Who's to Blame for the Richard Robertses?

Looks like another one of them high-up Christian leaders got caught with his hands in the cookie jar. Apparently, it's one his wife bought on her $39,000 shopping spree.

I was reading the newspaper at Riley's a while back. Seems that Richard Roberts resigned as head of Oral Roberts University because these former professors said he was spending money left and right on himself and his family. They filed this lawsuit claiming he had a lavish lifestyle. He ain't the first Christian leader to step down because of a financial scandal. If we want him to be the last, we gotta put the blame right where it belongs.

The blame's with us.

Whether you give your money to a big fancy university or a little country church, you need to be willing to ask the tough questions about how the money's being spent. You're not gonna have to deal with the school president sending his daughter on the university jet for a senior trip, but you might need to ask why a golf club membership is listed under spiritual development in the church budget.

Folks at Unity First can get pretty riled with me when I ask questions during some of our business meetings. God didn't tell me to fork over my money blindly. Leaders gotta be held accountable, and honest ones ain't gonna be afraid or get all indignant by folks that ask questions.

It was up to that school's board of regents to ask the tough questions to make sure the money was being spent right. Some folks think this board was a big old rubber stamp for this Roberts fellow. If that's the case, the whole lot of them should be chased out of there.

It goes the same for all of us. Churches and other religious bodies can't spend money the way they want and tell the folks giving them the money that it's not really their beeswax. If you contribute, you got the right to ask questions and expect straight answers. Some folks will label you a complainer or maybe question your motives, but don't pay them any mind. For the good of the church and the good of God's work, you gotta be brave enough to ask. It's always easiest to do nothing.

By the way, I didn't know what a regent was so I looked it up in the dictionary. Seems it's "a person who exercises the ruling power in a kingdom during the minority, absence or disability of the sovereign." Guess that means Richard Roberts fancies himself as the sovereign one. I got news for him. He ain't by a long shot.