Years ago, Oral Roberts, a fundamentalist preacher set forth on a campaign to restore belief in faith healing to the world. An ordained minister in the Pentecostal Holiness Church, the reverend oral Roberts has up to this time been an itinerant preacher in his native Oklahoma and neighbouring states, strumming his guitar and singing with his wife on street corners. Now he is big business, "winning souls to Christ", his HQ in Tulsa employs over 200 people. He is seen on 97 TV stations and heard on 200 radio station. Over 25,000 letters are answered each week. Income is derived from sale of books, tracts, prayer cloths, song books, records, tapes of sermons and Healing Waters Magazine currently with a circulation of 500,000 per month.

In 1956, Eve Arnold followed Oral Roberts to Minnesota and Oklahoma. "Most of his teaching was done for radio and television, and he would urge his listeners to put their hands on the TV or radio. He would ask for 'letters of support' as soliciting money was illegal in most states. The laying of his hands was quite an experience, I know because when I met him, he demonstrated on my back and I felt so elated that the writer and speculated that he must have been an osteopath."