c. 2007 Religion News Service

Oral Roberts University president resigns

OKLAHOMA CITY (RNS) The embattled president of Oral Roberts University has resigned amid intense scrutiny over allegations of financial, political and other wrongdoing at the charismatic Christian university in Tulsa.

Richard Roberts, son of the university’s namesake founder, submitted a resignation letter to ORU’s board of regents Friday (Nov. 23).

The resignation came just days before the board was scheduled to hear the results of an outside investigation of allegations against him and his wife, Lindsay.

In his letter, Roberts said, “I love ORU with all my heart. I love the students, faculty, staff and administration, and I want to see God’s best for all of them.“

A statement from the Rev. George Pearsons, chairman of ORU’s board of regents, said regents would meet Monday and Tuesday (Nov. 26 and 27) to determine action in the search process for a new president.

Roberts, a “lifetime spiritual regent” on the university board and chairman and CEO of Oral Roberts Ministries, had placed himself on an indefinite leave of absence Oct. 17 as university president. But he had said he expected to return to the post in “God’s timing.“

He was the second president in the 42-year history of the 4,000-student university, succeeding his father, Oral Roberts, in 1993.

Pearsons said executive regent Billy Joe Daugherty would continue to assume administrative responsibilities in the office of the president, working with chancellor Oral Roberts.

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The allegations that sparked the turmoil over Richard Roberts’ presidency were raised in a lawsuit filed Oct. 2 by three former ORU professors who claim efforts to act as whistleblowers cost them their jobs. The lawsuit in Tulsa County District Court alleges illegal political activity and lavish, unchecked spending by Richard Roberts and his family.

Two weeks ago (Nov. 12), tenured faculty approved a motion voicing “no confidence” in Richard Roberts and calling for “greater faculty governance and transparency of university finances.”

But faculty leaders said the vote should not be construed as a judgment of guilt or innocence with regard to the lawsuit, but rather a result of years of shortcomings by Roberts.

“I will add, too, that the tenured faculty met with Richard and Oral Roberts … and had a very beneficial and open discussion,” Linda Gray, an ORU English professor, told Religion News Service in an e-mail. “The faculty consistently expressed support for the Robertses, their ministry and the university as well as expressed situations we’d like to alter.“

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_ Bobby Ross Jr.

Blair, afraid of being labeled a `nutter,’ kept faith private

LONDON (RNS) Former British prime minister Tony Blair says his religious faith, although rarely expressed in public, was “hugely important” to him but he feared he might be viewed as a “nutter” if he spoke out about it.

Blair, an Anglican who is widely expected to convert to Roman Catholicism within the next few weeks, told the BBC in an TV interview scheduled to be shown on Dec. 2 that “I don’t actually think there is anything wrong in having a religious conviction.”

But in Britain, unlike America, “it’s difficult if you talk about religious faith in our political system” and that if you do, “frankly, people … think you’re a nutter.”

During his 10 years in power, Blair was reluctant to discuss his religious faith, and his communications chief, Alastair Campbell, once tried to explain it by telling journalists that “we don’t do God” at the prime minister’s office.

Blair contrasted his situation with that of President Bush in the United States, where “you can talk about religious faith and people say, `yes, that’s fair enough,’ and it is something they respond to quite naturally.”

“If I am honest about it,” he said, “yes, of course, it (religious faith) was hugely important. There is no point denying it.”

But Blair remains reluctant to go into any details about his religion, including reports that he will join his wife Cherie as a Roman Catholic in a ceremony, possibly in December.

His friends are convinced the former prime minister’s life has a solid religious base. Campbell, despite his earlier remarks, now insists that his ex-boss “does do God, in quite a big way.”

_ Al Webb

Vietnamese church aims to replace gardens lost in Katrina

NEW ORLEANS (RNS) In one of the more unusual recovery projects to be born out of months of intense community planning, parishioners at Mary Queen of Vietnam Catholic Church have begun laying the groundwork for an urban farm, with the hope of rebuilding the rich communal vegetable gardens that once mimicked rural Vietnam in suburban New Orleans.

The working farm will be on a 20-acre parcel next to the church and likely will include a mix of smaller family and larger commercial lots, one or more fish-raising ponds and space for raising chickens or goats.

The project is being designed for free by the Tulane University architecture school’s City Center and Louisiana State University’s Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture.

Beyond that, the project envisions a new open-air market where leaseholders could sell their produce to residents, local groceries or restaurants, supplanting the Saturday morning market nearby.

“They came to us with an outline of what they wanted us to do,” said Elizabeth Mossop, director of LSU’s school of landscape architecture. “All the operations will basically be organic. They’re very interested in water collection and recycling water on site. And we’re very interested in making it environmentally innovative in terms of materials, design and so forth.”

The project would restore the distinctive, relatively large-scale collective gardening that for the past 30 years transformed parts of the eastern New Orleans landscape into visions of Southeast Asia.

For decades, hundreds of Vietnamese families living around the church maintained _ and still maintain _ small backyard gardens to supply their own tables.

Katrina wreaked havoc on the larger communal gardens, and their elderly caretakers have been unable to repair them, said Peter Nguyen, the manager of the garden project.

The idea for a larger, more sophisticated communal garden is the vision of the Rev. Vien Nguyen, pastor of Mary Queen of Vietnam, said Peter Nguyen, who works for the Mary Queen of Vietnam Community Development Corp., a separate but related parish-based nonprofit.

The corporation recently purchased the land for $550,000, said Nguyen, a farmer who recently moved to New Orleans from Parrish, Fla., where he grew tropical fruit trees. His hope is that the farm will open for business in mid-2009.

_ Bruce Nolan

Quote of the Day: U2 frontman Bono

(RNS) “I think knowing the Scriptures helped. I think I could debate with them. I hope they had appreciated that, and they knew I had respect for their beliefs. Even if I wasn’t the best example of how to live your life, they treated me with respect. I’m nervous of zealotism, even though I have to admit I’m a zealot for these issues of extreme poverty.”

_ Anti-poverty activist and U2 frontman Bono, quoted by The Washington Post about how he has been able to engage more conservative U.S. legislators.

KRE DS END RNS