Comments

  4. And-U-Say says

    God can be an asshole that way. Love the sinner, but hate the fact that they can’t meet this year’s goals.

  5. AdamK says

    (TypePad’s working. How unusual.)

    I would have thought he was dead already. If you had asked me, I would have guessed he died years ago.

    What a shame he wasted his brief time being a nasty old bigot and lying people out of their money. He left the world worse off.

  6. semillama says

    My dad’s folks brought him to an Oral Roberts revival when he was a lad, so that Oral Roberts could cure my father’s blind eye. He laid hands on my dad and prayed. The effect, according to my father? A headache for the rest of the day.

  8. says

    So, now that he’s dead, and with the back economy and everything, do people get that $8 million back?

    P.S. Thomas @2: You rawk! Expect that comment to go viral!

  11. mk says

    “In the midst of the turmoil, the fear, the anxiety that’s in our nation and in our world, as I was walking and meditating, I heard the voice of God. I’ve heard that voice many times; it’s familiar to me, and there’s no way that I can fail to understand it’s His voice because I’m familiar with it.”— Oral Roberts.

    Isn’t that what they call schizophrenia?

  12. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawncr0FDc8gdl7yJBz0SJ15D0etcTIOtL0s says

    Cue De mortuis nil nisi bonum tskers in 5… 4… 3…

    Ron “bad taste” Sullivan

  13. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawncr0FDc8gdl7yJBz0SJ15D0etcTIOtL0s says

    Oops. Too late already.

  15. Alverant says

    I remember the MST3K episode Space Children. The guy who played the Professor on Gilligan’s Island played a drunken abusive step-father who get killed telepathically by the Space Blob half way through the movie. And as his body is being carried off by paramedics:

    Mike Tom and Crow: Hooray!!
    Crow: Wait are you sure he’s dead?
    Mike: Oh yeah.
    Mike Tom and Crow: Hooray!!

    I don’t believe in an afterlife, but if there is one I hope he has to explain himself to all the people he’s defrauded and justify what he did to all those who have suffered because of his actions.

  20. Alverant says

    Ryan F
    When Molly Ivins died, there was cheering
    When Ted Kennedy died, there was cheering
    When Dr.Tiller died, there was cheering
    Were the causes of those who cheered damaged? No. So why should ours?

  22. Eidolon says

    What’s with the stupid first, etc posts – high school out early today?

    Ryan:This fraud bilked millions out of people and it does not do the godbot cause any good mourning this huckster.

  23. John Morales says

    Ryan F,

    It doesn’t do the atheist cause any good to rejoice in the death of others.

    I think you’re confusing ‘atheist’ with ‘humanist’.

    Personally, I think it’s a good thing that another American Pentecostal charismatic faith-healing money-bilking television evangelist is now historic.

    PS He’ll be in the 8th circle of Hell, if Dante had it right. ;)

  24. says

    “Atheist cause.” Fuck off with that.

    OR’s built an empire on lies. He was a socially sanctioned con artist. That was his life. His death does nothing for anyone.

  26. Mr T says

    You laugh now, but as we speak he is being reincarnated somewhere as Handjob Roberts.

    Into the future we can expect:

    Mutual Masturbation Roberts
    Dry Humping Roberts
    Autofellatio Roberts
    Fisting Roberts
    Anal Roberts
    Shocker Roberts
    Skull Fucking Roberts

    … and a host of others which probably aren’t appropriate to mention in mixed company.

  29. mk says

    @Ryan F…

    Seriously? There is not a single individual obnoxious and evil enough for you? No one?

  30. kc5tty says

    ….. And then the thought hit me>…..

    WHY DIDN’T HE HEAL HIMSELF???????

    – or – does that “laying on hands” crap not really work?

  31. shatfat says

    I laughed at the pink slip joke, and I’m only slightly ashamed of myself. Oral Roberts was an evil, evil man.

  32. Ryan F. says

    You people don’t have to mourn his death, I just don’t think it reflects very well on you people as human beings to rejoice in it. And pointing out that religious people rejoiced in the deaths of other people doesn’t prove anything, except that you’re not as different from them as you think you are.

  33. Gyeong Hwa Pak, the Pikachu of Anthropology says

    I can only feel pity. He spent a good part of his life indulging in delusions and tricking countless others into believing him. What a waste of life.

    A whole life spent
    preaching the word of God
    and yet he went
    Like an eaten kod

  34. Naked Bunny with a Whip says

    Please, everyone! Show the proper respect for the death of this lying, bigoted crook.

  35. Janine, She Wolf Of Pharyngula, OM says

    Posted by: Ryan F | December 15, 2009 5:47 PM

    It doesn’t do the atheist cause any good to rejoice in the death of others.

    Are we allowed to speak ill of the dead?

  36. Antiochus Epiphanes says

    Vader enjoyed a good laugh when Obi Wan bit the evaporation farm, too. And look what happened to him*.

    *Actually, he was turned away from the dark side to live on in infinity as a hologram hovering near Luke Skywalker.

  37. shatfat says

    Concern troll is concerned.

    It’s the religionists who say they are different from US, not the other way around, poser.

    The religious affiliations of US prison inmates somewhat put the lie to their arguments, although they always answer that with the No True Scotsman fallacy (as if they think they’re fooling anyone).

  38. Martin says

    Ryan, I just don’t see why I should feign remorse and sadness over a bad man’s death. If using ridicule to remind people what a fraud Roberts was in life is what you want to call “rejoicing,” okay, whatever.

  39. murtagh says

    To quote the Hitch speaking of a similar event, “If they’d given him an enema he could be buried in a matchbox.”

  40. Josh, Official SpokesGay says

    Steps should be taken to make sure he remains dead.

    Comedy. Gold. Larry Jewell wins teh intertubes.

  41. Gyeong Hwa Pak, the Pikachu of Anthropology says

    Ryan F.

    I don’t rejoice in the death of others. However, keep in mind we are criticising what his life has stood for. He spent his life lying to others that they can escape death through his brand of faith and conned many.

    It’s unfortunate that he passed away, especially since he passed away thinking that the evil he’s done is good.

  43. WowbaggerOM says

    You people don’t have to mourn his death, I just don’t think it reflects very well on you people as human beings to rejoice in it.

    He spent his life lying and bilking credulous people (i.e. deluded Christians who believed his drivel) out of their life savings. Why should I be sad that a person like that is no longer around to ruin people’s lives?

    Trust me, I’d be reacting exactly the same way if a godsless scam-artist was dead. His nonsensical religion was just the table he set his three-card-monte business on.

  46. Naked Bunny with a Whip says

    I just don’t think it reflects very well on you people as human beings to rejoice in it.

    I don’t think it reflects well on you as a human being to worry about a political cause over the death of a man who promoted suffering and hate. Try being a little less self-absorbed.

  49. says

    Ryan F – Think of all the uncounted people who suffered and even probably died because of this phony’s “healing.” It is them I mourn, and their memory I would insult by not expressing at least satisfaction at the passing of their exploiter.

  50. WowbaggerOM says

    Janine asked:

    Are we allowed to speak ill of the dead?

    How about if it’s the honest truth, as it would be if we pointed out that Oral Roberts was a wretched dishonest scumbag who profited by Lying for Jebus and fleecing people who needed the money far more than he did?

  51. Screechy Monkey says

    “It doesn’t do the atheist cause any good to rejoice in the death of others”

    It won’t do the atheist cause any good when I have a glass of scotch tonight, but I’m still going to enjoy it.

  52. Hank Fox says

    Hitchens on Jerry Falwell: “Kick the shit out of him and you could bury him in a matchbox.”

    Can’t wait to hear what he says about Oral.

  53. shatfat says

    Well, GHP, he did die like all the rest of us but I mean, so what? You don’t suffer when you’re dead. What I resent is that he induced so, so many to suffer so he could live a life of luxury.

    No justice in this world … so long as people give conmen like him a pass.

  54. Mr T says

    Ryan F. #33:

    You people don’t have to mourn his death, I just don’t think it reflects very well on you people as human beings to rejoice in it. And pointing out that religious people rejoiced in the deaths of other people doesn’t prove anything, except that you’re not as different from them as you think you are.

    Oh, we’re different, alright, or at least I am.

    I, for one, don’t think he’s in either heaven or hell, or purgatory for that matter. I don’t think he can feel anything now or sense any ill will coming from commenters on this blog — because, well you know, he doesn’t have a soul, spirit or ghost. I’m not going to mock him in front of his family. I’m not planning on shouting it from the rooftops, and I doubt any atheist will be commenting about it publicly. Then again, I’m not buying him a fucking beer, either.

    Please try to keep a sense of proportion. This is just a blog post with some comments.

  55. WRMartin says

    Yahoo! Oral! Roberts! Dead!
    (coudn’t resist)

    Ryan F.,
    Your concern is noted. Now please do fuck off. We’re celebrating here.

  56. Ryan F. says

    I’m glad some of you can give legitimate responses. And it’s sad that one of you actually called me a troll simply because I have a different opinion. I don’t think his life is my ideal of a life well-spent either, but it’s just kind of pathetic that the day his death is announced, the majority of people here whip out their best one-liner about crooks, christianists, and alike. I actually don’t doubt that he believed a lot of what he said. He probably believed in miracles and probably believed a lot of other things we here find ridiculous, but because he made money off of it, that doesn’t necessarily make him a crook. A lot of people believe in miracles, that the Bible is the inerrant word of god, and all that other nonsense, and many of them are willing to pay money for things that we find laughable. Then again how many atheists walk around in T-shirts they bought from Richard Dawkins, or own any merchandise from an atheist organization? He made money for what he believed in, we make money for what we believe in. I doubt anyone here has concrete evidence of bad intentions on his part, so you’re all just speculating his motives.

  57. shatfat says

    @46

    I was going to point out that these mean the same thing, but then I finally … slow on the uptake … yeah …

    Jesus prepares to receive Oral

    Heaven? No way, Oral’s going down.

    (Otoh, heaven and hell are imaginary, whereas bj’s are real. So there’s that.)

  58. Janine, She Wolf Of Pharyngula, OM says

    Ryan F, here is the difference. People wearing the products sold by Dawkins are not expecting a miracle from up high or think that they are currying favor with a big sky daddy. Use a better analogy.

  60. Gyeong Hwa Pak, the Pikachu of Anthropology says

    Well, GHP, he did die like all the rest of us but I mean, so what? You don’t suffer when you’re dead. What I resent is that he induced so, so many to suffer so he could live a life of luxury.

    That’s my point. At the end he’s just like the rest of us. But his theology insists that he will be granted eternal life for believing and we suffer death. In the end he dies anyway. What I’m saying is that I won’t be parading now that he’s dead but rather I’m saying that HE’S EVIL and that I will criticize him all I want.

  61. shatfat says

    He believed in the miracle of feeding marks a load of horseshit and getting cold, hard cash in return.

  62. Ben says

    When I first heard the news that Oral Roberts had died, I put my hands together and said, “why?! Why God?! Why couldn’t you take Pat Robertson with him!?” Figuratively, of course.

  63. Glenn says

    “The God Deception” should be his life story. I pity believers, but I really loath the con men who lie to them.

  65. Moggie says

    This the Pharyngula residence? Yeah, got your furniture delivery here. The “Margaret Dumont” extra-large fainting couch? Hope you don’t want this upstairs, it weighs a ton.

  67. shatfat says

    Now, Ben, if there were a God, He wouldn’t waste his time with an irrelevant old fart African war profiteer like Robertson.

    My sources say Joel O’Steen’s at the top of the ol’ smite list.

  68. truthspeaker says

    Ryan F., I think you’re missing the historical context behind PZ’s post. In January 1987, during a fundraising drive, a tearful Roberts announced to a television audience that unless he raised $8 million by that March, God would “call him home.

    That provides the context to PZ’s joke about the pink slip, and also provides evidence of what a sleazeball Roberts was.

  69. lose_the_woo says

    It’s a sad commentary on civilized society that a scam artist like will die and get showered with post-mortem praises.

    He’s a crook and a charlatan. Just because he believes in magic doesn’t change that. He conned desparate people into believing that he could perform feats of healing through the guise of conjuring. He prayed for them while preying on them.

    Religious morality? No thanks.

  73. Cappy says

    Let the family infighting for the spoils of his evangelical financial empire begin!

    Popcorn anyone?

  81. Joffan says

    Ryan, I don’t think it’s particularly his death that has people expressing their disgust for Oral Roberts. It’s just that he’s in the news; and as it’s likely to be the last significant time that happens, it’s a good chance to mention what a fraudulent egomaniac he has been. And celebrate that he has finally perforce stopped being such a blight on society.

    How adverse does someone’s life have to be before we can look with approval on their death? I’m trying to avoiding Godwinning here….

  85. David Marjanović says

    This is the moment to ask: Where does the name Oral come from? Was it made up by parents who just wanted two syllables that fit in the English sound system and didn’t know the word exists already? Or what?

    … and a host of others which probably aren’t appropriate to mention in mixed company.

    ROTFLMAO!

    I actually don’t doubt that he believed a lot of what he said.

