He attended Baylor University in Waco (Roloff is reported to have brought his dairy cow with him to raise tuition funds through the sale of its milk), and later Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.
In 1950, Roloff was called upon to fill in as preacher at a series of revival meetings in Corpus Christi after the scheduled speaker, B.
Roloff preached stridently against homosexuality,[1] communism, television, alcohol, tobacco, drugs, gluttony, and psychology.
In 1956, after giving a speech at his alma mater Baylor University criticizing denominationalism, Roloff broke with the SBC and joined the Independent Baptist movement.
Other policies, in accordance to the state, included windows being locked and alarm systems to prevent any truancy or escape.
Local authorities first investigated possible abuse at the Rebekah Home in 1973, when parents who were visiting their daughter reported seeing a girl being whipped.
When welfare workers attempted to inspect the home, Roloff refused them entry on the grounds that it would infringe on the separation between church and state.
Attorney General John Hill promptly filed suit against Roloff Evangelistic Enterprises, introducing affidavits from 16 Rebekah girls who said they had been whipped with leather straps, beaten with paddles, handcuffed to drainpipes, and locked in isolation cells—sometimes for such minor infractions as failing to memorize a Bible passage or forgetting to make a bed.
Roloff defended these methods as good, old-fashioned discipline, solidly supported by Scripture, and denied that any treatment at Rebekah constituted abuse.
Attorney General Hill bluntly replied that it was not pink bottoms to which he objected, but ones that were blue, black, and bloody.
Unmoved, Hill pressed his case, and in 1974, a state district judge found Roloff in contempt of court and sentenced the preacher to five days behind bars.
However, the homes reopened in 1997 after a new law was passed that allowed faith-based institutions to opt out of state licensing requirements.
On November 2, 1982, the same day that the Democrat Mark Wells White, the outgoing attorney general, unseated Republican Governor Bill Clements, Roloff's plane crashed during a storm outside Normangee, Texas.
In 2017, the organization moved its mailing address to Fort Thomas, Arizona, and relocated its operations to a nearby Native American facility, which it opened in the early 1980s.
The church now operates homes for adult men and women being treated for alcohol and drug addiction.
", Roloff described the law as revealing humanity's sins and exposing their inability to attain righteousness through their own works.
[6] Lester Roloff taught that one can only be saved through faith in Jesus Christ's shed blood and his atoning death, and that assurance of salvation is possible.