Today's Out Spotlight is about a televangelist, a son and a grandson and change.
Televangelist Oral Roberts, had four children, two sons, and two daughters, two who continue to live in his legacy. One son followed his footsteps and was a former president of Oral Roberts University before stepping down over allegations of mismanagement of funds, and a daughter, a Tulsa attorney who serves on the ORU board. His other two children, passed early in their lives, daughter who was killed in a plane crashed in 1977, and a son Ronnie Roberts, who took his life in 1982.
But why would Out Spotlight highlight a televangelist who's rants against homosexuality were so legendary that they still can be seen on You Tube?
It is because of his grandson, Randy Roberts Potts' who is breaking from the Roberts legacy and creating a new one, one of courage and acceptance.For all of Oral Roberts' fire and brimstone preaching against homosexuality, it was something that happening in his own family, and it was something no one in his family or church would dare speak. Robert's son Ronnie, after trying to live how his father expected him to, came out as gay man to the Rev. Troy Perry, founder of the Metropolitan Community Church, in the early 1980s. Six months later, Ronnie Roberts committed suicide.
Those in the LGBT community knew that Oral Roberts had a gay son, but it was something that was never mentioned in the Roberts family or in the church that Roberts created. In the family and at church it was a big secret. Grandson Randy said he didn’t know himself until fairly recently that his uncle was gay.
Potts was 8 years old when his Uncle Ronnie shot himself through the heart at the age of 30. When Potts came out himself at the age of 30, it was a completely different ending or in his case a beginning to a life story.Randy Roberts Potts knew he was gay when he was a young boy, speaking of how he crushed on boys on his class growing up. He also knew growing up in the Roberts clan that was something he could never tell anyone. Close to his Grandmother Evelyn, he was distant to his grandfather, who never really knew his grandson's name despite living less than a 100 yards from each other.
After growing up in the shadow of family Potts headed to Oklahoma University where at the age of 18 he met a girl who reminded him of his grandmother. Determined to live the life he was taught, he began dating her, but did share with her that he was bisexual, having feeling for men too. By 20 they were married. By his late 20's he was married with three children and admitting to himself that was not his genuine life. He wasn't bisexual he was gay, and had always been.While not knowing much about his uncle life until he was older, Potts identifies most closely with him, and the parallels in their life are remarkable. They look alike. They were both teachers. They both married, had children and divorced at about the same age. “We married very similar women, too,” Potts said.
They were also about the same age when they came out. But there is a major difference between the two. Ronnie ended his life and Potts embraced his.
Ten years after Potts and his wife were married, he and his wife divorced. When she got a new job in Dallas, he moved here to be near his children. They have joint custody of their three children.
When he came out the times were much more different for him than for his uncle.“By the time I was in my late 20s, we had ‘Will & Grace,’” Potts said. “In 1982 in Tulsa, there were no role models.”
“In the gay community people knew that,[Uncle Ronnie was gay]” he said. “In my family it was utter heresy that I mentioned it.” He said the “the act of saying it publicly” has estranged most of his family from him.
Since he has come out, Potts said only two people in his family even talk to him — his brother, who is also gay and a distant cousin. He wasn't even told about his grandmother until after her passing. And was not allowed to sit with the family at his grandfather's funeral.
But that is not a deterrent for him and his new life. Potts says he believes people need to take responsibility for their own lives. If their families aren’t supportive, they need to surround themselves with people who are. That is what made the difference for him.
Last fall Potts made a poignant and touching video as a part of the It's Gets Better campaign last fall. In it is a him reading a letter he wrote to his Uncle Ronnie.
Last Sunday, July 17th, Potts went home to Tulsa, not to preach at the church his family founded, but to speak about who he is and his life and his faith at the All Souls Unitarian Church.
It is a bit long, but very well worth watching.
From a man in who's legacy is public condemnation of homosexuality, it is from his own family that comes change - a courageous voice sharing "something good is going to happen to them today" for him and those like him, who his grandfather condemned.
Change can and does come, this is just one example of how it can.