    There is such a thing as ethics of belief.

    It is, for example, evil to be willfully ignorant and act as if one were not ignorant at all.

    It is furthermore grossly irresponsible – and thus evil – not to seek help when apparently suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.

    =================

    Comments 48, 49, 52, and 55 bear repeating.

  86. Ryan F. says

    comments 71 and 72… Wow… registration needs to be turned on and I’m insane because I have a different opinion. Very pathetic little self-congratulating, incestuous clique you have going here.

  88. Haate says

    Oral Roberts called home by Jesus.

    Jesus to find that someone found his cell phone and has been making prank calls on it.

    Oral Roberts to find that Jesus has changed his number to an unlisted number, moved, and left no forwarding address.

  90. Josh, Official SpokesGay says

    Depends. How soon can Mabus get to Oklahoma?

    Gee Jeff, I dunno. . .he likes it . . . brown. How about a goat instead?

  91. Biology Blogger says

    EXPERIMENT TIME:

    If ‘help ma boab’ does not send PZ anymore emails, we know his identity!

  92. godlesswoman says

    The local newscasters here in Detroit went on and on about how much he will be missed and how wonderful he was. Yep, that is how they think swindlers and fear-mungers should be remembered. These same newscasters though that think the H1N1 flu shots are dangerous especially after the recall today.

  93. Joffan says

    Oh yeah, call me sophomoric, but I thought “FIST!” was quite amusing (deliberately or not), in the context of an a-hole called Oral…

  94. sqlrob says

    @Ryan:

    The registration and insanity was not directed at you, it was directed at Markuze. Drop the persecution complex.

  95. Moggie says

    #87:

    comments 71 and 72… Wow… registration needs to be turned on and I’m insane because I have a different opinion.

    Right, it’s all about you, isn’t it? Like the bunny said, try being less self-absorbed.

  97. Janine, She Wolf Of Pharyngula, OM says

    Ryan F, they were not talking about you. There is a certain insane man who like to drop death threats leaving his droppings. Nerd and Chimpy are hardly threatened by the likes of you. Get over yourself.

  98. says

    comments 71 and 72… Wow… registration needs to be turned on

    Um, those comments were in reference to the moron known as David Mabus aka. Markuze aka pzisdead aka mr. Irrelevant.

    Not to you.

  99. Gyeong Hwa Pak, the Pikachu of Anthropology says

    Depends. How soon can Mabus get to Oklahoma?

    Google say’s he’ll be there in just over a day. But Google can’t anticipate border patrol! :)

  100. Eidolon says

    Ryan – you have missed the point, dude. Roberts made his money by bilking people who in most cases probably didn’t have that much to begin with. One of the lowest things anyone can do is to take advantage of someone else in dire straits (not the band, mind you). HWF could he not know he was selling snake oil? Any record of research on his “cures”? As someone pointed out earlier, he was a socially accepted con artist and I gotta be glad there is one less fraud out there.

    And yes, the fighting over alllll that loot will soon begin.

    Have a day.

  101. Nerd of Redhead, OM says

    comments 71 and 72… Wow… registration needs to be turned on and I’m insane because I have a different opinion.

    Ryan F, nothing to do with you, (you are just an annoying concern troll), but rather the sick and truly insane presence of “he who shall not be named”.

  103. mothra says

    Back to the days of Granville Oral Roberts,
    Back to the ways of Granville Oral Roberts,
    Back in the days of poo.
    —
    When an evil person dies, the world is a slightly better place, just as when a good person dies, the world is slightly diminished.

  104. Biology Blogger says

    Markuze is back? Damn Canadians! He was suppose to be in tiny patted up room by now!

  106. says

    Will tonight be the night, Chimpie? Will you finally your FINISHED?

    I doubt it. He’s been haunting (and by haunting I mean drooling all over it like a halfwit, no offense to halfwits of course) my email and my blog for months on and off and still no FINISHED.

  107. Cappy says

    Uh, Ryan F.
    I don’t think the comment about switching on registration was about you.
    I think it referred to the one with a fecal obsession about P.Z.

  108. WowbaggerOM says

    He probably believed in miracles and probably believed a lot of other things we here find ridiculous, but because he made money off of it, that doesn’t necessarily make him a crook.

    Actually, it does. By our standards he was lying to people by pretending to believe in something he could verify as false by applying critical thinking and intellectual honesty but did not, and chose to make millions of dollars out of a lie.

    By the standards of what appears to be Christianity he was a crook as well, because Jesus’ own words seemed to imply he was against the hoarding of vast amounts of wealth for personal use.

    So yeah, he was a crook. A lying, cheating, scumbag crook.

    My only feelings would be for any family who loved him and who will miss having him in their lives; I won’t pretend that there weren’t people who meet that description, since these kind of people are rarely all bad.

    While he does not deserve our respect they do deserve our sympathy. But that isn’t the same as pretending he wasn’t a lying scumbag.

  109. MAJeff, OM says

    He was suppose to be in tiny patted up room by now!

    Why would they take him to a confessional?

  110. Ivan says

    Couldn’t we at least have a comment system that automatically detects and silently rejects duplicate (or near-duplicate) comments?

    This is ridiculous. A team of monkeys could code a better comment system.

  112. Gyeong Hwa Pak, the Pikachu of Anthropology says

    *backhands Ryan F.

    You’re not the only one we’re talking to you know.

  113. Matt Reno says

    I guess Gawd had had enough of Oral. He just tapped him on the head and sent him home. Oral is great and all but sometimes just gets old and boring. I hope he says hi to Colonel Angus when he gets to Heaven[tm].

  114. Biology Blogger says

    #110, hahahahaha

    Markuze,

    Let me warn you, according to most US States, all registered sexual offenders must state they are sexual offenders before going public.

  116. Mr T says

    Wouldn’t that be “Otto Oral Roberts”?

    I thought about going that route. I guess that’s likely, given that Oral was already a name in the family.

    This prophecy stuff is HARD. I will concede that the future may give us slight variations from what I have written, so you’ll need “other ways of knowing” to determine the “spirit” of the message.

    You could say that makes me like Nostradamus, which I guess means I have demolished “the insane one”.

    (rewritten because for some reason my first two attempts got flagged for moderation…)

  117. Josh, Official SpokesGay says

    What a tease. There, there, Chimp. You can have half my FINISHED. I can’t eat it all. It has bacon.

  119. Biology Blogger says

    Markuze,

    You wait till PZ gets tenure. Then he can personally go and kick your ass, no risk.

  120. Jim1138 says

    I’ll pour that bottle of 100 year old Scotch over OR’s grave like I promised. After filtering it through my kidneys first.

  123. Gyeong Hwa Pak, the Pikachu of Anthropology says

    Why would they take him to a confessional?

    Ya’ll might hate me for this, but I don’t get it.

  124. Mr T says

    Yes, it’s true: there is a filter for blocking the N. person’s name, which I did in #117.

    THE MORE YOU KNOW…

  125. pixelfish says

    It’s probably escaped Ryan’s attention that he’s not the insane one for whom registration needs to be turned on.

    Ryan: You weren’t just called a troll…you were called a concern troll. Because you were opposing people airing their opinions about Oral Roberts under the guise (sincere or not) of being concerned about how this would make the “atheist movement” look. A rhetorical tactic that is so common, it has a specific name. People were calling out that tactic.

    Oral Roberts is a con man and snake oil salesman by any minimally rigourous standard. He’s made claims about faith healing and raising the dead. He more or less emotionally blackmailed his followers by telling them that if he didn’t raise enough funds, God would call them home. He lived a lavish lifestyle funded by religious privilege. It’s not damaging the atheist movement at all to point out that this guy is a sleaze bucket or to be glad he’s no longer damaging other people. It’s a point in our favour.

  127. Biology Blogger says

    I just clicked on one of Markuze’s links. Should I clear my cookies before the feds show up??

  128. 'Tis Himself, OM says

    And it’s sad that one of you actually called me a troll simply because I have a different opinion.

    You were called a concern troll. That’s someone who says shit like:

    It doesn’t do the atheist cause any good to rejoice in the death of others.

    We should rejoice that an evil man who stole from the poor and lied to the ignorant is dead. We’re not talking about Uncle Aloysius who picks his nose in public. Oral Roberts was a lying, sanctimonious, homophobic thief. The world is a better place now that he’s dead.

    The people who mourn Roberts’ death wish hate us already. The people who don’t care won’t care what a bunch of people obviously opposed to Roberts are saying. The people who are glad he’s dead will exult with us. So your concern about “the atheist cause” being harmed is misplaced.

    BTW, did you notice I didn’t call you a troll nor did I invite you to fuck off? That’s because I’m trying to do good for the atheist cause.

  129. Natasha Yar-Routh says

    Ryan F,

    Oral Roberts actively made life worse for a lot of queers like me. I don’t care if he was a sincere bigot or not, what maters is he was a hateful bigot like so many of his kind. My reaction is the same as when Falwell poped it, good riddance to bad trash. I don’t miss him and won’t mourn him.

  130. longhorn10 says

    @Glenn #64 – I think we share the same sentiment. Pity the credulous, loathe the manipulative.

  132. Cheryl says

    My grandfather was a baptist preacher. I was sitting with him when Roberts was begging for money in ’87 or gawd would call him home. My grandfather started laughing and said: “If god told me that, I’d say I’m ready to go now, lord, cause I know you don’t need the money.”

    Smart man, my grandfather. He’s the one who got me to think critically about the bible and all the bullshit televangelists were spouting. He never knew I’m Atheist now because of that.

    Yes, count me among those celebrating the death of a lying, bigoted, asshole. Got my dancing shoes on.

  134. Josh, Official SpokesGay says

    @Gyeong

    Why would they take him to a confessional?
    Ya’ll might hate me for this, but I don’t get it.

    I so totally hate you and stuff. MAJeff was making a joke about an error the original commenter made. The OC said someone should be in a “patted up” room. He should have said “padded room.” One gets “patted up” in a confessional.

    Go to your room without supper.

  135. shatfat says

    DC Council voted 11-2 for same sex marriage today. Coincidence?

    McDuff says at 4:11 pm, December 15th, 2009
    – Reply

    Just want to report that here in downtown DC, there have been no lighting strikes, no tornadoes, no earthquakes, no plagues of locusts or anyother signs of heavenly wrath — except I hear Oral Roberts has “kicked the bucket, shuffled of his mortal coil, run down the curtain, and joined the choir invisble.”

    via Wonkette

  137. Natasha Yar-Routh says

    This is the first time I’ve encountered pzisdead, is there a point to his rants or is he as useless as he seems?

  141. Gyeong Hwa Pak, the Pikachu of Anthropology says

    One gets “patted up” in a confessional.

    Um, I think I got it. *dumb look on face

    Go to your room without supper.

    pffft. That’s no punishment. I have a bag of chips in my room.

  142. lose_the_woo says

    #135

    DC Council voted 11-2 for same sex marriage today. Coincidence?

    Religionists–;
    Teh gays++;

  146. Paul says

    @Natasha

    See David Mabus. Something’s up with him lately, I’ve seen his droppings on several other atheist blogs lately. He has a real unhealthy fixation with PZ. Worse than Kwok’s, which was surprising to me.

  147. Copyleft says

    He’ll be missed… but not by me.

    Even Christianity isn’t entirely devoid of worthwhile notions (peace and brotherhood, for example)… but Roberts somehow managed to skip over every one of them in favor a twisted new approach that rejected all measure of social consciousness in favor of selfish greed, and STILL managed to call it “holy.”

    That takes some serious gall–and an utter lack of principle. What a loathsome creature.

  148. Josh, Official SpokesGay says

    pffft. That’s no punishment. I have a bag of chips in my room.

    Not severe enough for you? How about I withhold your spanking then, Mr. Man?

  149. lose_the_woo says

    *summoning Smoggy*

    Oh great prophet, may your wisdom guide us through this troubling time. We beseech you for words of comfort and grace to help console our bereaved hearts.

  151. John Marley says

    Eh, good riddance to bad rubbish. But the world is not any better without him. Unfortunately, his legacy will probably live a long time. Have his survivors started asking for donations yet?

  153. SquidBrandon says

    Natasha Yar-Routh:

    This is the first time I’ve encountered pzisdead, is there a point to his rants or is he as useless as he seems?

    I have yet to notice it defecate out anything that could be considered coherent by any stretch of the imagination.

  154. billygutter01 says

    Ah, Oral Roberts… Good riddance.

    Oral Roberts, perhaps not unsurprisingly, was the centerpiece of the first moral dilemma I ever faced.

    My elderly grandmother relied on her grandkids for assistance in many of the necessities of life. We would stack her firewood, run errands and, (here we come to the crux) fetch her mail from the post office. I had often heard my father bemoaning my grandmother’s habit had of sending sums of money to the Oral Roberts ministry, despite her very limited fixed income. He would chide her gently about sending money that she could ill-afford to part with, to an obvious huckster, muttering that he’d love to chuck those “begging letters” into the garbage at the post office and be done with it.

