A
MODERN-DAY PROPHET, and remembered well by many
still living, Lester Roloff in the last years of his
life had become a symbol and example to all who
believe man ought to obey God rather than men.
Until his death in an
airplane crash in 1982, he was engaged in a battle
against some of the forces of the State of Texas,
primarily the Welfare Department that would silence
or greatly curtail his ministry if they could. The
irony of it all is that he had done nothing but help
change lives of countless youngsters who had nobody
else to help them.
It is hard to believe
that the story you are now going to read could
happen in America. Roloff was born on a farm ten
miles south of Dawson, Texas, to Christian parents.
He was saved in a little country church called
Shiloh Baptist when about twelve, in a revival in
July, 1926, under the ministry of John T. Taylor.
High school was
completed in Dawson. Reared on a farm he took his
milk cow and went off to Baylor University in 1933
and milked his way through college. He graduated in
1937 with an A.B. degree. While at Baylor he was far
from idle. He started pastoring among the Southern
Baptists in a succession of pastorates. First was
the Prairie Grove Mills Baptist Church in Navarro
County where he had 67 converted in a revival to
begin things. He also preached at his hometown
church at Shiloh which was located outside of
Dawson. Then he preached a revival at the First
Baptist Church of Purden, Texas, and had 143
additions baptizing some 100 of them. This led to
his call there while he retained the ministry at
Navarro Mills. This latest venture happened his last
year in college. Roloff went on to Southwestern
Seminary in Fort Worth for three years, 1937 to
1940, while he maintained his ministry at Purden,
going then to the First Baptist Church of Trinidad,
Texas, his last year in seminary.
He married Marie Brady
on August 10, 1936, at the First Baptist Church of
Galveston, Texas. They had two daughters, Elizabeth,
born June 20, 1937, and Pamela Kay, an adopted
daughter.
From 1941 to 1944 he
pastored the Magnolia Park Baptist Church in
Houston, Texas, which had great crowds and much
blessing. He was president of the local pastor's
conference during some of this time. In 1944 he went
to Corpus Christi where he spent the rest of his
life. The Park Avenue Baptist Church extended a call
to him, where he went in March 1944. On October 15,
1944, the church burned, and later property was
purchased in another location of town and the church
became known as the Second Baptist Church which he
pastored from 1944 to 1951 with some 3,300 additions
during this time. A branch mission church was
started, called the West Heights Baptist Church.
Roloff began a radio
ministry on May 8, 1944, with his Family Altar
Program, first broadcast over a 250-watt station
locally. Soon it was on more than 22 stations,
approximately 65 hours per week. By the early 1980s,
it was broadcasting on more than 150 stations
nationally. Some of the broadcasts were 15 minutes
in length, some one-half hour. Starting on the small
KEYS station, the program had an interesting
history. Roloff was kicked off the radio ten months
after he started his fight against liquor being a
prime reason. The next day he started to broadcast
on KWBU, a 50,000-watt station where he held fort
for eight years. In 1954 the managers of KWBU
decided to remove him because he was a controversial
figure. Some businessmen bought the station, and he
was again on the air for a year. But not for long.
The new managers, like today, were "ratings" minded,
and felt some more popular programs would bring in
more listeners and more revenue. That squeezed
Roloff's program off the air once again. However,
within one year, the owners of the station lost more
than $70,000. By this time, Roloff decided to try to
buy the station and asked how much they wanted. The
answer was $300,000, and Roloff didn't have a dime.
However, with the help of God and the money of
friends, $25,000 was put down as earnest money with
$100,000 needed 90 days later. He had all the
required funds short of $7,250 on the last day. By
the last hour, he was still short $250, but 45
minutes before the 2 p.m. deadline it was all there!
Others of course became stock holders and owned the
station, but Roloff was the vehicle used to get it
in the right hands. After Roloff bought the station,
it changed its call letters to KCTA (Know Christ The
Answer).
Roloff founded the Park
Avenue Christian Day School in 1946. The school even
now operates a kindergarten and continues through
upper grades. His headquarters continue at the Park
Avenue Day School, located on the property of the
former Park Avenue Church.
In April 1951 he
resigned as pastor at Second Baptist Church to enter
full time evangelism. He founded the Roloff
Evangelistic Enterprises, a nonprofit organization
which sponsors many projects of faith.
In May 1955 he printed
his first issue of Faith Enterprise, a quarterly
publication dedicated to the salvation of lost souls
and strengthening believers.
In August of 1954, with
convictions about being independent of the Southern
Baptist Convention or any other denominational
influence, he founded a church in Corpus Christi
which was to be called the Alameda Baptist Church.
