Obit: Oral Roberts at 91

[dhett]

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/12/15/oral.roberts/?imw=Y
http://kai03.qwest.com/WindowsLive/...ient=landingpage&qid=j4pesrvelodzgl55xl0kgi45

Roberts, along with Billy Graham, were pioneers in using television as a medium for ministry of the gospel, at a time when television was not yet widely accepted among Christians. He was instrumental in bringing Pentecostalism into the mainstream, and was ahead of the curve socially in that his television programs featured people of different races together.

 

[Ultimajock]

Roberts, along with Billy Graham, were pioneers in using television as a medium for ministry of the gospel, at a time when television was not yet widely accepted among Christians.

...depending on your definition of "Christian." Bishop Fulton J. Sheen had been three years on DuMont against NBC's Milton Berle on Tuesday nights by the time Roberts started his televangelism career, and there had been numerous other religious programs, about 98% of them associated with Christian denominations of some sort (the remainder being mainly Jewish), on NBC, CBS, ABC and DuMont before that. Your phrasing here infers a narrow definition of "Christian" that, as a Christian, I must object to, as Roberts was largely responsible for laying the groundwork for the takeover of the Republican Party by the radically irrational religionists pulling its strings nowadays, in vast divergence from the actual teachings of Christ as documented in the Gospels...

 

[dhett]

Roberts, along with Billy Graham, were pioneers in using television as a medium for ministry of the gospel, at a time when television was not yet widely accepted among Christians.

...depending on your definition of "Christian." Bishop Fulton J. Sheen had been three years on DuMont against NBC's Milton Berle on Tuesday nights by the time Roberts started his televangelism career, and there had been numerous other religious programs, about 98% of them associated with Christian denominations of some sort (the remainder being mainly Jewish), on NBC, CBS, ABC and DuMont before that. Your phrasing here infers a narrow definition of "Christian" that, as a Christian, I must object to, as Roberts was largely responsible for laying the groundwork for the takeover of the Republican Party by the radically irrational religionists pulling its strings nowadays, in vast divergence from the actual teachings of Christ as documented in the Gospels...

Roberts was never political. And the inference is yours alone, not mine.

 

[Bob1370]

"Bishop Fulton J. Sheen had been three years on DuMont against NBC's Milton Berle on Tuesday nights by the time Roberts started his televangelism career..."

And Neilsen reported that Sheen drew audiences of 30 million and more a week both on his DuMont and ABC network run on Tuesday nights (1951-57) and his later syndicated show (1961-68). Those are numbers that no TV series of any kind has generated since Jerry Seinfeld packed it in 11 years ago.

Sheen's audiences in the 50s and 60s still haven't been equalled or surpassed by any later TV preacher. But as you can see from the reruns of his shows on EWTN and TBN which continue today, more recent televangelists still try to copy his style, if not necessarily his substance.

 

[NeilRattigan]

I've enjoyed watching Bishop Sheen's tapes and kinescopes on EWTN. His messages remain timeless....not to mention his sense of humor.