    As a boy of around 10, I had no real thoughts about the existence of gods, but my dad was just about as close as I could imagine, so I figured he was probably right. So one fateful day while I was returning to my grandma’s with her mail, I noticed one of the “begging letters” from Oral Roberts.

    I was torn. I knew that throwing away mail was wrong, but so was ripping off old ladies!

    Eventually (maybe regrettably) I brought all the mail to her, including the crap from the ministry. Of course, she immediately tore open the “begging letter” and showed me, with great pride, how Oral Roberts himself had signed it. It was so obviously a rubber stamp that, even at that age, I wondered how someone could be so easily duped.

    I still don’t know if I did the right thing. I do know that my grandma was beaming with joy, and I felt like I was lying by not pointing out to her that this letter was as about as special and personalized as pizza coupon.

    She continued to donate, and I continued to bring my grandma her mail.

    So… Oral Roberts, huh?

    Fuck you, Oral Roberts.

  155. Paul says

    Even Christianity isn’t entirely devoid of worthwhile notions (peace and brotherhood, for example)

    Those aren’t Christian notions. Those are part of the popular culture that Christianity absorbs from.

    I’m tired of seeing statements like that. The Prince of Peace himself said “I come not to bring peace, but to bring a sword”. Peace is not a Christian notion. And the only brotherhood you find would rightly be condemned as overly patriotic and xenophobic by anybody not projecting their own values onto the text.

  156. speedweasel says

    Some excellent comments.
    Rev. BDC @48 and Brian @49 sum up my feelings perfectly.

    I get the impression that most people let their own emotions about death inform their response to someone’s passing. As if death somehow changes the playing field and people should show some deference or moderate their position in response to someone reaching the end of their life. It’s a bit like the way people have been mindlessly granting respect to religion for thousands of years. “The dead are beyond criticism.”

    Well fuck that. We’re born, we live then we die. Important principles are at stake and I’m not going to take the day off out of insincere respect for people I despise. My condolences go out to the guy’s immediate family but that’s it. Otherwise, the world contains one less wanker and the rest of us continue on.

  157. Gyeong Hwa Pak, the Pikachu of Anthropology says

    Not severe enough for you? How about I withhold your spanking then, Mr. Man?

    I’ll behave now.

  159. WowbaggerOM says

    Ever had a little turd that kept on floating up no matter how many times you flused?

    That’s Mabus.

  160. lose_the_woo says

    On the bright side for all involved, he gets to celebrate baby jebus’ birthday in person in just 10 days!

    Maybe they called him up early to help with decorations.

  167. Joffan says

    Wha’s the difference between a religion and a railgun?
    Nothing that a disemvowelling wouldn’t sort out.

  168. MikeM says

    Posted by: Somnolent Aphid | December 15, 2009 6:13 PM

    i wanted to go to his university once.

    You got better. I hope.

    By the way, it’s “university”, with quotes.

    Dammit, let’s get this right, people.

  169. John Morales says

    BBlogger,

    What happened to all of Markuze’s comments? They all look edited. Has PZ arrived?

    Nah. When PZ does arrive, they’ll vanish into the bitbucket. If and when PZ does edit, he only disemvowels, typically with a warning.

  170. Gyeong Hwa Pak, the Pikachu of Anthropology says

    pzisdead,

    Why do you hate PZ?

    Actually, I’ve been wondering about that too.

  171. truthspeaker says

    Billygutter01, that is a very sad story. Thanks for sharing it. However, Ryan F. would have us believe that Roberts might have sincerely believed his ministry needed your grandmother’s money, so we shouldn’t rejoice in his death.

  172. says

    Rev BDC, have you got your FINISHED yet?

    Sadly no. However, I did just pick up a six pack of Bells Cherry Stout. And damn it is tasty despite what most of the reviews I’ve been reading say. Nice and tart with a rich stout base.

  173. MikeM says

    Cool, even the addresses are getting disemvoweled, so we can’t even see the insanity first-hand.

  175. Copyleft says

    Paul: Oh, I’m not claiming that Christianity came up with any of the good ideas associated with it–just that they caved into the obvious on a few points and wound up with a few (very few) decent messages in among the crap.

    Those were the messages that they shared with/stole from almost every culture’s philosophies about morality and ethics. And those were the exact areas that Roberts marked off with a DO NOT ENTER sign in favor of pushing greed and hatred.

  177. CanonicalKoi says

    @Ryan

    Of course there isn’t much difference between us and the religious–we’re all human beings. The main difference is that we choose to use our brains and they prefer to blindly follow their dogma of choice. As far as being joyous that OR has died, well, the man was a slime-weasel. He made his living on the credulous; amassing his fortune one small Social Security check at a time, all signed over to him by people who could ill-afford it. The man was a massive pile of horse-shit and his best saving grace is that he may now serve as fertilizer and food for bacteria.

    While I would prefer to hear that Pat Robertson had shuffled off his mortal coil or that the Troll Who Shall Not Be Named had walked in front of a bus, I’ll just be happy that one less shit-bag is robbing the poor and/or elderly.

  178. Jimmy Johnson says

    “…pink-slipped the old fraud.”

    My sentiments exactly. When will we be rid of these bloodsuckers who don’t even want to pay taxes on their ill-gotten gains?

  180. Pygmy Loris says

    billygutter01,

    That’s a very sad story. Roberts doesn’t deserve anything other than scorn and loathing. Those who prey on the trusting are a special kind of evil.

    Good riddance to Oral Roberts. I’m happy that he can no longer do evil unto others.

  181. Smoggy Batzrubble OM4Jesus says

    I can’t believe that the great man of God, Oral Roberts, has been taken from us. I must pray about it.

    SMOGGY BATZRUBBLE: Dear Jesus?

    JESUS CHRIST: Yes, Servant Smoggy?

    SB: Jesus, why did you call that great man of God, Oral Roberts, home? Why, Jesus?

    JC: Oral who? Oral Rubber? The biggest cock-swallowing man-whore in all of San Francisco? He’s not dead yet.

    SB: Not Oral Rubber, Jesus. Oral Rubber is Floyd Rubber’s twin brother, we know he’s not dead yet. I’m talking about Oral Roberts, the evangelist. You’ve called him home.

    JC: No I haven’t. He was called home back in March 1987 after he made that rash claim that if he didn’t get 8 mill in three months, God would punch his ticket.

    SB: I thought he raised over 9 million dollars Jesus?

    JC: Ha! Try nine hundred dollars Smoggy. Fundies may be thick as shit, but even they could see right through old Oral Herpes scabby attempts at extortion.

    SB: So, if the real Oral Roberts has been in Heaven since 1987…

    JC: Hang on, Smog. I didn’t say he was in Heaven. I just said God called him home. Hell’s the natural habitat of an extortionist that nefarious. Satan’s demons have been banging his flabby, lying ass for over three decades now. Down in the Inferno he’s known as Anal Roberts.

    SB: So if Anal…I mean…Oral Roberts has been in Hell since 1987, who’s the guy that just died?

    JC: No one just died Smoggy, that was Oral’s zombie, his animated cadaver. God left it there for a bit of fun, and to stop his family continuing on the family tradition of ripping off the faithful. With Oral Zombie lurching around, the young Orals haven’t been able to damage much more than the old fraud’s university.

    SB: So isn’t anyone mourning old Oral, Jesus?

    JC: There is one person, a mistress he used to have who loved his lyin’ old ass, for all its faults.

    SB: And what’s her name, Jesus?

    JC: To be honest Smoggy I can’t remember. I Always think of her by the nickname she got from God.

    SB: And what’s that, Jesus?

    JC: ORAL’S EX! hehehehehehehe…..

    …
    …
    …

    SB: I don’t get it…

  182. hackerguitar says

    I do not understand how anyone can defend Oral Roberts. If theft is wrong – and as a matter of basic keep-the-society-running-smoothly-no-god-needed practical ethics – then he was a particularly nasty person.

    He stole from the poor, and the ignorant. In some cases, they were poor and ignorant b/c they hadn’t been exposed to Englightenment ideas; in other cases, he stole from stupid people. Now, I know that PT Barnum said that a sucker is born every minute, but that still doesn’t make it right to use their credulity to steal from them.

    He was a bad, bad human. Since there’s no Ultimate JudgementTM, the only thing we can do is vilify his actions and use them to illustrate the definition of “unethical” and “fraudster.”

    And his suffering is over…he’s not around to suffer, which is a pity. He should have been held accountable for the pains he caused every credulous fool who donated money to his cause.

    (Yes, I’m biased; I grew up in a Missouri Synod Lutheran church, and left at 15 b/c of the utter b/s, fraud, backbiting, lying, hatred, and general venality there. I find the company of nonbelievers more congenial, as nonbelievers tend to engage in less magical thinking and projection head-games than believers).

  184. tsg says

    RyanF, your concern is noted.

    I can only echo what Brian said in (what is, at the moment) #48:

    I spoke ill of him when he was alive. I don’t see why I should suddenly stop now.

    You don’t automatically become a worthwhile and good human being simply for having died.

  185. David Marjanović says

    actually I am perfectly sane…

    That’s what they all say. Your paranoid schizophrenia is plain for everyone to see. Get help already.

  186. Archereon says

    Breaking news from all the afterlives… we have been offered $8m to take oral roberts back, the offer was declined.

  187. says

    I heard the news in the car and said, “Good F@(KING Riddance”

    The DJ’s on the radio went on a 10 minute tirade on how fond they were or Oral, how they think about Oral all the time, and how that can’t imagine life without Oral.

  188. Lynna, OM says

    NPR newscasters interviewed Pat Robertson for this evening’s program. Robertson said that he believed that Oral Roberts could heal people with his hands, and that he had personally seen not just hundreds, but thousands of people healed by Roberts. He went on to say that about seven million people in the United States alone would testify to being healed by prayer and by faith. Enough good things were said about Oral Roberts and his “calling” that you would think he really had done something more than take the money of gullible people and establish a University with a goal of replacing useful knowledge with negative knowledge.

    This is is precisely why we talk about what the man did while he was alive now that he is dead. Somebody has to call Pat Robertson on this bullshit about thousands of people being healed.

    Oral Roberts’ family can mourn whatever good characteristics the man embodied, and they can ignore his lack of ethics. That’s their privilege and I wouldn’t interfere with that.

    Threatening one’s followers with “God will call me home right now if you don’t send me money immediately” is amusing on one level. It’s a Monty Python sketch come to life. Consider the irony of the fact that it worked! Oral certainly made a name for himself with that bit of theater. He had balls to even try that. I still won’t cut the guy any slack just because he made me laugh. He was wrong, and he damaged the lives of others.

  189. Kristine says

    I’m glad some of you can give legitimate responses.

    Oh, I’m so glad you’re here to judge whether or not our responses are “legitimate.” Whatever we are, you most certainly are no different than religious people.

    Our celebrating pales in comparison to what will come down from the “godly” ID crowd when scientists who spent their lives improving the lives of others finally die. And while we’re on the subject, the religious over at Uncommon Descent have just asserted that they are different because they don’t have to give empirical reasons for why atheists are horrible. (Link is to AtBC, not UD.) “Empiricism is not empirical” they now squeak. (This thread really must be read to be believed.)

    Therefore, the righteous at UD don’t feel that they even have to point at any atheist’s behavior to “prove” that atheists are terrible people. So, hell, our behavior doesn’t influence them in the slightest!

  191. says

    Wait, wait, wait…

    What’s all this about Oral Robots?

    JOE:
    Gee, Sy
    This is a real groovy apartment
    You’ve got here

    SY BORG:
    All government sponsored recreational services are clean and efficient

    JOE:
    This is exciting
    I never plooked
    A tiny chrome-plated machine
    That looks like a magical pig
    With marital aids stuck all over it
    Such as yourself before

    SY BORG:
    You’ll love it!
    Its a way of life.

    JOE:
    Does that mean maybe later
    You’ll plook me….

    SY BORG:
    If you wish, we may have a groovy orgy

    JOE:
    Just me and yon?

    SY BORG:
    I share this apartment
    With a modified
    Gay Bob doll
    He goes all the way…
    Ever try oral sex with a miniature rubberized homo-replica?

    JOE:
    No, ah, not yet,
    Ah, is this him?

    CENTRAL SCRUTINIZED
    This is him.
    Your wish is his command
    He likes you
    He wants to kiss you always
    Just tell him what you want

    JOE:
    Really?
    Hi, little guy
    Think I might get a tiny, but exciting
    Blow.. .job…
    Gimme dat, gimme dat
    Blow job…
    Gimme dat, give me de chromium cob.

    SY BORG:
    Bend over.

    JOE:
    Gay Bob
    Blow job
    Gimme dat, gimme dat
    Blow job
    Gimme dat, give me de chromium cob

    SY BORG:
    You’ll love it!
    It looks just like a TeleFunken U-47.

    JOE:
    Little leather cap and trousers
    They look so gay..
    Warren just bought some
    Warren just bought some
    Warren just bought some
    Hey…

    SY BORG:
    Bob is tired.
    Plook me now,
    You savage rascal
    Ehhh!
    That tickles.
    You are a fun person
    I like you.
    I want to kiss you always.

