Lester Roloff

I did not attend the People's Baptist church or the homes, but having lived in Texas all my life, I've met those who have, and seen most all of the news reports. From that limited viewpoint, I'd say that the reports on this thread are accurate, both good and bad. The best of the best are true, and so are the worst of the worst, from what I've seen.

He still had no biblical basis to violate the law, in my opinion.

 

Humblesmith, I think you are right. Very few people are so depraved as to be totally evil. However, once someone ventures into the realm of abusing children, all bets are off on anything good they may have done. Child abuse erases the rest IMO. Roloff may be like Anakin Skywalker...started out good, but was eventually seduced by the Dark-Side. :laugh: It is a shame that with all the smoke surrounding this fire, as well as first hand accounts, that many canonize this man, rather than acknowledging the evil he did as well as the good.

I am reminded of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar:

[SIZE=-1]"The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones."[/SIZE]
​

 

Proverbs 17:9 He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.

Why bring up the failures of a man who's been dead over 20 years? What good could possibly come of it? How can this edify others?

Eph 4:29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

 

A Bad Comparison

:tear: While I know that everything(particularly in human organizations) rises or falls on the quality or quantity of the leadership, I can hardly see the justification for raking Bro.Roloff over the coals(so to speak). He was the Pastor of the Peoples Baptist Church and the leadership "figurehead" of the homes operated by the Roloff Evangelistic Association and the Peoples Baptist Church. He delegated the authority for the operation of the individual homes to others such as Bro. Cameron and there were staff that ran the various homes under Bro.Roloffs direction. Personally,in the time I was there I don't know of one instance in which Bro.Roloff personally "disciplined" anyone. Matter of fact in the nearly one year I was there Bro.Roloff was GONE more than he was there as he had many preaching engagements around the country for the purpose of promoting the homes and the ministry. The times I was priviledged not only to meet him personally but also to watch him interact with the younger boys and girls I saw nothing but LOVE,CONCERN,and COMPASSION for those the Lord had intrusted into his care......He was...and is to this day one of my heros of the faith. Magnetic Poles....I don't know where you got the "burr in your saddle" but in my opinion you are on thin ice here and seem to be consistently siding with all the wrong sources and the most godless crowd. You actually remind me of my LOST brother and LOST older sister who both to this day think I was "brainwashed" when I went down there and have taken this "religion thing" way too far. I came home from Texas with an unshakable faith in the Word of God and a burden for people less fortunate than me. My lost family still "hates" what I am and what I believe. You don't want to align yourself with a crowd like that....EVER. By the way....to the godless state government ALL Biblical discipline/corporal punishment IS considered abuse. I'm a big believer in the biblical teaching concerning the "rod of correction".(which the secular state considers abusive) You need to get on the Bible side of this argument. God IS in control.

Greg Perry Sr.:saint: :type:

 

So you would apply this to covering up for pedophile clergy as well? Talk about misappropriation of scripture.

 

With all due respect, if being "on the Bible side" means siding with child abusers, I'll pass, thanks. This is typical of a fundamentalist mindset..."my interpretation of the Bible is the only right one", regardless of what attrocities it condones. I seriously doubt if God condones the abuse of children, especially in His name.

 

The OP asked about him. Is it acceptable to only say good things when someone asks what we know? That would not be a true or balanced view of the man.

Edited to add: Besides, you asked for evidence. I provided it. You don't like the source, but you did ask.

 

Who is Lester Roloff? Does he make those expensive watches?

 

Hideous

Magnetic...I won't hesistate to say that I find your accusations and suggestions that Bro.Roloff was some kind of pedophile or child abuser are not only offensive at the least....but wicked and ungodly at worst. You continue to rely on ungodly sources for your assertions. I'll pray God will soften your hard heart. I simply can't understand your "blanket" endorsement of the words and accusations of ungodly worldlings and godless state and media sources over the word and demonstrated good results of the many who have been helped by this ministry and others patterned after it. Many of the ones that came to the homes in Corpus Christi were there as a LAST RESORT and many were actually court ordered there. I personally witnessed people who were violent and irrational who came to Christ and got their lives turned completely around. I also saw some who were completely reprobate who would accept NO HELP and eventually left defeated and unchanged. The place was on LOCK-DOWN (all the homes)after dark simply because there were people among us that would have run given the chance because they loved their (previous) lives of unhindered and unrestrained SIN. Occasionally someone would get VIOLENT and had to be restrained in some way. You simply have NO UNDERSTANDING of the nature of many of the people these ministries where charged with dealing with. Many of them went there as the LAST CHANCE before being sent to JAIL or a youth REFORMATORY. I personally knew one teenage boy who had been court ordered there after robbing a gas station with an automatic weapon. He got saved shortly after coming and became a wonderful testimony for the Lord.If you want to raise cain about abuse try going through the state facilities that have no GOD or BIBLE. I think that would be a REAL eye-opener for you. I'm not saying the Roloff homes were perfect....I saw things I didn't like and would have done different if I had been in charge but "on balance" I think things were done with the desire to be pleasing to God and true to His Word.Magnetic....instead of vilifying good Bible believing men who are trying to serve God and help others you might want to consider joining Greenpeace or PETA since they STAY on a perpetual tangent and could probably make good use of your style of "evangelism". Bro.Roloff genuinely LOVED GOD and others and did all he could to help as many as possible before he went to heaven. Lighten Up ! Remember...like the rest of us you aren't anywhere near perfect either.

