—and our love.

Ron was a highly intelligent, sensitive child and young man. He was very close to us and could repeat sermons back to me from five years old and on. When he was three, I would stand him up in a chair near the pulpit and he would sing of Jesus: “He set me free.”

Evelyn and I are crushed today; we hurt for Ron, for ourselves, for the life that might have been lived for the Lord.…

We have no way of knowing when he got hooked on drugs. We do know there were periods when he would call or come to us when he was not normal. On those occasions we went to him and we had a most uncomfortable feeling that something had taken hold of him.

Ronnie went through a period of wondering if there is a God, but was always deeply devoted and courteous to us as his Christian parents and to me as his evangelist father. During some of these times, if I had a difficult passage in the Bible or a historical period in secular [or] Bible history, I discussed it with Ronnie and was astonished at his wealth of knowledge, which he freely shared with me. He was most helpful in certain parts of the commentary I wrote on the Bible.

Ron was always close, very close, to touching what he called “reality.” He loved attending my crusade services. He had strong faith, and when he was in control of himself, he knew how to pray and help people. Once I was ill overseas, and he was the first one I called for prayer. His prayer ringing across the ocean reached God in my behalf. I often said to him, “Ronnie, I love to have you pray for me.”

Ronnie and his wife adopted two children, Rachel and Damon. He loved these children with a passion. It was only during those times when he was affected by drugs that he was out of touch with reality.

Evelyn and I, and Richard shared what we could with him without contributing to his problem. He knew we loved him and in spite of everything, we felt he loved us with all his heart.

Finally, these past weeks he deteriorated rapidly. In our home I held him in my arms and prayed, tears streaming down both our cheeks, his mother weeping and praying with us. I offered Ronnie a full position with me on the basis [that] he would give it his best effort, with God’s help. He said he wanted to but wanted time to think it over.

Two weeks ago I asked him again and he said he just couldn’t bring himself under control. Evelyn went to him on Mother’s Day and found him ill with the flu. She brought money and groceries. He seemed fairly cheerful. Again she talked with him about the Lord, about his great talent; again he was not ready.

I woke up this morning with what seemed like the devil throwing everything at me. Nothing seemed to go right. All I could do was hold on and say, “Lord, help me.”

At 2:15 Richard came with the news of Ronnie’s tragic death. Our eldest daughter is in heaven. Now our eldest son is gone. Only Richard and Roberta are left, their spouses and our grandchildren.

We first felt the crushing burden of this absence of our dear ones.

We prayed and prayed, wept and wept.

I got no word from the Lord.

Then I picked up my Bible and remembered one line about love “beareth all things.” I found it in 1 Corinthians 13:7: (Love) “beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things …

“Love never faileth” (v. 8).

As we read this verse—Evelyn, Richard, and my grandchildren by Marshall and Rebecca—we clung to it with all the fierceness of a faith stronger than ourselves.

I said, “We still have Richard; we still have Roberta. Life must go on and will go on because God’s love in us will never fail.”

The questions remain: Why? Was he in his right mind?

All we know is that there had been brain damage. He had told Evelyn, “Mother, I cannot cope anymore.” He would seem to try but as he gathered his efforts, they would fall.

Only God has determined, but I know that the devil has played his last card: death. He has no more power. There will be no graves cut on the hillsides of heaven. Somehow I feel at peace. Two things remain: The Lord and heaven—the two that remain. From this day we shall enter a new dimension of God’s grace, a renewed determination to bring God’s healing love to this generation. Heaven is very real; God is so close. We still hurt but we rejoice, too, because our God is still God.

Chance Encounter?

Richard Parke, an evangelical minister who recently returned from missionary work in Greece, tells this story. In a letter to friends, he described events during a bus trip he took from California to Washington, D.C., in March 1981:

“In Salt Lake City I transferred to an express bus that had arrived from Los Angeles. I picked out an empty seat next to a young man named John who became my seatmate for the next 1,000 miles of our journey.

“Naturally we talked about many subjects as we rolled along mile after mile, but the Holy Spirit gave me the courage and the opportunity to talk to John specifically about eternal matters. He had attended church as a child but had drifted in recent years. He asked me what it meant to be ‘born again.’

“During the many hours together, I had opportunity to share my own story of coming to know Jesus Christ almost 18 years ago. I spoke with John about his own need for Christ and about God’s love and forgiveness. And although there was little outward response on John’s part, he listened to me.

“Well, we got off the bus together in Washington, D.C., around noon on March 29, then claimed our baggage and said our goodbyes. And these were my parting words … ‘John, I believe God had a reason for us to meet.’