    JOE:
    Gee, this is great
    Hows about some bondage and humiliation

    SY BORG:
    Anything you say, master.

    JOE:
    Oh no, I don’t believe it
    You’re way more fun than Mary…

    SY BORG:
    You’re plooking too hard…

    JOE:
    And cleaner than Lucille…

    SY BORG:
    Plooking on me…

    JOE:
    What have I been missing
    All these years?

    SY BORG:
    Too hard

    JOE:
    Sy…

    SY BORG:
    Too hard

    JOE:
    Sy…

    SY BORG:
    Plooking too hard on me-e-e-e-e…

    JOE:
    Speak to me
    Oh no…
    The golden shower must have shorted out
    His master circuit
    He’s, he’s, oh my God
    I must have plooked him…
    Hey
    To death…
    Hey

  194. Stretch says

    And only today, CERN spooled up the LHC again.

    Every time CERN collides protons, a televangelist dies. It’s an expensive method, but, hey.

  195. RC says

    Anyone notice the irony in “He said that it was then that he heard God tell him he should build a university based on the Lord’s authority — a promise fulfilled in 1963, with the founding of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa?”

    If you’re going build a university based on god’s authority, shouldn’t you, I don’t know, name it after god and not yourself?

  196. sasqwatch says

    I see I’m not the only one whose head filled with Zappa lyrics at the news…

    “Pat Robertson says that he’s the one, oh he shore is if armageddon is your idea of family fun, and he’s got a plan for you (arf, arf) now tell us that ain’t true (let’s dance).”

    Now I’m holding a vigil.

    For Pat and Jimbo (Swaggart).

  197. Geoffrey says

    @Wobbagger

    Ever had a little turd that kept on floating up no matter how many times you flused?

    flused?

    I really hope you mean flushed and not flossed.

  198. wrpd4 says

    Oral Roberts was evil but he was Mother Theresa* compared with his son Robert. Even after the scandal at ORU (who the fuck names a school after himself?) he and his wife are still on TV begging for money.
    I would love to see a documentary that just shows televangelists’ bathrooms and then showed their contributors’ bathrooms. Just that contrast should be enough to open the eyes of some** of their sheep.
    #15: OMFG!!!! I saw Space Children when it came out in 1958 and I’ve spent the past 51 years just trying to remember the name of the movie. Does anyone know if the MST3K version is available on DVD?
    *Not the real Mommy T, but the image created by her fans.
    **Most of the sheep are too far gone to accept reality.

  199. Finch says

    Now, as much as I too have that dark side that loves laughing at the misfortunes of others, I’m not a big fan of doing that to the recently deceased. I’m going to call “too soon” on this one.

    As much as preachers throughout history have condemned people to burn in hellfire etc etc, and how much free speech allows us to speak ill of the dead, I figure it’s in bad taste. I’d ask that when we do obituary pieces about people we don’t like, we do so honestly but without the metaphors and similes that despite their hilarity, are viewed as unsensitive.

    Oral Roberts was an evangelist who died at age 91. His ministry told people who could not afford to give that what they gave, God would return to them with great interest. This doesn’t make sense, and is why I think that he is not someone to be admired.

    I hope the other things in his life prove to create better legacies, and that the bad things he did fade away into history. I may be misanthropic from time to time, but overall I’m always rooting for the H. sapiens team. Except maybe when I’m rooting for the Geospiza team.

  200. chancelikely says

    I keep seeing “Oral Roberts stole from poor people”, but actually, he convinced poor people to give him their money.

    That’s actually worse.

    I mean, if he stole their Social Security checks, there’d be a bunch of old ladies in Tulsa filing police reports: “Caucasian male, older, ridiculous hair”. But instead, he built a rapacious empire on the fixed incomes of people who somehow thought that he was going to put their money to better use than anyone else.

  201. Rey Fox says

    “Oral Roberts was evil but he was Mother Theresa* compared with his son Robert.”

    You mean his son was named…Robert Roberts? Who ARE these people?!

  202. Smoggy Batzrubble OM4Jesus says

    Dear Finch,

    I wonder what quality of coffins the poor people that helped fund old Oral’s millions were buried in?

    Your friend

    Smoggy

  203. Lynna, OM says

    Anyone notice the irony in “He said that it was then that he heard God tell him he should build a university based on the Lord’s authority — a promise fulfilled in 1963, with the founding of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa?”
    If you’re going build a university based on god’s authority, shouldn’t you, I don’t know, name it after god and not yourself?

    You have a point there, but remember, God spoke to Oral in a “familiar voice”, namely Oral’s own voice. I think they were one and the same.

  204. Mr T says

    I wonder how many people suffered or died prematurely as a result of believing in his “faith healing”.

    He wasn’t just some preacher, or just some really famous preacher, or even just some really awful preacher that said ridiculous things and conned people out of money.

    This guy deserves no respect for what he did, whether he’s living or dead.

    And “too soon”? In a month it would be no different, and in a year people will consider it old news.

  206. mothra says

    With most humble apologies to A.F. Housman

    Lowliest of thieves the Roberts so,
    Gone from among us miss him, no.
    His corpse, in coffin, is there on show,
    All dressed up, no place to go.

    Of his years, four score and eleven,
    For 80 plus, he shilled for heaven.
    And from 91, take his half a score,
    Leaves 81, he robbed the poor.

    A criminal has met his doom.
    There really is not any room,
    to mourn a man so filled with hates.
    But pity for his victims’ fates.

  207. Cuttlefish, OM says

    There are people engaging in quarrels
    Who may show they are lacking in morals
    Who is bad? Who is worse?
    You will learn in this verse
    That the basest position is Oral’s

  208. Cuttlefish, OM says

    Erm… “was”, not “is”, thankfully.

    And thanks, mothra, for showing me up! ;-P

  210. cag says

    To those who offer their sympathy to the relatives of the evil bastard, I will save mine for those relatives who have accepted reason and abandoned the superstitious beliefs that OR based his “kingdom” on.

    Grab Our Dollars.

    Grope Our Daughters/sons.

    May Oral’s inheritors start up a carpentry university, i.e. “Screw U“.

  212. Smoggy Batzrubble OM4Jesus says

    Those who practice the Oral position
    Are all making a conscious decision
    That success tastes the best
    When you bugger the rest
    And defraud them with Christian precision.

  214. JJ says

    My grandmother used to watch him and tithed funds she did not have. She dropped him a HUGE sum of money when my dad was ill so he could be ‘cured’ of his heart trouble. Four months later, he died. She couldn’t believe this happened, but still watched him faithfully.

    I hope they find (where ever they are) and call him out for what he was…a charlatan.

  216. RichVR says

    It’s a wonderful thing that the old order are dieing off, finally. I feel this way about the old political order as well. It’s unfortunate that they have so many followers.

    OTOH non-believers are growing in number. Hopefully this will happen faster and faster.

    I don’t think that I’ll see the watershed moment in my lifetime, but my son might. And his future children certainly.

    There is hope.

    And if I didn’t make it clear, good fucking riddance.

  218. sasqwatch says

    I, for one, am particularly fond of the British tradition of speaking truth about the freshly dead. The (it seems to me) American tradition of tiptoeing around in hushed faux-reverent tones seems to me to be incredibly tasteless.

  219. Kristine says

    wrpd4 @ 198

    MST3K’s “Space Children” is on YouTube in segments. Not on hulu.com yet, though, but keep checking. (I don’t buy DVDs anymore.)

  220. RichVR says

    @ sasqwatch

    I don’t know how fresh he was, but at least he’s dead. Unfortunately his delusions live on.

  221. Voss says

    Could that AP obituary be any more unbalanced? They would have called for Oral’s beatification if he wasn’t a Pentecostal.

  223. Janine, She Wolf Of Pharyngula, OM says

    JJ, one has to wonder how many thousands of people gave money to that ass, money that could have been used to treat or at least comfort the afflicted. It was harmful fifty years ago, it was harmful twenty years ago, it was harmful last week and it will still be harmful next year.

    There is no celebrating that this fraud is dead. Just relief. And the sad realization that there are other asses to step in and mislead more of the gullible and desperate. And it is disrespectful to those harmed to keep quiet about it simply because a fraud is dead.

  225. RichVR says

    So, my given name is Richard. And I looked up the etymology of the name. Dick used to be short for Dominick.

    My girlfriend asked: So how do you get Dick from Richard?

    I said: You might buy me dinner, some wine…

    We both cracked up.

    Just saying. ;-)

  227. Michael Lonergan says

    “It’s the religionists who say they are different from US, not the other way around, poser.”

    This is a good point. I had conversation along the same lines as this with someone recently. I asked, If ‘Accepting Jesus as your personal savior’ (a concept not taught in the bible) makes you a better person that me, especially when some Christians behave far worse than me, an agnostic? His response? “The Christian life is a journey and Jesus changes us as we yield our lives to him.” My response: “Then how do you explain the behavior of those who have had this ‘wonderful’ life changing relationship for decades, that even I consider immoral!?” He fell strangely silent.

    Now, I don’t rejoice in the death of anyone. In some ways, a part of me pities this man, who, I feel wasted his life for nothing. Another part of me wants to piss on his grave because of the evil actions he did. He bilked tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars out of devoted followers. Roberts was a liar, a thief and devoted his life to getting filthy rich from the bank accounts of desperate, often older pensioners, living on a fixed income. There should be no celebration of this evil mans life!

  229. Snoof says

    Oral Roberts dead? They can’t bury him deep enough.

    I’m going to recommend at the crossroads, with a stake through his heart.

    He was a bloodsucker in life, let’s make sure he’s not one in death, too.

  230. nejishiki says

    ‘Eulogy’, by Tool , is the song that comes to mind:

    _______________________________
    He had a lot to say.
    He had a lot of nothing to say.
    We’ll miss him.
    I’ll miss him.

    He had a lot to say.
    He had a lot of nothing to say.
    We’ll miss him.
    I’ll miss him.
    We’re gonna miss him

    So long.
    We wish you well.
    You told us how you weren’t afraid to die.
    Well then, so long.
    Don’t cry.
    Or feel too down.
    Not all martyrs see divinity.
    But at least you tried.
    ______________________________

  232. Christian says

    91? Why the fuck do these assholes always get so old? I knew a lot of good, honest folks I would have loved if they’d lived that long.

    Oh well, at least he finally kicked the bucket, so good riddance old POS &lt/Walter Huston dance&gt

  234. jeff says

    Hey Myers, why don’t you try to be less of a prick? Stay hardcore on what matters, but join civilisation with the little things? I wish you’d try it out.

  235. ckitching says

    It’s the religionists who say they are different from US, not the other way around, poser.

    I would disagree.

    Christopher Hitchens definitely says that he believes atheists are more moral than the religious. And I know other people have said similar things, as well.

    Personally, I’m not sure if we’re better behaved or not. However, when we do act badly, we have to take the blame for whatever ills we unleash on the world, but in exchange, we can take credit for any good we do, as well (except when theists cruelly deny us this by claiming that their god was working through us). I don’t know if this makes us better or not, but it does help avoid the situation this man used to prey on people. A malevolent person who says he’s doing good (and no one dares question) in order to commit his crimes against those who really are good people. No sacred cows means that any motive can be questioned if necessary.

  236. Weismonger says

    Oral “Mouthy” Roberts was a Scum Bag. Back in the early 1950s, when a relative of mine lay dying in the hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, one of my family members called Oral Roberts to come and pray for him.

    Oral Roberts showed up at the hospital and wanted $250 to pray for my dying relative. My relatives did not have any money…and Oral Roberts REFUSED TO PRAY FOR A DYING PERSON!…

    When I heard this story, it was just one of many stories that caused me to realize there is no god, because if there was one, this imaginary god would have struck Oral Roberts DEAD.

    I am so glad this filthy, mind-stealing, scum bag pig is dead, along with a bunch of religious snake-oil salesman. Billy Graham and Pat Robertson and a slew of these con artists have far too long. Now how did they live so long? It was not because of god, it was because they have so much money from scamming so many stupid people, that they can afford the very best medical care by Atheist doctors possible.

    Good Riddance!

  237. John Morales says

    Russ124bc, sorry mate! Luck of the draw.
    ‘Twas inevitable, anyway — and it’s nice to see you too were reminded of it. :)

    PS linking: <a href=”URL”>text caption</a>

    where URL is the link, and the text caption is what is seen. With YouTube, just edit out the crud in the URL.

    —

    Jeff @234, your concern is noted and duly dismissed.

  238. Janine, She Wolf Of Pharyngula, OM says

    Hey jeff, why don’t you try to be less of a brain dead asshole? Stay ignorant on why most of us are not saddened, but join civilization by not committing fraud upon it. I wish you’d try it out.

    Al least fucking read what was said before you spread your spittle, nitwit.

  239. Smoggy Batzrubble OM4Jesus says

    Dear brother Jeff,

    Well said! You may be a man with less of a prick, but at least you aren’t ashamed to join civilization with your little thing. I might try that out myself. Less is more, so they say.