Greg Perry Sr.:BangHead: :tear: :saint:

 

You need to go back and reread my posts. I never accused Roloff of being a pedophile. I applied the defensive logic being used toward that situation with other clergy.

You have no idea what you are talking about. I have many sources, like I said...including first hand invetigation. Your refusal to see but only one side of the man is sad. I have indeed acknowledged that he did some good. The bad just outweighs it, IMO. Yet you refuse to see that he may not have been the altruistic saint you perceive him to be. You are blinded to a balanced view of the man.

No one is more aware of that fact than I, and never claimed I was. So, do you need a ladder to get down off that high horse?

 

I don't know...I can only afford the ones made by Brother Timex. :laugh:

 

BTW, I have visited the inside of the Austin State Hospital in Austin, TX for children with mental disorders. While it isn't the Ritz-Carlton, I didn't see any abuse going on there. So again, you assume too much, and thus don't know what you are talking about vis-a-vis my experiences with these issues.

I also have seen some very questionable practices at Baptist-run youth homes in Texas. Some bordering on abuse right in front of me. And you can take to the bank, the fact that it was reported.

 

To the OP:

I find it best to go directly to the source. I personally enjoy some of Roloff's preaching, and I also think he was genuinely concerned about saving souls and changing lives through Jesus Christ. I don't agree on a lot of the food issues, but I will leave that between him and the Lord.

Here are a few links to go directly to the source. Decide from there.

http://www.gotothebible.com/HTML/RoloffLester.html

http://www.biblepreachingarchives.org/

http://www.sermonaudio.com/search.asp?SpeakerOnly=true&currSection=sermonsspeaker&keyword=Lester%5ERoloff

 

What makes Lester Roloff such an interesting situation is that (1) all the good you say is true; (2) all the bad that has been quoted here is also true; and (3) it is not just a problem in the past --- it would start again this afternoon if allowed to do so.......Wylie Cameron has said so.

The good parts of Roloff are exactly as you say......he took the worst of the worst, and many of them became ministers, preachers, and good godly parents. He took the people that were faced with either going to the homes or going to prison......these were violent addicts, some likely demon possessed, and were not the same type of folks that most of us meet every day. And he did an excellent job with them......just listen to the "homecoming" testimonies that they have once a year or so on his broadcast.

But the problem is that the worst is also true, and it's documented, and does not come only from people who are telling untruths. One gentleman who attends my church was a member at Roloff's People's Baptist in Corpus Christie. As an example, he told me of one teenage boy who did something wrong (stole something, if I remember right) and Roloff personally took an oar and "turned it into kindling" by beating it repeatedly across the boy's back. Literally breaking an oar on someone is not "the rod of correction" but is beating, and would likely qualify as abuse.

If you were there, then I'm sure you know of the room where they would lock people........they would leave them there with nothing exept Roloff's sermons being played for hours and days and weeks,...left there until they repented. I don't have the documentation, but my memory says that one girl died there back in the '70s. This is psychological abuse, and some "salvations" were kids only trying to survive. Some youth would get punished for no more nor less than not having memorized enough bible verses. You see, some in the homes were merely teenagers who weren't getting along with their parents, and subjecting them to physical and mental abuse is what the state was concerned with.

I, too, have been inside the state facilities. My wife worked for a year or so at one in Texas. They are not nice places, and I would much prefer a biblical setting.

So Roloff was an interesting guy.......at one point he was actually asked to leave the convention because he was too evangelistic for them. But regardless, as Christians, we are commanded to obey the law. This wasn't a case where the law was restricting a biblical command.....rather, it was a law that restricted Roloff's and Cameron's views of how to correct wayward youth. I still maintain, that while Roloff did good, he had no biblical foundation for breaking the law.

And it's not dredging up something from 25 years ago......as I said, they're still there, still trying to get the homes open again. They were open about 8 or 9 years ago, using the same methods.

I use Roloff in my classes to try to teach ethics, and how to decide between the state and biblical issues.

 

If a preacher was accused of pedophilia and then acquitted, I would say that this verse would apply, especially if has been long since dead. Just what was Roloff's sin that equaled pedophilia?

 

No, friend. You are sadly mistaken. I did not ask for any evidence. I had no doubt where your information came from. If you choose to believe the liberal media, that is your prerogative. I choose to believe a multitude of pastors and parents who sent their troubled teens there for help which they received.

 

I have the same testimony with the Roloff Homes. Why is my account not valid while yours is? I guess you are the final authority?

 

I'd say that the following is pretty close. This is a direct testimonies from girls who were there at Rebekah Home:

 

If the above testimonies are true without embellishment, the acts are deplorable, but they still do not come close to pedophilia.

It is one thing to be an aggressive disciplinary extremist, but quite another to be a sexual predator.

 

Try to keep up. I never said Roloff was a pedophile. I was pointing out your missappropriation of a Bible verse could logically be used to cover up for pedophile clergy equally as well as justifying the sweeping of Roloff's abuses under the rug.