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By some published accounts, contributions plummeted from $88 million in 1980 to $55 million last year. Another index of trouble: Arbitron ratings indicate that Oral Roberts' weekly TV congregation has dropped by more than half since 1977, though that is partly counterbalanced by an added daily show with his son as host.
Roberts' flamboyant fund raising has aroused criticism from secular commentators. A Tulsa radio personality joshed last week that a "900-foot Lassie" had told him to complete a 60-story dog-and-cat hospital and that noncontributors would die. More soberly, the Tribune editorial informed Roberts that his portrayal of a "petty, vengeful or idiotic God" is "close to sacrilege." General Manager David Lane of WFAA-TV, the offended Dallas station, stated that Oral's pitch "violates everything I believe in from a moral standpoint." But a Roberts aide, Jan Dargatz, explained that God has "always given Oral impossible goals, and if Oral can't get it done, there's a possibility of sacrifice in the process." A concerned engineering student at Oral Roberts University expressed a different theology. Said he: "God is greater than that. He doesn't need to use cheap tricks."