    Nasty PZ, daring to criticize a dead man! Now that Oral Bob has shuffled off his mortal coil, we should all decently forget that he milked money from the poor and gullible.

    SB

  243. Josh, Official SpokesGay says

    @Jeff:

    Hey Myers, why don’t you try to be less of a prick? Stay hardcore on what matters, but join civilisation with the little things? I wish you’d try it out.

    Awwwwww. . . is diddums sore? That makes me a Sad Panda. Have some soothing ointment, sugar dumplin’.

  244. Kristine says

    wrpd4 @ 224

    *Makes a notch on her finger cymbal* You should join us at AtBC, read the “pleasurian” debacle at UD, then become another of my “pleasurian husbands.” You’ll have no competition, since I have no idea where the other two are! :D (Fatherhood makes bloggers so unfaithful!)

    P.S. Have people heard the smarmy interview with Pat Robertson on NPR regarding Oral Roberts? Geez, nary a word said about all the disappointed folks hobbling home after being “healed.” Robertson said, “Well, we all go too far” regaring the $8 million! Wow, people – we all have faults, we’re human, wank, wank! But some of us enjoy our faults in the despicable lap of luxury beyond most of our dreams! I’ll be writing both NPR and MPR and giving them yet another reason why I won’t be sending in my contribution to Corporate Public Radio.

    (MPR’s take on the McDonald’s latte: “It’s not good or bad, just different.” Crap, they’ve so totally sold out.)

  245. Jessie Colt says

    The news is reporting that he died of “complications of pneumonia”.

    Isn’t that how AIDS patients deaths used to be reported?

    Rather fitting I imagine.

  246. Epikt says

    Rev. BigDumbChimp:

    It looks just like a TeleFunken U-47.

    MARY: With leather?

    If there were any justice in the universe, Roberts would have snuffed it years ago, and Zappa would still be with us.

  247. WowbaggerOM says

    Jeff wrote:

    Hey Myers, why don’t you try to be less of a prick? Stay hardcore on what matters, but join civilisation with the little things? I wish you’d try it out.

    Hey Jeff, why don’t you try to be less of clueless dipshit? Post on sites where inane drivel is tolerated, but get a fucking clue on how things work here at Pharyngula. I wish you’d try it out.

    Pissant.

  249. ckitching says

    ‘Eulogy’, by Tool , is the song that comes to mind:

    A lot of Tool and A Perfect Circle songs come to mind… Disdain for hypocrisy and self-righteousness is pretty common in James Maynard Keenan’s lyrics. I can’t say that I blame him.

    “Ticks and Leeches” seems to describe this guy’s life pretty good.

  250. jeff says

    Well…not sure what to say. I will not stop reading Pharyngula, as it’s one of my top 2 or 3 blogs. I will continue to refrain from commenting, as I have been, mostly, for 3 years, during which time I have been informed and rewarded by both Myers and the commenters’ insights.

    Comity and civility are virtues, and respecting them would neither harm nor dilute any message.

    Stay strident! But speak and act as gentlemen and gentlewomen; otherwise, you’re needlessly insulting passers-by and polluting the general environment– if not alienating people who are ripe for enlightenment. (People react negatively to abuse.)

  251. Antiochus Epiphanes says

    @najashiki

    ‘Eulogy’, by Tool , is the song that comes to mind:

    .

    “Tool” does come to mind.

  252. Kristine says

    But speak and act as gentlemen and gentlewomen

    Oh, really? Like “Hey Myers, why don’t you try to be less of a prick?” Real gentlemanly, you hypocrite.

  253. Owlmirror says

    So, out of curiosity, I looked up the etymology of the name:

    ORAL

    Gender: Masculine

    Usage: German (Swiss)
    Swiss form of AURELIUS

    Huh.

    AURELIUS

    Gender: Masculine

    Usage: Ancient Roman
    Roman family name which was derived from Latin aureus “golden, gilded”

    I think that might explain a few things.

    It makes perfect sense that (Golden) Oral should have served Mammon…

    (Cue stream of jokes involving “showers” in 3… 2… 1…)

  254. ckitching says

    Jeff, if this man had murdered his wife and children would you still be calling for civility? What if he slaughtered twenty children? Blew up a building full of people? Why is it that these offences would warrant not treating him with civility, while the offences we know this man did commit demands that we treat him with deference?

    Please enlighten us. Where is the line? This man ruined lives while convincing people they were doing good. Why is that not good enough?

  255. Antiochus Epiphanes says

    #251

    Hey Myers, why don’t you try to be less of a prick?

    #250

    Comity and civility are virtues, and respecting them would neither harm nor dilute any message.

    Excuse me, but you have a mote in your eye.

  256. Antiochus Epiphanes says

    Damn, damn, damn. Should have read #234 instead of #251. Now I have chocolate pudding all over my clever.

  257. Naked Bunny with a Whip says

    Yep, Oral Roberts spent his life bilking people of their money and spreading bigotry and hate, but we’re the ones “polluting the general environment” by pointing it out.

    But speak and act as gentlemen and gentlewomen

    Hmm.

    Hey Myers, why don’t you try to be less of a prick?

    Standard concern troll hypocrisy. Yawn.

  258. John Morales says

    jeff,

    Well…not sure what to say. I will not stop reading Pharyngula, as it’s one of my top 2 or 3 blogs. I will continue to refrain from commenting, as I have been, mostly, for 3 years, during which time I have been informed and rewarded by both Myers and the commenters’ insights.

    Nay, you’re welcome to comment! Seriously.

    Just remember, you get to express your opinions, and others get to express their opinions.
    You just don’t get a free pass to comment on others (e.g. PZ) without others commenting on your comment.

    So, what’s yourpersonal opinion on the late Oral? ;)

  259. WowbaggerOM says

    But speak and act as gentlemen and gentlewomen; otherwise, you’re needlessly insulting passers-by and polluting the general environment– if not alienating people who are ripe for enlightenment.

    [speaks into intercom] Fainting couch! Can I get a fainting couch to post #250 please? He sounds very concerned.

    People react negatively to abuse

    People keep insisting that this is true; where’s the evidence that this applies to fence-sitting religious reading atheist blogs?

    Honestly, I’ve never encountered anyone who’s been seriously doubting the existence of a god – for the right reasons: the lack of evidence, the overwhelming contradictions of the belief system or the poor arguments presented by apologists -decide that, after they’ve read a rude blog post written by an atheist, all of those reasons for not believing in god are suddenly invalid and they’d rather be in church with the polite but delusional intellectually dishonest believers.

    Short version: take your concern and cram it. With walnuts.

  260. Janine, She Wolf Of Pharyngula, OM says

    I was going to call jeff on his rank hypocrisy but Kristine beat me. Instead, I will ask this, jeff, where on this thread has PZ or any other commentator was wrong about Oral Roberts. He was despicable in life and his death does not negate that.

    Listen, it is not like any of us will be picketing his funeral. But a sleazebag is dead. That would be significant if there were not so many others to take his place. Please, teach us where we are wrong. If you can.

    And don’t be a prick about it!

  261. jeff says

    RE: ckitching

    The man was a despicable lying blowhard who participated in increasing misery in the world; he was a fraud, and a destructive one at that.

    Fuck him.

    I really don’t think WE need to be such asswipes, too. I’m apparently in the minority here, so I’ll go fuck off now, too, and me and Oral Robert’s corpse can share stories of how shittily we were treated at Pharyngula.

    I hope you’ll learn to laugh, and also learn to be polite. For the present, I think I’ve composed a thoroughly vile email, to fit your tastes.

  262. LionDancer says

    Let’s put our heads down
    And shed a tear for
    Those poor
    Worms
    That have to eat
    This vile flesh.

  264. Nerd of Redhead, OM says

    People react negatively to abuse.

    Yep, that hopefully drives the idjits away. We get too many poor quality trolls.

  265. Janine, She Wolf Of Pharyngula, OM says

    I hope you’ll learn to laugh, and also learn to be polite.

    No, you fucker, you do not get to play that move. Not after your opening gambit. Fine, you know that Oral was a vile fuck. What is wrong about being honest about it. His fucking death does not change who he was.

  266. Mr T says

    The man was a despicable lying blowhard who participated in increasing misery in the world; he was a fraud, and a destructive one at that. Fuck him.

    See, that’s the spirit, Jeff. I think you’re starting to get it. Fuck him (but not literally of course, because, well, he’s dead and that’s just sick).

    I really don’t think WE need to be such asswipes, too.

    Uh….

    FACEPALM

  267. Naked Bunny with a Whip says

    @Nerd of Redhead, OM: Indeed, Jeff seems to be under the impression that we don’t want people to react negatively to abuse. The whole point of abusing someone is to get a negative reaction, and it’s quite rare around here for someone to receive abuse without earning it.

    Jeff is also forgetting how many of our trolls plainly love being abused.

  268. Landru says

    I was raised Catholic but my parents had this strange attraction to evangelical ministers like Roberts. Unfortunately, as we got ready for Sunday mass they would play the Oral Roberts TV show. [I got some relief when they bought a small TV in their bedroom where I would escape to watch “Davey and Goliath”] They bought his bs hook, line and sinker! Even giving money to his organization.

    Now you’d think that as a young lad I would have suffered enough indignation having to be forced to listen to Roberts dribble for several years! But no, it gets worse!

    Some how, during my Junior year in high school, my dad thought it’d be a great idea to send me to ORU to check out the school. I did not want to do this, but my dad paid my way and so I could only think of one reason to go: older college girls!;)

    Anyway, I got shipped off to ORU during Thanksgiving, so that made things worse. I got the grand tour of the school, along with sight seeing of college women. The whole irony of me being there was the fact that this was the same year that I had questioned my Catholic faith and a belief in god. So I had to endure and pretend to be one of the good Christian puritans. They really lost me when they told me about the strict code separating the guys from the women. They were really structured in their scheduling and I soon lost interest, especially when I was told that you had mandatory chapel service 4 times a week–two on a Sunday! I was fortunate enough find an escape at the lounge where I found video games [I dramatically improved my Galaga skills on that trip] and regular rock and roll music.

    To say the least I was never going to attend that college! I was in fact told I would have to reexamine my relationship with Jesus–whatever! I was an agnostic, horny teen within one of the most ubber evangelical universities in the nation who’s only goal was to check out the women on campus. Sad my dad wasted his money!

  269. Janine, She Wolf Of Pharyngula, OM says

    NBWAW, if only Patricia was in a position to reopen her whipping couch.

  271. WowbaggerOM says

    I hope you’ll learn to laugh, and also learn to be polite.

    And you can cram politeness in with the walnuts. <300 voice>THIS IS PHARYNGULA!</300 voice>

  273. RichVR says

    Jeff,

    Please stay. Feel free to state your opinions of anything said here. And we will, as well.

    There will be cussing, bacon, lesbians masturbating with bibles.

    Trials, tribulations, tribbles and rivals.

    Cuttlefish rhyming.

    Jesus folk with bad timing.

    Folklore for cures and plastic fish lures.

    All are welcome to our show.

    And you don’t need any money, any dough.

    Alliteration, adulation, apocrypha and more.

    Just don’t let the comments get your ass sore.

    Welcome to our little blogish place.

    And don’t be a concern troll,

    Just in case.

  274. aratina cage says

    Biology Blogger #91,

    EXPERIMENT TIME:

    If ‘help ma boab’ does not send PZ anymore emails, we know his identity!

    LOL! I will give HMB this, however: Oral was far beneath what little dignity HMB had.

    To Ryan F. and jeff, when the person with the Big Fucking Gun pointed at your head or the head of your friend dies, I say celebrate! Karma and fate are fairytales; don’t let such superstitious nonsense or the stare of bigots be a weight on your conscience.

  275. Janine, She Wolf Of Pharyngula, OM says

    There’s no shame in seeking treatment.

    To whom is this directed and what are you suggesting? You do realize that earlier this day, a seriously insane person left more of his death threats here?

    Please provide context.

  276. MadScientist says

    Anal Roberts is worm food? I guess I’ll have to believe in Santa Claus then. Naah, I’m too lazy to believe in fairy tales. Besides, Santa hasn’t delivered Dick Cheney, Pat Robertson, Pope Ratzinger, and any other number of lowlife so I’ll have to ascribe this event to chance – and the fact that Anal Roberts was pretty damned old.

  277. jeff says

    RichVR

    That’s such a brilliant commendation of this site! Thanks. Like many of you, I presume, I work a lot, poke around Science and Nature, and care about what happens in this world; that’s how I found Myers’ site. The ridiculous vehemence I lamented does not affect me, and I’m done with that tactic. Let the dead bury their own, as me an’ Jesus say.

  278. PZ Myers says

    Help Ma Boab did send me more email the other day. He says he was just joking when he begged to be let back on the site.

  280. Naked Bunny with a Whip says

    I really don’t think WE need to be such asswipes

    Your hypocrisy and utter lack of introspection is appalling. But hey, don’t let honesty, logic, and self-awareness get in the way of your little smugfest.

  282. speedweasel says

    People react negatively to abuse

    Some people react negatively to the truth but find it less challenging to criticise their opponent’s tone.