“Next day, I was shocked and saddened—as you were, too—to learn of the attempted assassination of President Reagan. Later that same afternoon, while looking at the TV screen, I noticed a still photograph of the alleged assassin. It was John W. Hinckley, Jr., my seatmate on the Greyhound bus!”

EDMUND K. GRAVELY JR.

Canadian Presbyterians Strengthen Rule On Women Ordinations

Ministers of the Presbyterian Church in Canada have been told that although they can believe what they want, they do not have the right to refuse participation in ordinations of women. That ruling became church policy with the acceptance of a task force report by the one hundred eighth general assembly of the denomination, which met in June in historic Knox Church in Toronto.

The task force, instituted by last year’s general assembly, had a total of 21 people—including 7 women (of whom 3 were ministers). Convener of the task force was Margaret Taylor, member of a congregation whose minister advocates liberty of conscience on the issue.

The Presbyterian Church in Canada has had women ministers and elders since 1966. There are now about 60 women ministers and 2,000 women elders in the denomination, which claims 165,000 communicant members and about 1,000 ordained ministers.

The liberty of conscience issue came into the limelight in 1979 when Daniel McDougall, a graduate of Westminster Seminary, was refused ordination by East Toronto Presbytery because he told the examing committee that, on grounds of conscience, he could not participate in ordination of women ministers or elders. He added that he would honor church policy and cooperate with ordained women in the church’s ministry.

McDougall’s appeal to the 1980 general assembly brought the reply that ordinands of that year and ministers then serving in the church who opposed ordination of women could be excused from participation in such ordinations until 1990.

That judgment satisfied neither party. Last year’s assembly laid it aside and appointed the task force to focus primarily on the issue of liberty of conscience as it related to ordination of women.

A minority report filed by 6 of the 21 task force members called on the assembly to allow liberty of conscience and the right to abstain from participation in the ordination of women, provided that ministers state their reservations on admission to the presbytery and that they not become agitators.

The message to ministers in the church is clear: freedom of belief in this matter is permissible, but not freedom of action. Refusal to participate in the ordination of women “undermines the authority of the church and results in a form of ecclesiastical anarchy,” the report stated.

Reaction from many evangelicals in the denomination was sharp. “To allow for liberty of conscience but deny freedom of action where there is no specific scriptural command, is to legislate hypocrisy and coerce conformity,” stated Dr. Mariano DiGangi, a task force member and professor at Ontario Theological Seminary.

Dr. Wayne Smith, minister of Saint Andrew’s Church in Cambridge and newly elected moderator, said, however, that he already detected the beginning of a healing process. He added that he was sure that no one wanted to lose ministers of some of “our most active and vigorous congregations.”

LESLIE K. TARR

Personalia

David Rambo has been selected as the new president of Nyack (New York) College and Alliance Theological Seminary. Rambo, a doctoral graduate of New York University, has served as a pastor and missionary. Rambo was vice-president of Overseas Ministries of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. He succeeds Thomas P. Bailey at Nyack.

Charles W. Keysor, long-time proponent of renewal in the United Methodist Church, has left that denomination. Keysor was the founder of the Good News magazine and movement for “scriptural Christianity within the United Methodist Church.” Keysor has joined the Evangelical Covenant Church because it has a “more biblical, Christ-centered emphasis” than the UMC, he said.

William Shoemaker has resigned as director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton (Illinois) College. Shoemaker has not set an effective date of resignation in order to enable a smooth transition for a new director, not yet selected.

Deaths

James R. Graham, 84, founder of Christ’s College in Taipei, Taiwan, missionary to China; June 18, at Seventh-day Adventist Hospital, Taipei, after a long illness.

Frank S. Mead, 84, former editor of Christian Herald magazine, editor-in-chief of Fleming H. Revell; June 16.

Methodists Rule On Homosexuality In The Ministry

Two groups in the United Methodist Church decided to take seriously their denomination’s belief that homosexual behavior is “incompatible with Christian teaching.” They did so by issuing charges against a Colorado bishop, Melvin E. Wheatley, Jr., who had retained and reassigned, a minister who had publicly identified himself as a homosexual, and who had also “welcomed a self-confessed lesbian” into the Rocky Mountain Conference as a probationer (a beginning minister).

The groups’ concerns were weighed in May by a Committee on Investigation and were dismissed as not having reasonable grounds.

