Oral Roberts Gets Taken By God While Rod Parsley Gets Taken To The Cleaners

As a tribute to the late Oral Roberts, Rod Parsley decided to make a plea for money because the supernatural was involved in his shaky finances. It was Oral Roberts who told his TV flock that "God was going to call me back" if he didn't raise $8m for his ministry. He actually raised the money on that line (one donor gave $1m).

Parsley's request has been smaller, but no less theatrical: "Will you help me take back what the devil stole?" The problem with Parsley's request is that the "devil" in this case was a two-year-old whose parents won a $3m law suit against World Harvest Ministries because he was disciplined way too harshly at Parsley's Church's day care center ("Cuddle Care")

... and beaten by the same man who years earlier was accused of the same abuse in the same place! Rod Parsley is evidently not a good judge of character. In the first incident, Richard Vaughan, an employee of the school, but with no background or license to teach, insisted that the child received a skull fracture in a tussle with another two-year-old!

from Right Wing Watch:

The ruling stated that "Vaughan's trial testimony regarding the incident was inconsistent both with previous accounts he gave and with the testimony of other witnesses" and that nobody from WHC even inquired about any injuries supposedly suffered by the other child (E.Y.) and that "E.Y.'s father insisted his son had not collided with Z.C. and had not been injured in any incident with Z.C."

And as horrific as that incident might seem, the Faietas (parents of the child in the lawsuit) found out that trying to approach Parsley or anyone else at World Harvest Ministries would result in a total shutout:

When, however, Lacey Faieta returned to WHC two days later and attempted to meet and discuss the matter with Jack Johnson, WHC's headmaster, he refused, telling her he had been advised not to speak with the Faietas. The next week WHC sent the Faietas a letter ordering them not to come on the property and threatening them with criminal prosecution for trespass if they returned to the school. The letter contained no exceptions and provided the Faietas with no means to schedule any further meetings with WHC personnel. The Faietas received no further communication from WHC.

For more detailed coverage, read Pam's House Blend ("The Devil Stole Rod Parsley's Brain") or Right Wing Watch.

Oral Roberts was the founder of the "prosperity gospel" game and was eulogized by the likes of Pat Robertson and Joel Osteen. He was also one of the leaders of Christofascism and through his school, ORU (Oral Roberts University) gave us such outstanding Christian leaders as Ted Haggard, Kathie Lee Gifford, Kenneth Copeland, Michele Bachmann and Ned Flanders.

So now that Oral Roberts is dead, who is going to take the mantle of "world's greatest moralizing moron?" My bets are on Pat Robertson. True, he does not pronounce the word "anus" like Roberts did ("ah-nus") and it's more than likely that Robertson will be declared totally senile by his son Gordon, but Robertson is more well-known than his son and after his passing, my bets will be on Franklin Graham, Billy Graham's son and stern Fundamentalist friend to non other than the Divine Sarah (no, not Bernhardt, but Palin.)

Then again, the title of "world's greatest moalizing moron" might just go to Rod Parsley. After all, calling a justifiable child abuse settlement a "demonically inspired financial attack," keeping a child abuser in his employ at the same position after a serious attack, telling his congregation that the USA was founded in order to eradicate Islam and spewing militaristic phrases that hint of religious intolerance and violence, well, those actions might be construed as both moralizing and stupid.

Of course, the race is still running and there are more Ted Haggards and Jimmy Swaggarts to be found out.

Stay tuned...