  283. Andyo says

    Has anyone presented to Ryan F The Chaser’s Eulogy Song yet?
    …but all that was forgotten
    once he took his final breath…

    Yes, even christian asshole swindlers
    turn into top blokes after death!

  284. Randy says

    Like Oral Roberts, Captain Obvious conned me good… I don’t know what the ‘OM’ after certain posters’ names means. :( Damn you, Captain Obvious!

  285. It'spiningforthefyords says

    If only there really could be a “heaven” that was exactly as OR advertised, and he was eternally stuck inside it – and conscious of the fact.
    He’d be praying for Hell in half the time Cordy, in “Angel”, began regretting her ascension.

    Well, he’s dead. No better or worse, much, than any other dead person. Or animal. Or plant matter.

  286. aratina cage says

    He [HMB] says he was just joking when he begged to be let back on the site.

    And Ray Comfort was just joking about bananas being the atheist’s worst nightmare. It gets so tediously redundant to always have to point out the lies of Liars for Jebus™.

  287. Andyo says

    HAha, I swear I searched for “eulogy song” in the thread, I see now it’s been linked at least twice already.

  288. speedweasel says

    @RichVR #273

    …and in March we’re all going to Australia!

    Remember to get your permission slip signed.

  289. Janine, She Wolf Of Pharyngula, OM says

    Jeff, it starts here and he kept at it for a while. PZ disemvoweled the statements. He basicly calls for the death of all atheists, especially PZ.

  290. RichVR says

    Um. I hope that my carnival barker thing wasn’t taken the wrong way. I used to do that in Coney Island, Brooklyn.

    It was meant to be a positive thing about Pharyngula.

    Not negative.

  291. Religion™ Brand Brain Staples says

    Is it bad that the stream of disemvoweled comments here made me giggle?

    As to the main topic… I can’t celebrate a man’s death, but I can celebrate the absence of this man’s influence on things like public policy.

    It is a shame that the latter comes at the cost of the former. I think we’d have all been happier if he’d lived and reformed as opposed to this.

  292. tt says

    Mr T…Weren’t you one of the people that criticized me for my overtly sexual and offending language the other day?

    “What I am saying is that there is a difference between accidentally offending people, offending people for a good or bad reason, and doing it just for the sake of offending.”

    Here you are today::

    “You laugh now, but as we speak he is being reincarnated somewhere as Handjob Roberts.
    Into the future we can expect:
    Mutual Masturbation Roberts
    Dry Humping Roberts
    Autofellatio Roberts
    Fisting Roberts
    Anal Roberts
    Shocker Roberts
    Skull Fucking Roberts
    … and a host of others which probably aren’t appropriate to mention in mixed company.”

    I guess there is a point to this? Not just offending for the sake of offending, I hope.

  293. tt says

    Mr T,

    It seems you are describing your sexual fantasies or your homo-phobia. Please explain which is it.

    thanks

  295. Mr T says

    Yep, tt. That sure was me. Let’s take another look at one of your comments in that thread, shall we?

    I find Dinesh d’Silly and Rabbi Shmuzley offensive. I want to see an image of PZ, Dawkins, and Hitchens, gang banging them both, while above them Jesus and yahweh do it doggie style.

    I do have a fucking sense of humor. Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t think wanting to see two people getting gang banged is quite the same as me riffing on some dude’s name.

    Also, you should consider having a logician take a look at that tu quoque stuff for you.

  296. Janine, She Wolf Of Pharyngula, OM says

    Mr T has not struck me as being homophobic, tt. He was having fun with Oral’s given name. And I got a case of the giggles over Skull Fucker Roberts but that is because that kakapo video is one of the funniest things I have ever seen.
    Flap! Flap! Flap! Flap! Flap! Flap! Flap! Flap!

  298. tt says

    Oh and by the way, I am glad Roberts is dead. Though they probably didn’t deserve it in the same way Roberts did, I am also glad, Michael Landon, Patrick Swayze, and Michael Jackson are dead too.

  300. tt says

    Mt T,

    I wasn’t really thinking of gang-banging as a violent act. I was thinking of it as more of a multiple partner encounter as described in wiki-pedias main definition.

  301. WowbaggerOM says

    tt wrote:

    Mr T…Weren’t you one of the people that criticized me for my overtly sexual and offending language the other day?

    He’s funny. You aren’t. Do you need me to draw you a diagram?

    Though they probably didn’t deserve it in the same way Roberts did, I am also glad, Michael Landon, Patrick Swayze, and Michael Jackson are dead too.

    Perhaps you should invest in some binoculars – since the point of this post (and the responses to it) are so far over your head as to be undetectable by the naked eye.

    Oh, and Michael Landon? Where did that come from? He’s been dead for years. Are you sure you aren’t thinking of someone else?

  302. Ragutis says

    Fuck Oral Roberts, and fuck the pearl-clutchers. I had no respect for the man in life, why the bloody hell am I expected to come up with some now? I hope he didn’t suffer and that his family finds solace, but that’s it. The man lived to 91, most of it in luxury bilked from thousands of desperate and gullible people that had far greater need of the dough that they sent him. Bernie Madoff with a cross. Fuck that noise. Fair warning, I’m not going to have any respect for Kevin Trudeau or Pat Robertson either, when they croak. Have your vapours ready.

    bigbdumbchimp…we’re actually going to spare you…

    Hmmm… that says a lot right there, doesn’t it? FFS, what does it take to get someone committed in Canada? You’re the ones with the halfway decent health care, remember?

  303. aratina cage says

    I am also glad, Michael Landon, Patrick Swayze, and Michael Jackson are dead too. –tt

    Patrick Swayze?!? Well then, fuck you, tt. You become more boring with every inane post and there doesn’t seem to be a lick of sense in you.

  304. Mr T says

    Janine:
    Believe it or not, he apparently chose to go by Oral, because his given name was Granville Oral Roberts.

  305. DocSoftly says

    In regards to this thread, for me, Roger Waters said it in Amused to Death:

    What God Wants Part 2 –

    [TV Evangelist:]”Do you believe in a better day?
    Do you have faith in a golden way?
    If you do, then we must come together this day
    Come together as one, united television audience
    Brought together by the sound of my voice
    United, united financially, united socially,
    United spiritually, and all possible ways
    Through the power of money
    And the power of prayers….”

    What God wants God gets God help us all
    What God wants God gets

    God wants dollars
    God wants cents
    God wants pounds, shillings, and pence
    God wants guilders
    God wants Kroner
    God wants Swiss francs
    And God wants French francs

    (Oui il veut des francs francais)

    God wants escudos
    God wants pesetas
    Don’t send lira
    God don’t want small potatoes
    God wants small towns
    God wants pain
    God wants clean up rock campaigns
    God wants windows
    God wants solutions
    God wants TV
    God wants contributions

    What God wants God gets God help us all
    What God wants God gets
    What God wants God gets God help us all
    What God wants God gets

    God wants silver
    God wants gold
    God wants his secret never to be told
    God wants gigolos
    God wants giraffes
    God wants politics
    God wants a good laugh

    What God wants God gets God help us all
    What God wants God gets

    God wants friendship
    God wants fame
    God wants credit
    God wants blame
    God wants poverty
    God wants wealth
    God wants insurance
    God wants to cover himself

    What God wants God gets God help us all
    What God wants God gets
    What God wants God gets God help us all
    What God wants God gets
    (repeating)

  306. Mr T says

    tt:

    Just to reiterate, I was not talking about any personal fantasies or desires on my part, nor am I in any way homophobic (BTW, none of those are exclusively homosexual anyway). I was just playing with his name.

    I wasn’t saying I wanted to do any of those things to him, or wanted to see images of any of those things, or wanted to email pictures of PZ doing those things, or anything like the 20 or so other inane, creepy, and otherwise trollish comments you were making in the earlier thread.

    If you weren’t thinking of “gang banging” as a violent act (as per wikipedia — Duh! Should’ve checked there, I guess!), then why the fuck did it sound exactly as if you did? Please don’t even attempt to deny it.

  307. Owlmirror says

    Though they probably didn’t deserve it in the same way Roberts did, I am also glad, Michael Landon, Patrick Swayze, and Michael Jackson are dead too.

    If they did not deserve it, then why do you rejoice in the fact that they are dead?

  308. Janine, She Wolf Of Pharyngula, OM says

    Posted by: Mr T Author Profile Page | December 16, 2009 1:07 AM

    Janine:
    Believe it or not, he apparently chose to go by Oral, because his given name was Granville Oral Roberts.

    Perhaps he was afraid that people would call him Granny.

  309. tt says

    Wowbagger,

    Now I am starting to understand. One can be offensive for its own sake, but it has to be funny.

    So the problem with my posts the other day was that they were simply not funny. If I had just been wittier, then nobody would have been offended by my overtly sexual posts?

    OR does it matter at whom the offense is directed toward? If I had just left out PZ in the scenarios, perhaps the ire wouldn’t have been so noticeable. (Still not funny though. I get it)

    Or like today, if one makes offensive comments against appropriate targets ie Roberts, then there is no problem. They weren’t that funny, were they Wowbagger?

    And I do get the idea of the post. My comments about Landon, Swayze, and Jackson, were random, as whenever I think of dead people, I think of those three as people I was glad to see extinguished. I always hated Landon since Highway to Heaven.

    btw, Mr T, I wasn’t offended by your comments.

  312. Owlmirror says

    I always hated Landon since Highway to Heaven.

    So you will rejoice in the death of anyone whose acting you dislike?

  314. tt says

    Owlmirror

    Well, I did say glad to see extinguished. I didn’t actually have a celebration where I invited all my friends over to party.

    I didn’t mention his acting as the reason either. He was a producer/writer on that show and came up with many of the inane and overtly spiritual story lines. He is as guilty as Roberts in some ways, since he legitimized spiritual belief, and was an admired figure, unlike Roberts ever was.

  315. Butch Pansy says

    I would never invite Roberts to the party with Landon and Swayze. I wouldn’t want to wake up my comatose gag reflex.

  316. aratina cage says

    whenever I think of dead people, I think of those three as people I was glad to see extinguished. –tt

    What a psychopathic ass you are. So people who annoy you should be killed, huh?

  317. JJ says

    @Janine, She Wolf of Pharyngula,

    I was disappointed that she did that, at the same time I can see her mindset. She grew up listening to these morons; Junior high school education and a bible thumping, old school Evangelical Southern Baptist from the backwoods of the Ozark Mtns. Need I say more.

    She lost her oldest son to childhood illness, and my dad only made it to his mid 40’s due to a bad ticker. Yes, it does sicken me to know that she sent him about $500 (this was back in the 70’s), but she believed in miracles and was hoping to get one by giving him cash. In a way, I’m content to know that he is no longer able to take people’s money.

  318. tt says

    And, I loved Little House on the Prairie, and he wasn’t any a better actor on that show than he was on Highway to Heaven. case closed. :)

  319. blf says

    Please, everyone! Show the proper respect for the death of this lying, bigoted crook.

    I just had a big crap. I hereby dedicate it to the fraudster.

  320. tt says

    atarina,

    Calm down. You are leaping to conclusions. I never advocated their deaths, nor did I actually wish for it before they died. I merely said that I was glad, not sad, that they were dead. I will be glad, not sad, when Sean H is dead, or Glenn B. I do not wish for, nor advocate them being killed. Your jump is ludicrous and creepy.

  321. Owlmirror says

    He was a producer/writer on that show and came up with many of the inane and overtly spiritual story lines.

    Ah. So you rejoice at the deaths of those who write things that are inane.

    May I infer that you are going to great effort to make sure that your own funeral will be one big happy party for those who feel like you do?

    What did Patrick Swayze — of all people — write that you judge him as having been deserving of death?

  322. speedweasel says

    Comment by tt blocked. [unkill]​[show comment]

    I’m really starting to love my killfile.

  323. tt says

    I reserve the right to be glad at whomever dies. I didn’t say it was rational. It is just how I felt. Sorry if it hurts your feelings.

    BTW. Why aren’t you defending MJ? Were you glad to see him dead as well?

  324. aratina cage says

    tt,

    Calm down.

    *blink blink* Moi?

    You are leaping to conclusions. I never advocated their deaths, nor did I actually wish for it before they died.

    So why grace us with knowledge of who you are glad is dead? It has nothing to do with Oral Roberts, a man who endlessly promoted politics and quackery that did and does kill people and ruin lives.

    I merely said that I was glad, not sad, that they were dead.

    Do us a favor and keep it to yourself next time.

    I will be glad, not sad, when Sean H is dead, or Glenn B. I do not wish for, nor advocate them being killed.

    KITY

    Your jump is ludicrous and creepy.

    No, your opinions are ludicrous and creepy. Get a mirror.