He and four others put up $2,500 on ten and four
tenths acres of ground, and it was organized with
126 members on October 24. He pastored here until
about 1961.
On March 13, 1956,
Roloff stood in Waco Hall, in Waco, Texas, and spoke
to more than 2,000, giving his swan song to Baylor
University. He stated all the issues in no uncertain
terms. Other ministries soon developed. Roloff
described at least six major ministries that he
became responsible for: Thirty years ago, we started
the Good Samaritan Rescue Mission that is still in
operation.
More than twenty years
ago, the CITY OF REFUGE was started in an old
Quonset hut given by Dr. Logan and put together by
alcoholics at Lexington, Texas. The City of Refuge
is now located in Culloden, Georgia, on 273 acres of
an old antebellum home with lovely dormitories for
men and women.
The LIGHTHOUSE
houseboat was built by Brother E.A. Goodman and
taken down the Intracoastal Canal in 1958. On the
way down, a boy fell off and went under this boat
and missed the propeller. He was rescued by an
unsaved boy who was going down to the Lighthouse for
help, and one of our preacher boys, Bob Smith, who
is now a missionary. This is where Bill Henderson,
Ricky Banning and many others found God's will for
their lives. We have preacher boys that come to the
Lighthouse now studying for the ministry in other
Christian schools. I have just dealt with three
eighteen year old boys in Corpus Christi within the
last week who are drug addicts. The Lighthouse is
located forty miles down the Intracoastal Canal from
Corpus Christi and it can only be reached by plane
or by boat.
The PEACEFUL VALLEY
HOME for our older retired Christian friends is the
prayer place. It is located near Mission and
Edinburg, Texas, with many acres of citrus fruit and
lovely vegetables that are grown there, in the midst
of a lot of nice weather. This home is just for
Christians who want to retire in a lovely place and
still be of service to others. It began in 1969.
The ANCHOR HOME FOR
BOYS with three big two story buildings for
dormitories, a cafeteria, gymnasium, shop building
and dining room, is located at Zapata, Texas. It has
a capacity of nearly three hundred.
The BETHESDA HOME FOR
GIRLS in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, is for girls in
trouble. It is a very beautiful home, located on
Blue Lake, for both pregnant and delinquent girls.
It has made many friends and received a warm welcome
in Mississippi.
The REBEKAH HOME FOR
GIRLS, located in Corpus Christi, Texas, is our
largest home. We have had fifteen hundred girls in
about seven years and the three dormitories have a
capacity of about three hundred beds. It is located
on 440 acres of land. This has been the most
miraculous work we have ever seen and has been
fought and despised by the devil. I have never seen
such miracles in all of my ministry.
The REBEKAH CHRISTIAN
ACADEMY is the school for the Rebekah Home. It has a
beautiful two story air conditioned building with
the finest of equipment.
From 1961 to 1973
Roloff was developing these varied enterprises, and
ministering as an evangelist in many churches, plus
carrying on his radio ministry. He was an
experienced pilot, having flown about 12,000 hours
in his 1966 Queen Air that a friend helped him to
get, and also his 1968 Cessna Skywagon that was used
for Lighthouse work, which could land on the beach
with people and provisions. These planes belonged to
the Enterprises and had their own mechanic and radio
men to maintain them and help fly them. Roloff
landed his plane at least four times on one engine,
and in unusual places such as a highway. His flying
lessons began in 1958.
His themes through the
years had been Christ Is the Answer and Now the Just
Shall Live by Faith.
The last of his varied
works of good will which, by the way, made no
charges for those they helped, was the Rebekah Home
in Corpus Christi, which was the scene of
controversy during his remaining years and, in fact,
still is. This was founded in 1967 along with the
People's Church, a place where girls in trouble
could get worship as they got straightened out. This
school specialized in taking cases other agencies
and homes refused to take. And no wonder Roloff got
results. He ran his schools by Bible directives and
naturally got Bible results, changed lives. Over
$3,000,000 were tied up in the Rebekah project
alone. In September, 1970, the Gulf Coast storm
Celia hit, but miraculously did not touch the
Lighthouse, nor their home, although severe damage
was almost everywhere else. In 1971 their homes were
filled to capacity, and they had to start turning
people away.
In May, 1972, the
Roloffs moved into their lovely, large new home on
the acreage where the Rebekah Home and other
buildings were already located. An other 118 acres
of land was purchased. It had a runway on it for
their plane, and they could farm some of the
remaining acres. During the summer of 1972, workers
built another big two story building, which became
the Rebekah Christian School. At the close of 1972
they had four days of dedication for the following
new items: chapel at the Intracoastal Canal; their
new home; the land adjoining the Enterprises
property; a big new boys' home at Zapata, Texas;
five new units at the Peaceful Valley Home; the high
two story dormitory at the Rebekah Home; the two
story Rebekah School; and the People's Church, which
is nearly two blocks long. The battle with the State
of Texas developed ironically out of one of the most
compassionate ministries done anywhere. Rebekah Home
was founded as a place to help girls in trouble by
giving them the answer, which is Christ.
