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John McCain had a good night at Rick Warren's forum on faith and character and so on. Barack Obama had a better night. How much better? We'll find out in a few months.

It isn't that Obama out performed McCain. He didn't "out Jesus" him or "out evangelical-ize" him. The crowd seemed to favor McCain a bit.

But that's the thing.

He didn't need to. For Obama a draw was a massive win.

Here was an audience of evangelicals in one of the most conservative counties in the United States. They interrupted him with applause on numerous occasions. They gave him a standing ovation. And HE is the Democratic nominee for President of the United States. Think this ever happened to John Kerry in 2004?

This post comes from Ian Spier, an ORU graduate:

The ORU scandal has many an alumni concerned--concerned that a university with already questionable credibility has now lost whatever shred of it remained, and concerned, as a result, that their degree (arguably, a good one) has been devalued.

I think, as alumni, that we SHOULD be worried, and our worry should motivate us into action. Much like shareholders in a corporation, ORU alumni are stakeholders in the university. We draw value from the piece of paper, the diploma, that has been granted us. We expect the administration--the president and the Board of Regents--to guard that value.

Here's the glaring truth that ORU students are slow to grasp: that university exists for us. It is ours, not the Roberts', not the Board's, not Tulsa's--ours. Here's how it works:

- The Board of Regents exists to serve and guard the "public interest" (ORU is non-profit institution)
- The "public interest," broadly, is the value of education to a society. Narrowly, it is the value of education to the particular students who choose to attend ( i.e., you and me).
- Therefore, the Board exists to serve the students and has a fiduciary responsibility to guard public monies, student monies, and the student interest.
- Given this, the Board appoints a president to run the university in accordance with the responsibility which has been entrusted to it. The president serves at the will of the Board, derives his (or her) authority from it, and must discharge his duties in accordance with the duties placed on the Board.
- Therefore, the president exists to serve the students and the guard the student and public interest.

One sees the obvious "thread." Both the Board and the president exist because of the students. A university is not a fiefdom ("ministry"), headed by some feudal landlord ("televangelist"), who mandates services from his tenants ("students"). It is an institution accountable to, among other entities, society at large and the student body in particular.

While at ORU, it was drilled into our heads that "attendance at ORU is a privilege, not a right." This maxim that the Roberts have forced on students is not only false, but also a false dichotomy. It is neither a "privilege" nor a "right" to attend ORU. It is a "choice." When that choice is made, certain rights and duties attach, both on the part of the students and the administration. Students and alumni, then, have both the right and obligation to demand not only that the university be "accountable"--this is the baseline, the bare minimum--but that it promote a quality, viable, credible education. When the Board and/or president fail in their fiduciary responsibility, then they fail to discharge the duties for which their office exists in the first place.

The broader point of this analysis is this: leadership at ORU, and within the church more broadly, proceeds not on the notion of "appointment by God," which only serves to make that leadership inviolable, insulated, and unaccountable; nor on the notion of "electoral accountability," which would make leadership "political," with all the attendant and well-known machinations. Rather, leadership and, correlatively, followership are social constructs. They are social choices we as Christians make each and every day. Leadership proceeds on what our collective ideas about leadership are. Those ideas are informed by Scripture; by our experience; by quasi-intrinsic notions of fairness, right, and justice; by history; and by plain, old common sense.

A recent meeting of leading evangelical leaders issued a statement about evangelicalism that read, in part:

“We have become deeply concerned about some movements within traditional evangelicalism that seem to be diminishing the church’s life and leading us away from our historic beliefs and practices. On the one hand, we are troubled by the idolatry of personal consumerism and the politicization of faith; on the other hand, we are distressed by the unchallenged acceptance of theological and moral relativism.”

A recent meeting of leading evangelical leaders issued a statement about evangelicalism that read, in part:

“We have become deeply concerned about some movements within traditional evangelicalism that seem to be diminishing the church’s life and leading us away from our historic beliefs and practices. On the one hand, we are troubled by the idolatry of personal consumerism and the politicization of faith; on the other hand, we are distressed by the unchallenged acceptance of theological and moral relativism.”

The newest controversy at Oral Roberts University is most easily summarized this way:

Three professors, John Swails, Tim Brooker and Paulita Brooker, were fired for allegedly voicing concerns about the university's involvement in Tulsa's recent mayoral race — a move that would jeopardize the school's tax exempt status.

"We turned it over to the board of trustees, and at that point we all found ourselves separated from the university," Swails said.

The professors' lawsuit alleges that Roberts took money from the university's coffers and remodeled his family home 11 times in 14 years, spent more than $26,000 on his daughter's senior trip and even required university employees to complete her homework.

The suit also alleges that Roberts' wife, Lindsey, spent more than $39,000 of the school's money on clothing and ran up more than $800 monthly in cell phone bills, which included hundreds of text messages in the middle of the night to "underage males who had been provided phones at university expense."

"I am not intimidated by blackmail and extortion," Roberts said in response to the accusations.

The Roberts will be on Larry King Live this evening. King is an old friend of Oral Roberts, believe it or not. It will likely be a very friendly venue for Richard and Lindsay Roberts.

Unfortunately for them, this is a scandal that seems to be gathering intensity. Today, a private group representing ORU students demanded Roberts resign.