Roberts Not Counting on Hospital Miracle

Evangelist Oral Roberts, the faith healer who built a religious empire on the credo “Expect a miracle,” says he can’t wait for divine intervention to save his ministry’s hospital and medical school.

Faced with $25 million in debts, mainly because of a decline in donations, Roberts said this week that he will close the hospital by the end of the year and the medical school next year. His home, four other ministry-owned houses and a university housing complex will be sold to pay off the debts, he said.

University Financially Secure

“I hope we can look back at this and say this wasn’t a failure,” the 71-year-old pioneer of television evangelism told reporters. “I don’t think it’s as bad a day as it seems. I think we’ll look back on this and think it’s the right thing.”

Roberts said the action would help keep the 4,300-student Oral Roberts University financially secure.

Mayor Rodger Randle agreed, adding that the City of Faith hospital, which opened in 1981, “was born in controversy and was a big gamble on the proposition that a national medical market could be created.”

Roberts built the hospital with a 777-bed capacity, but state regulators only approved filling 294 beds, and the highest average occupancy was 148 in 1984. Still Roberts said, “I would do it again.”

The ministry’s financial problems were compounded by a drop in monthly contributions that Roberts blamed on a “spirit of skepticism” in the wake of scandals involving fellow evangelists Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart.

Said God Would Call Him

Roberts, himself, caused a furor in 1986 when he announced he needed $8 million for his medical school by April 1, 1987, or God would end his life. The money was raised.

The hospital, part of a futuristic complex with 60-story, 30-story and 20-story gold-tiled towers, will be leased and the revenue generated dedicated to the ministry’s endowment, Roberts said.

Officials did not have an estimate of how much money the various actions would generate. “After the dust has settled, we’ll take a look at it,” said chief fiscal officer Mark Swadener.

Edwards said 600 hospital staff members would be affected.

Many will be able to find work at one of the city’s five other hospitals, predicted Ira Schlezinger, vice president of Hillcrest Medical Center in Tulsa.

Edwards said 147 students are enrolled in the medical school, and about 100 faculty members are on contract until the end of the school year. Non-graduating students will be assisted in obtaining transfers to other medical schools, he said.

Students expressed optimism.

“It’s not going to stop me from being a doctor and it’s not going to stop me from being a medical missionary,” said David Chorley.