  325. Natasha Yar-Routh says

    I think Suicidal Tendencies has the perfect eulogy for Oral,

    Here comes another con hiding behind a collar
    His only god is the almighty dollar
    He ain’t no prophet, he ain’t healer
    He’s just a two bit goddamn money stealer
    Send me your money
    Send it, you got to send it
    Send me your money
    You hear what I’m saying?
    Send it, send it
    Send me your money
    How much you give is your own choice
    But to me it is the difference between a Porsche and a Rolls Royce
    I want you to make it hurt when you dig into your pocket
    Cause it makes me feel so good to watch my profits rocket
    Send me your money
    Now dig in deep, dig real deep into your pocket
    I want you to make it hurt!
    We’ll take cash, we’ll take checks
    We’ll take credit cards, we’ll take jewelry
    We’ll take your momma’s dentures if they got gold in them
    So whose gonna be the next king of the fakers
    Whose gonna take the place of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker?
    See my momma, she didn’t raise no fool
    Couse you can’t put a price on a miracle
    Amen

  326. tt says

    Isn’t this a forum to express one’s opinion? You want me to keep my opinions to myself, so as not to say something you don’t like? You crack me up Atarina. Good night.

  327. Michael Lonergan says

    Naked Bunny With a Whip:
    That video of Orals’ sex talk gets me going every time! Hilarious!

    Jeff:
    Too many people stood by when this asshole was scamming people out of millions. He was also responsible for paving the way for other televangelist douche-bags polluting the airways, such as Benny ‘The Hair-do’ Hinn, Jim ‘PTL’ Bakker, and Jimmy ‘The Sleaze Ball Swaggart, Kenneth ‘Hi Flyer’ Copeland and Creflo ‘Mr. Mega-Bucks’ Dollar.

    Televangelists are some of the worst of the worst humanity has to offer! He, and others like him, deserve every comment they get from people like myself and others here. Thankfully, now that he’s gone, that’s one less religious crook we have to worry about. Unfortunately, there are probably dozens more to fill his slime covered shoes.

  328. Owlmirror says

    I reserve the right to be glad at whomever dies. I didn’t say it was rational. It is just how I felt.

    Ah. So you rejoice at people’s deaths for no particular reason. Any man’s death enlarges you?

    Why aren’t you defending MJ?

    I was taking it one step at a time, but since there’s no reason whatsoever to your hatreds, there’s not much point in investigating further now.

  329. Rorschach says

    @ 245,

    The news is reporting that he died of “complications of pneumonia”.

    Isn’t that how AIDS patients deaths used to be reported?

    Not really.

    tt the creep,

    So the problem with my posts the other day was that they were simply not funny.

    No, it’s that they were tasteless, misplaced and creepy.

    My comments about Landon, Swayze, and Jackson, were random, as whenever I think of dead people, I think of those three as people I was glad to see extinguished

    Interesting but creepy choice of words there.Might have to reinstall killfile, it got lost at the last OS overhaul.

  330. strange gods before me, OM says

    Hey Myers, why don’t you try to be less of a prick?

    Comity and civility are virtues, and respecting them would neither harm nor dilute any message.

    Ha!

    Seriously though, I have some sympathy for the message I guess you intended to convey.

    It’s generally in poor taste to revel in the death of another person. Someone loved Oral Roberts.

    But I don’t see PZ reveling. He notes the death. He notes Oral was a fraud. And there’s a pleasant little joke about a damned man buying his time on Earth with ill-gotten wealth. Or perhaps that’s an allusion to a Faustian bargain where no amount of wealth and power will save him.

    Either way, PZ didn’t even say that the world is slightly better for Oral’s death. And that’s a bit more taboo than graveyard comedy, isn’t it? But it’s true. Even though someone loved him.

    Oral Roberts was a bad person. There’s no reason to stop saying it now just because he’s dead.

    No time for revelry tonight, though.

    But when Fred Phelps dies, I will assuredly be attending the parties, probably braying drunk in the streets, and hopefully making time to share the gift of sodomy.

    I really don’t think WE need to be such asswipes, too.

    Can’t say I agree that public schadenfreude over the death of a bad person necessarily makes us indecent. Assuming I’m wrong about that, though, I’ll offer that the little bit of relief may still be worth it, poor taste be damned.

  331. aratina cage says

    tt,

    Isn’t this a forum to express one’s opinion?

    That’s what I was doing, telling you my opinion. We do have a topic and you were seemingly attempting to derail the thread to discuss your grudge against Mr T, then you graced us with your wholly inappropriate list of dead celebrities. I’ll try to repress my urge to bother you for awhile then, okay?

    You want me to keep my opinions to myself, so as not to say something you don’t like?

    No, but you said some ghastly things tonight (again) that were way off topic.

    You crack me up Atarina. Good night.

    You confuse me. I don’t get you. But g’night anyhow.

  332. Sethosayher says

    I condemn this man’s life and much of what he preached and advocated, because he hurt and exploited others. I will not silence my criticisms even in the face of his passing. I am glad that there will less fundamentalist bile in the world.

    But I’m not going to whoop and hollar because he passed away. I may not respect the man, but I understand that his friends and his families are in great pain…They may hate me, condemn me or consider me utterly blasphemous, but I extend my sympathies to them because they are people just like me, and they, like me, have just felt the unimaginable pain of loss.

    When someone extremely unpleasant passes away, especially someone who thrived on hatred, we have a choice to either perpetuate that hate or counter it with compassion. This doesn’t mean we need to silence our criticism of his life, for if we did we would be untrue to ourselves. But by showing sympathy, by rejecting the instinct to rejoice in the suffering of others, we demonstrate that we will go beyond the simple pettiness that quite honestly characterizes so much of fundamentalism. We show the best of humanity in those moments.

  333. Sili says

    Happy Monkey!

    Yes, Pharyngula, there is a Santa Claus.

    Two down, how many to go?

    I’ll put Robertson and Warren down for my lot in the betting pool.

  334. WowbaggerOM says

    tt, try and read for comprehension.

    Oral Roberts = demonstrable liar and con-man who fleeced foolish people out of money to make himself rich by promising them something he had no way of knowing would occur (i.e. pleasing their god in such a way they would go to heaven).

    Michael Landon, on the other hand = actor/producer of awful television shows ranging from the saccharine to the banal.

    You can’t perceive a significant difference between them?

  335. strange gods before me, OM says

    Flap! Flap! Flap! Flap! Flap! Flap! Flap! Flap!

    Okay, maybe I have time for a little revelry. Someone needs to invent us a tasty, preferably green, slow-acting drink, called the kakapo because it fucks your head.

  336. wanderinweeta says

    Still discussing the “are you rejoicing?” thingie after over 300 comments, eh?

    I’m not glad he died. It’s too little, too late.

  337. strange gods before me, OM says

    I may not respect the man, but I understand that his friends and his families are in great pain…They may hate me, condemn me or consider me utterly blasphemous, but I extend my sympathies to them because they are people just like me, and they, like me, have just felt the unimaginable pain of loss.

    Send them a sympathy card or something, then, because they aren’t going to be reading this thread. I wouldn’t go knock on their door and tell them I just felt the world get lighter. But I’m glad that there’s somewhere we can whoop and holler and share a round of kakapos.

  338. Mr T says

    strange gods before me, OM:

    Someone needs to invent us a tasty, preferably green, slow-acting drink, called the kakapo because it fucks your head.

    Well, you could call it that if you like. You may need to add something sweet if you want it extra-tasty.

  339. strange gods before me, OM says

    Mmm, sounds like a waste of weed, though. THC is large and not very polar, so alcohol really isn’t ideal for extraction or delivery.

  343. GeralCorasjo says

    Nobody wishes death upon anybody. However, this guy was a con artist who made money off the faith of fellow Christians. He was a criminal and his death is truly no loss to society.

  344. wrpd4 says

    Kristine: What are AtBC and UD? As a bisexual, I think I would like pleasurian husbands. I contacted a man called Spooky Tom who sells DVDs of old crappy sci-fi movies. I’m having trouble with YouTube–no sound.

    I mentioned this on another blog: members of Oral’s family were his partners in crime. I have no sympathy for them.

  347. SerenAur says

    He’s not burning in hell forever, but if he actually believed any of that nonsense then he probably had an interesting time speculating about it.

  348. Susan says

    Randy Newman told a great story about his Dad, who was Oral Robert’s doctor:

    “My father was an aggressive atheist,” says Newman, sitting in his west Hollywood office. Newman Sr, a doctor, dismissed religion as “bullshit” and was happy to expand on this theme to his many showbusiness patients. “Whether this is apocryphal or not, it’s too good not to tell. My dad used to do house calls, and he got a call in the middle of the night from Oral Roberts [the famous television evangelist] who had haemorrhoids, really severe. My dad said, ‘You call me at three in the morning – why don’t you stick your own finger up your ass and cure yourself?'”

    That’s the only thing I know about Oral Roberts, but I think it’s past enough.

  349. Eric P says

    It doesn’t do the atheist cause any good to rejoice in the death of others.

    So dancing a wild jig would be inappropriate? Laughing at the thought that God finally got Oral is somehow wrong? Knowing deep down in my heart that the world is a slightly better place today could be considered uncharitable?

    Too bad. I’ll miss ole Oral like I’d miss the passing of a blood filled deer tick. And yet my cause is still strong!

  350. Bone Oboe says

    Mr. T @ #26

    Into the future we can expect:
    Mutual Masturbation Roberts
    Dry Humping Roberts
    Autofellatio Roberts
    Fisting Roberts
    Anal Roberts
    Shocker Roberts
    Skull Fucking Roberts
    … and a host of others which probably aren’t appropriate to mention in mixed company

    How about Auto-erotic Asphyxia Roberts? Oh, wait. Is it too soon? Sorry Mr. Carradine.

    That would have been the way for Oral to go. Slumped in the closet amongst his snazzy suits, expensive tie around his neck. Sloppy grin beneath a pair of half lidded petechial hemorrages. Hand rigor wracked, clenched relentlessly around his dick which is now the same color as his oxygen starved face. A viscous, congealed wad of his final salute drying slowly on his shoes and the coat in front of him.

    They could do an open casket. Hopefully someone would have the forethought to procure a recording of “Oh Come All Ye Faithful” for the afternoon’s proceedings.

  351. Finch says

    @smoggyBatzrubble, #202; @Mr T #204

    Point taken, and I agree. The guy isn’t a worthy recipient of any sort of praise. The only reason I draw a line here is because of that stereotype that we’re all a bunch of evil baby-eating monsters that do nothing but rag on the dead folks we don’t like, figure out ways to trash the bible, and other similar things that would make the baby Jesus cry etc etc. I’m always a fan of breaking stereotypes for PR gains. I guess I’m a little too PC for this thread though, so buenos noches.

    The saddest thing is, that no matter how much we rag on him, it still won’t give those poor folks their money back.

  352. shatfat says

    Christopher Hitchens definitely says that he believes atheists are more moral than the religious. And I know other people have said similar things, as well.

    Yeah, well Hitchens may be a good debater, but he’s full of crap on a lot of points.

    There’s no reason believing in gods or not would make you a better person. As I believe Huxley once said, addressing the monotheist, “we are equally atheistic towards the Hindu patheon, etc, I simply believe in one less god than you do” or something to that effect.

    However, there IS some evidence that suggests that people who do bad things might flock towards religion to avoid guilt. Near the end of the “The Authoritarians” Altemeyer talks about the connection between right-wing authoritarianism and self-righteousness and I believe he also cites the research about how these people deal with conflicts (though I may be conflating it with someone else’s work!). In short, the self-righteous person who believes she has wronged someone else appeals to God for forgiveness, whereas the control confronts the person he thinks he wronged to settle the matter… the latter strategy is of course more costly. A selfish person or a social dominator is going to prefer the former strategy, and religion provides a cognitive-dissonance-free way to access this strategy.

    So I think there may be some truth to the idea of religious memes as the facilitators of evil. But, any highly authoritarian structure could theoretically result in the same end. So theism per se is not a necessary component. (Indeed, Altemeyer finds there is a connection between RWA and denomination but not necessarily between RWA and theism, and in fact, a number of atheists score highly on the RWA scale … echoes of Hitchens, perhaps?) When Russell, who was a Socialist or nearly so, denounced Stalinism, it was because he saw in it all the evils of religion.

    My point, in short, is that even if you do find a correlation between religiosity and anti-social behavior, you have a causation problem. (It is known that atheist and anti-social behavior appear to be anti-correlated, at least in the US, which again, disconfirms the hoary religionist claim that atheism leads to violence.)

    (there are probably spelling and other errors in the above post)

  353. Free thinker says

    An interesting quote I just came across
    Epicurus (341–270 B.C.), Greek philosopher

    “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
    Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
    Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
    Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”

  354. Walton says

    #350 (Bone Oboe): That is revolting. tt’s posts on this thread are also quite disgusting.

    Criticising the late Oral Roberts is fine with me. As many have pointed out, he was a professional conman who made a lot of money swindling the poor, and I won’t mourn for him. But this doesn’t give people carte blanche to post disturbing and depraved sexually-explicit content on this thread. There’s a big difference between being honest about your opinion, and going out of your way to disgust and offend others.

    I realise many people around here think I’m some sort of prissy maiden aunt who reacts with disgust to any mention of human reproduction. This is not the case; I have no problem with people talking about sex, when it’s relevant. But there are some thoughts and ideas that are best kept inside one’s own head (or, alternatively, shared on one of the many sites which exist specifically for that purpose, rather than here).