The investigation committee, composed of seven clergy members, acknowledged that there clearly “are biblical statements condemning homosexual activity.” But it concluded that “it is debatable what perspective on homosexuality and homosexual activity emerges when the biblical witness as a whole is brought into interaction with tradition, experience, and reason” (the other three factors mentioned in the Methodists’ Book of Discipline as worthy of consideration in resolving disputes).

The committee finding was the culmination of a controversy that began in August of last year when Julian Rush, the assistant minister for religious education at the First Methodist Church of Boulder, Colorado, publicly identified himself as having a homosexual orientation. Rush, who had been married for at least 15 years and had two sons, had recently obtained a divorce.

For the previous two years, Rush said, he had been under psychological counseling to identify his true sexuality. (It was later learned that the counselor was herself a lesbian.) Four or five months prior to his announcement, he informed Bishop Wheatley about the counseling and his belief that he was a homosexual.

Rush informed the Boulder church’s senior pastor, Bin Gilbert, of this development in early August, and Rush was advised to submit a written resignation and receive three months’ severance pay while seeking other work. Rush agreed and resigned, and the Staff Parish Relations Committee accepted his resignation.

The district superintendent, however, countermanded the action, and called for open congregational meetings on the subject. Three were held. A number of members withdrew, and church annual giving has since dropped by as much as $30,000. During this period Bishop Wheatley, who has a practicing homosexual son, did not meet with senior pastor Gilbert, but met with Rush supporters on at least three occasions.

When the parish relations committee voted for Rush to be reassigned, Wheatley created a new position for him of “minister to community concerns” of a small inner-city church in Denver. Rush established his office at the Gay Community Center of Denver. Bishop Wheatley called a meeting of the Denver area Methodist pastors to exhort them to obtain support among their members for Rush.

In November, Wheatley sent a pastoral letter to the clergy of his conference, seeking to justify the appointment. In January, Good News, the Methodist evangelical caucus, responded in an open letter, criticizing his appointment.

One pastor who read the denominational news decided to take action. David Hendrix, 29, with a congregation of less than 300 divided among three west Georgia country churches, issued a letter charging Wheatley with “disseminating doctrines contrary to the established standards of doctrine in the church.” Eighty-eight of his parishioners cosigned the letter.

It was in response to these charges that the Western Jurisdiction College of Bishops called the Committee on Investigation into session—a kind of ecclesiastical grand jury. That committee dismissed the charges.

The Pope In England: A Rousing Success

The six-day papal visit to mainland Britain may have cost $13.5 million, but it was an astounding success against all the odds. Here was a pilgrim Pope not afraid to stand history and geography on their heads. None of his predecessors had set foot in Protestant Britain; John Paul II did so at a time when that country was locked in combat with Roman Catholic Argentina.

For a 62-year-old, perceptibly more bowed since a would-be assassin’s bullets struck him in Rome last year, the itinerary was rough. In all nine cities on his British agenda, there were major addresses to be given, usually followed by Mass. He ordained priests, baptized new converts, spoke to 24,000 Poles in London’s Crystal Palace, visited the disabled, coped patiently and cheerfully in Scotland and Wales with about 80,000 young people who sang “He’s got the whole world in his hands,” and whom he greeted in Gaelic and Welsh. One 15-year-old gave him the ultimate accolade: “After this I would rather go to see the Pope than any pop star, even Adam Ant.”

Trouble expected from hard-line Protestants opposed to the visit scarcely materialized. Two demonstrations led by Ian Paisley, the Ulster clergyman and politician, drew only 200 people each.

But always there was a shadow, and John Paul frequently departed from his text to refer to the South Atlantic. “In the joy of our celebration today,” he would remind his listeners, “we cannot permit ourselves to forget the victims of the war, both the dead and the wounded, as well as the broken hearts of many families.”

(His “equal time” visit to Argentina that followed, was a kind of consolation prize for a war nearly lost. His presence appeared to lend some legitimacy to the junta’s ill-fated adventure, even though his words mildly chided his hosts, calling “reconciliation” not opposed to “true patriotism.”)

For the Pope, there was no buying popularity through easy options. On the York racecourse, where he addressed 250,000, John Paul underlined his opposition to divorce. “The covenant between a man and a woman joined in Christian marriage is indissoluble and irrevocable.” He invited all those present to renew their marriage vows.

In Edinburgh he warned 44,000 young Catholics that those who led self-indulgent lives would not inherit the kingdom. They cheered. Did that mean, he asked, that they wanted to inherit that kingdom? More cheers. He persisted: To inherit or not? Renewed cries reassured him that he had made his point.