A Dallas probation
officer attests to the fact the place to send young
people in trouble is Roloff's work. Children
rejected elsewhere were welcomed with open arms and
a book could be written, telling of the amazing
changed lives. Some of the young men from the
Lighthouse have married some of the girls from
Rebekah Home ("the bumblebees meeting the
honeybees").
The talk of licensing began in 1971. This
threatened to shut the work down, unless they
conformed to rules and regulations that would have
greatly increased the cost of the operation without
improving on what they were doing. Roloff's legal
problems began in April, 1973, when the state
Welfare Department filed a suit in an attempt to
have his Rebekah Home licensed. Had Roloff agreed to
do this, he would then have had to follow Welfare
Department guidelines, which would have been totally
alien to Bible principles and the philosophy upon
which the girls' home was founded. Roloff had no
desire to fight the Welfare Department or put them
out of business, but simply wanted this
unconstitutional interference to stop. It was
government interference with religion. "Licensing a
church home is as unnecessary and wrong as licensing
a church," Roloff contended.
At issue was the constitutional principle of
separation of church and state. If licensed, the
home would have been required to hire a home
supervisor who holds a degree in social work and who
is approved by the Welfare Department. That
supervisor would be required to complete an
additional fifteen hours of college level social
studies every two years. Not only that but the home
would be required to file financial reports
regularly with the state Welfare Department. The
home would also have to hire one state approved
worker for every eight girls. The home would also be
forced to serve foods from a menu prepared by the
Welfare Department. The Welfare Department also
objected to Bible discipline, which would have to be
eliminated. (Translation: no spanking or other
corporal punishment.) One could readily see that
Roloff would not be running the home he gave birth
to, so naturally he chose to fight this invasion of
privacy. When the welfare officials appeared, he
asked them what they wanted. When they presented new
rules he simply took out his Bible and told them he
was satisfied with God's rules.
On August 3, 1973, an
injunction was signed, in which Roloff was enjoined
from operating a child care institution without a
license for those under sixteen years of age. On
October 5, 1973, a district judge heard the case and
fined Roloff $500 and $80 in court costs for
contempt of court when he refused welfare
guidelines. With Roloff refusing to have the home
licensed, the Welfare Department leveled charges of
brutality against the home, based upon the testimony
of a few of the girls. This adverse publicity was
widespread. It was found that, of the 1,500 girls
who had spent time at Rebekah Home, fewer than a
dozen could be found who would testify against it.
One set of parents were found willing to testify for
the Welfare Department. None of the 1,490 who were
helped or thankful for the home or their parents
were consulted.
Finally, on January 31,
1974, the case went to court again in Corpus Christi
and Roloff was found guilty fined $5,400 and
sentenced to five days in the county jail on
contempt of court charges. The court also ordered
him to "purge the home," which would mean to "dump
the girls into the street."
On February 4th he was
given the opportunity to present his argument on the
constitutionality of state licensing of a church
operated home before the Provisions Committee of the
Texas State Senate. What was to have been a five
minute presentation blossomed into a three hour
session when the senators began questioning Roloff
on the accomplishments and problems of Rebekah Home.
His jail term was limited to one day, February 12,
pending appeal to the Texas State Supreme Court, and
the fine was stayed as well, pending appeal. He was
released from jail on a writ of habeas corpus.
On March 24, 1974,
Roloff and his attorneys appeared before the nine
judges of the State Supreme Court of Texas in a
hearing to determine if a discharge of the charges
could be obtained. This request was made on the
grounds that the judgment was ambiguous and unclear
in that it does not define what age constitutes a
child or children. The former policy was that
individuals up to age sixteen were considered
children, but a recent state attorney general's
ruling stated a person to be a child up to age
eighteen. Questions were also raised in the minds of
the judges as to what constituted a childcare home.
Answers were unclear from the Welfare Department
and, in one instance, contradictory. The high court
agreed that children sixteen or over could be cared
for by Roloff and as a result overturned the
contempt of court charges May 20, 1974. Roloff
received the news May 29, while at Bob Jones
University in Greenville, South Carolina, receiving
an award "for those who have made special
contributions to the defense of the faith."
The Austin decision of
the Supreme Court, however, did not end the fight.
The Welfare Department has since been adamant in
getting the under eighteen years of age law declared
as needing a welfare license.