    Incidentally, how does one install killfile? Does it work on Internet Explorer? (*runs away from rampaging mob of Firefox fanatics*) :-)

  355. Rorschach says

    Incidentally, how does one install killfile? Does it work on Internet Explorer?

    Doesnt work on IE since it’s a Firefox addon as far as I know.
    You install the greasemonkey addon to FF, then get this file and install it, that’s it.

  356. AJ Milne says

    At most, I would regret Roberts’ passing only in this one sense: with it we lose yet another instructive lesson in just why so-called ‘faith’ is in no way a virtue… And a nice, vivid reminder of what was probably a principal reason any number of rather ugly little confidence schemes throughout human history have promoted it as such all the same…

    I say I would regret it in that sense, except that we all know it changes very little, at least in the current context. Insofar as any number of sleazoids will no doubt arise to take up his torch, and to bilk whomsoever they can in the name of whichever god they can sell them.

    Still, in the measurable hope that people may just be getting that little bit smarter on average about cons of this general form of con, I guess I could also think of this as ‘One more down…’, at least, anyway…

    I feel something vaguely similar, incidentally, with the passing of each religiot troll from these threads. Each was similarly a convenient object lesson: ‘This is your brain on religion’. But there will, no doubt, always be others.

    (/And often others so tediously similar that I will feel a distinct sense of déjà vu.)

  360. shonny says

    Posted by: Ryan F | December 15, 2009 5:47 PM
    It doesn’t do the atheist cause any good to rejoice in the death of others.

    Get off it! Oral was one of the best living arguments for euthanasia.
    As are indeed the rest of god’s swindlers who head-fuck the feeble-minded, and take their money for doing it.
    Any of those preachers leave the world a better place by dying, which they sadly don’t do fast enough. And everyone should piss on their graves (preferably during the burial), and on their memories. Don’t just leave it to the dogs.

  361. ChrisH says

    Natasha @ #325

    I wondered when ST’s “Send me Your Money” was going to make an appearance. If you hadn’t have quoted it I would! On the Suicidal Tendencies song theme, regarding this thread I suppose that saying “Two Wrongs don’t make a right, but they make me feel a whole lot better” kind of works.

    It’s a better fit IMO then Tool’s “Eulegy” which I always seem to associate with Bill Hicks… Obviously I could be wrong as I often am with these things!

  364. says

    “Oral Roberts … died Tuesday.”

    That’s one less stupid asshole poisoning the minds of innocent children. The world always becomes a slightly better place when a preacher man drops dead.

  366. felixthecat says

    Good riddance! Oral Roberts and such are proof positive that there is no god. If god existed, he would have seen to it that none would have survived the first trimester.

  367. Anri says

    To those concerned about tone:

    Oral Roberts was a faith healer. He told hundreds of thousands of people that their sickness, their pain and suffering, their deaths, were no big deal.

    All we are seeing here is that he is reaping what he himself sowed.

    Also, those close to Oral – if they are faithful, why are they mourning? Why are they unhappy? Don’t they believe, I mean actually believe that Oral is enjoying a permanent vacation in a place that makes Oahu look like the bottom of a cesspit?

    Surely, if they actually believed that, they’d be dancing in the streets that he’s finally done with having an aching, decrepit, failing body, and gone on to the light everlasting.
    They’re not dancing, and they’re getting mad at those that are.

    Draw from that the conclusion you wish.

    Oh, and feel free to mock me after I’m dead in any way you see fit.
    I won’t care.
    I’ll be dead.

  368. Forbidden Snowflake says

    Finch, #199

    His ministry told people who could not afford to give that what they gave, God would return to them with great interest.

    Wait, isn’t that in fact encouraging them to engage in usury?
    Isn’t usury a sin or something?

    *confused. Or, to be exact, more confused than usually*

  369. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawnTAiIRbRIpbzIZTtwLDKEdcE21mgEUtpI says

    Methuselah lived to be 969 years old. I guess God has cut down the lifespan of his prophets by quite a margin? Only explanation.

  370. Nancy New says

    As far as I am concerned, I AM rejoicing at this man’s death, and it didn’t come soon enough.

    Back in the 80’s, his organization conned the administration of a small overseas charity–one that I was and am familier with–out of their mailing list. They used it to their own gain, and, of course, provided none of the monies they promised the charity from their “support” in return. This was pre-personal computer–and the charity was and is very small. They ended up losing their whole list, and had to re-create it from scratch, crippling them for several years, and thus serious limiting the hands-on pre-and post natal care services and medical services the organization provided to poverty-stricken families in the middle east.

    I also tried to explain to my elderly neighbor (roughly the same time period) that letters automatically generated by direct mail merge techniques were NOT personal letters specifically addressing her-were not, in fact, personal appeals–in an attempt to see why she could keep her money in her own bank account instead of sending it to Oral and his like.

    The man was scum, living off the blood, sweat, and tears of others.

  371. Dianne says

    Oral Roberts didn’t meet his fundraising quota this year

    Maybe. Or maybe Fundamentally Oral Bill finally met his.

  372. Naked Bunny with a Whip says

    by rejecting the instinct to rejoice in the suffering of others

    We’re not rejoicing in the suffering of others. We’re expressing our pleasure that a cause of suffering has finally died.

    we have a choice to either perpetuate that hate or counter it with compassion

    Empty rhetoric. What are you doing that is compassionate? All you are doing is stroking your ego by lecturing people who are doing no harm to Oral Roberts, Oral Roberts’ family, or you.

    This doesn’t mean we need to silence our criticism of his life

    As long as we do so in a way personally approved by Sethosayher. Otherwise, we’re perpetuating hate.

    Fuck that. I’m not perpetuating hate in the slightest. By tomorrow, I will have once again stopped thinking about Oral Roberts in any fashion, just as I wasn’t thinking about him yesterday morning. But Oral Roberts’ legacy — his family and his massive political machine — will still be bilking money from the poor, spreading bigotry, and crushing the minds and spirits of thousands. Oral Roberts will still be causing misery and death from beyond the grave, while I won’t have caused the slightest blip of angst for those grieving the man.

    So fuck you and your little superiority complex. We’re celebrating Oral Roberts’ death because of compassion — the compassion we have for his victims.

  373. AJ Milne says

    Maybe. Or maybe Fundamentally Oral Bill finally met his.

    FTW.

    (/Hell, I know I tried to set a few hundred bucks aside for that drive annually…)

  374. neon-elf.myopenid.com says

    I shed no tears for another crook biting the dust.

    And what’s the big deal about being able to heal by the laying on of hands?
    I’ve healed several cases of erectile disfunction in that manner.

  375. PaleGreenPants says

    A priest I know celebrated with Sagan died. I this this is fair turnabout.

    -course that same priest would probably celebrate Roberts’ death too.

  376. Bill Dauphin, OM says

    Methuselah lived to be 969 years old.

    Yeah, but who calls that livin’ when no gal will give in to no man with 900 years?

  377. SEF says

    Given that it’s the “raisin date” of fundy death-cultists to celebrate death, isn’t it entirely appropriate, anyway, to celebrate their own deaths?

  381. MTS says

    Re #367: You’ve nailed it. The simple fact is the religious believers, with some exceptions, are no less fearful of death than anyone else: they go to doctors when they are sick, do what they can to prolong their lives, and are sorrowful when their loved ones die. If they honestly believed that they were going to Heaven upon death, and that Heaven “makes Oahu look like the bottom of a cesspit” (great turn of a phrase, by the way), they couldn’t wait to die, or–at least–wouldn’t fear death just like everyone else does.

  383. Pierce R. Butler says

    There have been multiple comments here about “Autofellatio Roberts”, which are most unseemly.

    To accomplish such a feat would require degrees of both length and limberness far beyond the capacities of the dearly departed.

    Does anybody here have a celebratory link summing up the pecuniary peccadilloes of OR’s son (and, of course, the amatory adventures of his daughter-in-law)? There are a couple of good movies in those stories of Roberts family values (though the latter would only be suited for those premium-price cable channels).

  385. Michelle B says

    A family funeral is a private affair which I respect so I would not picket Roberts’ like that other Christian creep does. But honestly I have no empathy for Roberts’ family. They are part of the problem. Would you not disown a relative like Roberts if you had one? I sure would.

    If there are relatives of his who criticized his shady dealings or are too young to know better, who may be feeling uncomfortable at his death, I would have some empathy for them. But for the relatives who supported and agreed with Roberts? They are no different from him. Roberts does not merit any empathy, and nor does anyone like him, even if they happen to be relatives by the accident of birth.

  386. tsg says

    I condemn this man’s life and much of what he preached and advocated, because he hurt and exploited others. I will not silence my criticisms even in the face of his passing. I am glad that there will less fundamentalist bile in the world.

    But

    Linguistics Rule #107: Everything before the “but” is bullshit.

    I’m not going to whoop and hollar because he passed away. I may not respect the man, but I understand that his friends and his families are in great pain…They may hate me, condemn me or consider me utterly blasphemous, but I extend my sympathies to them because they are people just like me, and they, like me, have just felt the unimaginable pain of loss.

    When someone extremely unpleasant passes away, especially someone who thrived on hatred, we have a choice to either perpetuate that hate or counter it with compassion. This doesn’t mean we need to silence our criticism of his life, for if we did we would be untrue to ourselves. But by showing sympathy, by rejecting the instinct to rejoice in the suffering of others, we demonstrate that we will go beyond the simple pettiness that quite honestly characterizes so much of fundamentalism. We show the best of humanity in those moments.

    Your concern is noted.

    Now where’d my party hat go?

  387. ChrisH says

    Oh, and feel free to mock me after I’m dead in any way you see fit.
    I won’t care.
    I’ll be dead.

    Hear, hear!

    But to plagarise/paraphrase a Spike Milligan “I want to be buried up a tree so that after my death people will look up to me.”

  389. Bone Oboe says

    Walton,

    Revolting

    is just what I was aiming for.
    But, it’s not my fault, Mr. T made me do it.

    I’ve always wanted to say that…

  391. BoxNDox says

    That old lying sack of shit actually did me a something of a favor, indirectly and unintentionally, many years ago.

    Back in the mid-80s when I was doing physics research at Oklahoma State University, the library wasn’t great so I used to put in a lot of inter-library loan requests. Quite frequently the ILL books came in from ORU, which is only 60-ish miles away in Tulsa.

    You know how a book that has never been read makes that cracking sound when you open it? I soon realized could tell, with nearly 100% reliability, which books had come from ORU just by opening them and listening for that sound. Or I could look at the signout card – in almost every case my due date was the only one on the card.

    So it seems ‘ol Oral bought himself a library that practically nobody used. Accreditation is a such nuisance, what with all those pesky rules about having halfway decent libraries and such. But it was certainly handy for me to have books arrive so quickly, and in such excellent condition.

    Anyway, you know that there’s this sculpture of a big set of open hands in front of ORU? We used to joke that the way to get the hands to close was to throw a nickel in there.

    And the “Send Oral to heaven in ’87! No $$$” bumper stickers are probably a collector’s item now.

  392. sasqwatch says

    Bone Oboe. That was thoroughly disgusting. Keep it up. (reminded me of a Bill Hicks rant, and was well-written to boot).

  393. MetzO'Magic says

    @ NoOneOfConsequence #187 (though that will change if PZ de-Mabuses the comments)

    The DJ’s on the radio went on a 10 minute tirade on how fond they were or [sic] Oral, how they think about Oral all the time, and how that [sic] can’t imagine life without Oral.

    Heh heh. Excellent.

  394. Bone Oboe says

    Bows low…

    Thanks Sasqwatch. Though I must give a nod to
    Mr. T. I was just riffing on his list of Alternate Roberts’.

    I don’t always connect when I swing, but this one was like tee-ball, fish in a barrel and taking candy from a…You get the picture.

  396. Gpdlesspanther says

    Whose next?

    Dobson?
    Robertson?
    Graham?

    I vote Dobson.

    Dear God,

    Please aim one of your most powerful lightening bolts at the space right between James Dobson’s eyes.

  397. kc5tty says

    @345 Breadmaker ..

    No I wasn’t quoting any bible verse. (Kinda fits though.) Just the thought that IF he could heal, why couldn’t he heal himself???

    Seems that when faith healers get sick, they go to the doctor. e.g. Oral, Motha T, and the rest……

    (I realize that Mother Theresa wasn’t a faith healer) I just wish all those who scam others could get their just desserts.

    Steve

  398. redrabbitslife says

    I heard about the death of Oral on CBC radio. They were saying nice things about him and I couldn’t figure out why.

    Listening to THAT and knowing my tax dollars paid for it was way more disgusting than even Bone Oboe’s best effort. And bravo, that was truly gross.

  400. Rorschach says

    Graham will die before Robertson, who will die before Dobson.

    We had this rather macabre game we did around New Year’s eve back at Uni, where the whole floor came together to name 10 people we thought might die in the coming year, whoever got the most ones right would win some booze or something, I forget.
    Was great fun tho.

    :)