In Glasgow, some 260,000 faithful—one-third of all Scotland’s Catholics—attended Mass in a park just up the road from the home of Rangers Football Club, which does not employ Catholic players. “The spirit of this world,” he told them, “would have us capitulate on the most fundamental principles of our Christian life. Today as never before, the basic doctrines of the faith are questioned and the value of Christian morality challenged and ridiculed. Things abhorred a generation ago are now inscribed in the statute books of society.”

There were two occasions of special significance for non-Catholics and for the history books. The first was the visit to Canterbury Cathedral, the mother church of Anglicans worldwide, and to Archbishop Robert Runcie, who claims to stand in the succession of that Augustine whom Gregory the Great sent to England in 597. In 1534, Henry VIII severed the link with Rome, and now in 1982 here was the Pope taking a tangible step toward reconciliation.

From the heart of the Church of England, the Pope moved to his other date with destiny north of the border, to a land which more than four centuries ago rejected episcopacy as well as papacy. Despite some opposition, the general assembly of the Church of Scotland had the previous month authorized its moderator to meet the Pope. This he did in a restrained but friendly brief meeting outside the assembly hall in a courtyard over which towers a statue of John Knox, spruced up for the occasion. It was remarked that the moderator, professor John McIntyre, had addressed the Pope as “Your Holiness.”

J.D. DOUGLAS

World Scene

Evangelical general José Efrain Ríos Montt ousted the other two members of Guatemala’s ruling junta last month and assumed the presidency. The move appeared to be either instigated or supported by the junior officers who staged the March coup that brought the junta to power.

Denmark is systematically refusing to extend visas of foreign evangelical Protestant workers. Al Morrison of Child Evangelism International was forced to leave in the spring of 1976, followed by Dawn Similec of the Navigators and John Nielson of the Nazarene church, both in 1980. In April of this year Lee Bennett of Campus Crusade for Christ was expelled. After five years in the country, Duane Olson of the Greater Europe Mission (GEM), the longest survivor, was given a June deadline for departure. The visa of Douglas Terry of the Nazarenes was scheduled to terminate. The latest arrival, Todd James of GEM, was told his permit would extend only until next February. The Ministry of Justice’s actions appear to be related to policies restricting immigration. Missionaries neither seek immigrant status nor usurp jobs from Danes, being typically salaried from abroad.

Japanese believers held their second Congress on Evangelism last month in Kyoto. A 1980 church survey revealed that there are still 1,866 cities and villages throughout Japan with no church. Furthermore, speakers stressed, Westerners are increasingly being edged out of Asia, leaving an evangelistic void for Japan to fill. The 2,300 participants appeared to accept the challenge, and about 100 youths stood to indicate their commitment to missionary service. The first congress was also held in Kyoto in 1974.

Ministers of South Africa’s Dutch Reformed church declared that the nation’s official racial segregation policy “cannot be defended scripturally” and called for racial equality. In a letter in a weekly religious journal the 123 signers, including a member of the church’s executive committee and other influential ministers, said a social order built on racial separation or apartheid, is “unacceptable.” The letter called for scrapping several of the basic laws of apartheid, including the ban on marriages between different races and the Group Areas Act, which requires the races to live apart in designated neighborhoods.

North American Scene

The shortage of Roman Catholic priests may soon become a crisis in the United States. Researchers indicate that the Catholic church in this country will have 50 percent fewer active clergymen by the end of the century than it has today. Seminarians have declined from 48,000 in 1966 to 11,500 this year. While the number of priests declines, members of the church are increasing—rising to 51 million in 1981, with the largest gain in 16 years. Many Catholics see celibacy as a deterrent to the priesthood. Some suggest that requirement will eventually be dropped, although Pope John Paul II strongly supports it. Many Catholic bishops are looking to “lay ministries” to take up the slack.

A Baptist seminary stressing biblical inerrancy has been accredited 10 years after its founding. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accredited Mid-America Baptist Seminary, Memphis, Tennessee. Although not affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, the seminary has drawn most of its support from Southern Baptist congregations. All professors are Southern Baptists. Founder and president of the seminary is B. Gray Allison, formerly a professor at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

A generation of young adults has been lost by the United Church of Christ (UCC), according to a study by that denomination. The study, done by the UCC’S board for homeland ministries, indicated that many children of the baby boom—young adults now between 14 and 34—skipped membership in their parents’ denomination. Persons over 65 now make up a disproportionate number of UCC members. The study noted that although 45 percent of America’s population are young adults, that age group accounts for only 25 percent of the UCC. In addition, only 32 percent of UCC members currently have children under 18.

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