Roloff continued to help girls of any age who
came to him for help. He estimated that, while he
could not actively recruit for the younger ages,
would there be no harassment, he could handle up to
700 young people over against his approximate 200
who were then cared for. To illustrate the problem,
two girls, aged 13 and 15, ran away after two
warnings for other offenses. They were told they
would be spanked for the next violation. They were
found four days later in a locked bar. They had
spent this time with ten men and had a woeful story
to tell. Roloff kept his word and spanked them. Word
got out about the incident and Roloff was served a
summons for child abuse. At the hearing the girls
admitted the offenses and the spankings. The judge
declared Roloff could keep them until the trial.
Roloff refused until the judge would ask them a
question as to where they would like to go back to
Roloff or to some alternate arrangement. Hugging
their "daddy" with great affection they said they
wanted to be with Brother Roloff.
By March, 1975, the Texas Welfare Department had
filed against Roloff again for contempt and for
being in violation of their rules and regulations.
The Rebekah Home now housed only 200 girls, half of
what they had previously when forced to close. Even
more tragic was that they turned away 3,000 during
the legal problems. A legislative bill slipped
through the Texas State Senate on March 13, 1975,
clearly aimed, many people felt, at outlawing the
Roloff homes and work. It passed through the Texas
House of Representatives in May, 1975. In June
another court order was issued whereby they would be
held in further contempt if they did not allow
inspection of the premises of their homes. They
allowed the inspections, having nothing to hide.
On July 4 and 5, 1975,
a great rally was held in Garland and Dallas, Texas,
where hundreds of people gathered to join in the
battle, with such as Jack Hyles and Bob Jones, III,
addressing the crowds.
On July 25, shortly
thereafter, the Lighthouse dormitory burned to the
ground. Later, a tall boy got saved and confessed to
setting the fire.
By January 1, 1976, the
new guidelines by the Welfare Department became law,
making it illegal for unlicensed homes to take in
children under the age of eighteen.
In May, 1976, a judge
order instructed Roloff Enterprises to allow state
welfare workers to inspect the homes. This time
Roloff refused.
On June 3 a great rally
with some 400 people was held in Austin, preceding
Roloff's court appearance to fight state licensing.
Again he was put in jail on June 21. He was released
June 25, just prior to his 62nd birthday. He was
fined $1,750 also. In the fall of 1976 a final
ruling was laid down, giving him freedom until the
Supreme Court of the United States would hear the
case.
On November 1, 1977, a
great freedom rally was held at the convention
center in Dallas. Great crowds came, including over
1,500 preachers, and public sentiment again swelled
for Roloff. Nearly a year later, on October 2, 1978,
the United States Supreme Court ruled against
hearing the case from Corpus Christi. Attorney
General John Hill of Texas said the case was
frivolous, and the justices must have believed it.
Appearing on the
nationwide CBS television program 60 Minutes with
Mike Wallace on October 22, 1978, gave Roloff some
favorable national coverage long overdue.
Then, on November 7,
this same thorn in the flesh, John Hill, was
defeated in his bid for governor of Texas by William
Clements in a very close election. Clements
indicated he would use his powers to free Roloff
from all charges. It seems that even now, a decade
later, Roloff's case, still in litigation, is being
considered a test case by many. What happens may
determine the ultimate status of many other
preachers.
On the morning of
November 2, 1982, Lester Roloff donned his pilot's
clothing and boarded his Cessna Skywagon for the
last time, on his way to a preaching engagement at
the Calvary Baptist Church of Kansas City, Missouri.
With him were three members of a singing group and
an assistant. Approximately one hundred miles north
of Houston, at 10:00 a.m., the plane disappeared off
radar screens. There was much stormy weather in the
area. The wreckage of the aircraft was later found
by sheriff's deputies. All five aboard were killed
when the craft smashed into the ground. Though
shocked and stunned at the sudden home going of
their founder and other close associates, the Roloff
Enterprises vowed to continue the fight. Lester
Roloff's personal battle was over, but legal battles
continue to this day.
Currently, the Rebekah
Home has been closed, and the Lighthouse has not
been allowed to reopen after reconstruction. Two
other homes remain open. Perhaps justice will still
be meted out.
Pastor
Lester Roloff (1914-1982) was born in Dawson, Texas,
in 1914. His conversion at the age of fourteen came during a revival meeting
when a godly Sunday school teacher urged him to give his heart to Christ. He
received his education at Baylor University, taking his Jersey cow, "Marie,"
along with him and paying for his room and board with four gallons of milk
per day. After finishing school, “Brother Roloff” conducted a work of
ministry both as a pastor and as an evangelist in his own inimitable style.
His ministry touched the lives of millions of people throughout the USA and
in many foreign countries. 
