Joel Osteen Reacts to Floods

Submission 23,368

Part of a series on 2017 Hurricane Harvey. [View Related Entries]

About

Joel Osteen Reacts to Floods refers to controversial action taken by megachurch pastor Joel Osteen after tropical storm Harvey hit the Houston, Texas area in August 2017. Osteen's church Lakewood did not begin to open its doors as a shelter for victims until several days after the storm flooded the area. Many Twitter users criticized the Pastor for not opening the church as a shelter sooner and for years after Harvey Osteen had been referenced by Houston residents anytime a storm threatened the area.

Origin

On August 26th, 2017, the morning after Harvey first hit Houston, Joel Osteen^[1] tweeted, "Victoria & I are praying for everyone affected by Hurricane Harvey. Please join us as we pray for the safety of our Texas friends & family" (shown below, left). The tweet gained over 3,500 retweets and 17,400 likes in two years. On August 27th, The Digg^[2] reported that "the church’s official Facebook page posted that the building was inaccessible due to flooding and shared a list of shelters 'beginning to open up'" (the Facebook post has since been deleted). The next day, Twitter user @paleofuture^[3] tweeted, "Lots of people online are wondering why @JoelOsteen hasn't opened his 16,000 seat megachurch in Houston to people" which garnered over 17,600 likes and "Descriptions from the church use strange language and don't actually say that the church itself has been flooded" which gained over 1,300 likes in two years (shown below, right).

Spread

On August 28th, 2017, Twitter user @AnastasiaElyseW^[4] tweeted a "New statement from @JoelOsteen and Lakewood Church in regards to Hurricane Harvey backlash" (shown below, left). The tweet accumulated over 1,100 likes in two years. That same day, Twitter user @cmclymer^[5] posted images of the church seemingly unaffected by the flood (shown below, right). The tweet gained over 5,500 likes and 5,200 retweets in two years.

The next day, Lakewood Church^[6] announced on Twitter that "Lakewood is receiving people who need shelter. We are also coordinating with the city as a collection site for distribution" (shown below). The tweet received ober 1,100 likes and 600 retweets in two years.

On September 19th, 2019, new flooding affected the Houston area Twitter user @pumpkinking39^[7] tweeted a picture of locked doors captioned, "Joel Osteen’s church doors rn " (shown below). The tweet gained over 13,500 likes and 4,200 retweets in four days.