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Twitter Floods Millionaire-Megachurch Owner's Inbox Over Harvey Victims

August 29th, 2017 - 1:03 PM EDT by Matt Schimkowitz

40 comments

Joel Osteen in a white shirt and tie flying above a city scape. / Image credit: Babylonbee.com

When you’re worth $40 million, you know a thing or two about wants and needs. On top of that, throw a little dose of Jesus, have a megachurch that used to hold a basketball team, and you’re uniquely equipped to assist the desperate people of Houston, Texas during Hurricane Harvey. Joel Osteen, the millionaire owner of Houston's Lakewood Church and pastor of one of the largest congregations in the world, is one of those people.

But that's not exactly what happened.

On Saturday, August 26th, as Hurricane Harvey made its landfall in Texas, Osteen -- again, the insanely rich owner of a church that used to house the Houston Rockets NBA team and regularly draws about 52,000 attendees a week, -- tweeted his thoughts and prayers to everyone affected by the storm. It seems as though people will just float to safety on his good intentions.


It didn't take long for people online to start taking Osteen to church over this, asking him to do the Christian thing and open the doors to his massive sanctuary. Message after message, people just wanted to know why the millionaire-owner of a house of God that holds more than 16,800 people wasn't offering shelter to the displaced people of Hurricane Harvey.



According to the New York Daily News, Houston officials spent this time attempting to find a space for the 30,000 displaced Texans, which could probably occupy a former-professional basketball stadium.

You’d think that after getting called out for being a pastor that doesn’t help people in need, you’d make some sort of statement about why you weren’t opening your gigantic space to them. Add to that the obviously good press a pastor would receive by showing the type of charity and care that Christianity is known for. But that’s not what happened either.

Later that day, he seemingly tried to address the whole incident in a subtweet, asking his six million followers not to judge people on one season, one mistake. Like, imagine if we judged Jamie Lannister based on one season of Game of Thrones. But the next day, he tweeted again -- though, not about hurricane -- before passing the buck over to the big guy in the sky, God.




Finally, after a surge of criticism that attracted the national media, the Lakewood Church announced it would close its doors because of flooding. “Inaccessible,” the church called it in a Facebook post.

Lakewood Church interior, which houses 16,800 seats / Image credit: Wikipedia

Of course, the announcement was promptly followed by video clips of the megachurch still standing well above the water line. This leaves one to ask: why wouldn't Joel Osteen open his 17,000-capacity arena to the people he has dedicated his life to helping?




Finally, Osteen and the Church released an official statement on the situation. Two days after this controversy began, Osteen said:

"We have never closed our doors. We will continue to be a distribution center to those in need. We are prepared to house people once shelters reach capacity. Lakewood will be a value to the community in the aftermath of this storm."

Additionally, Lakewood Church spokesman Donald Iloff made a statement, asserting that parts of their massive space were flooded, releasing pictures of flooded areas, explaining why the church didn't open its doors. However, they did say that several hundred people could be housed on the 2nd floor.

Lakewood Church flooding / Image credit: Lakewood Church

It was also around this time that Osteen, his millions of dollars and his ridiculously huge church decided to open its doors to people in need, providing sanctuary to thousands of Houstonians. As it turns out, if Jesus can't talk a pastor into doing the right thing, the Internet can.


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Comments 40 total

spindash64

Aug 31, 2017 at 12:18PM EDT

On the bright side, they are at least doing something now. And let me just say that I am also saddened by how little churches seem to want to get involved in things these days

1

Clone394

Aug 31, 2017 at 10:34AM EDT

Mega Churches brings further away from Gods light. I despise them with a passion. I can't even find the right words to describe the immense disdian I have for them.

1

Astatine, Resident Hijab Enthusiast

Aug 30, 2017 at 11:37PM EDT

>Joel Osteen

oh boi

This guy… I don't quite like what this bootleg Jerry Seinfeld-looking Stepford Smiler peddles, and how much of a reach it has. I think it's a critical part of the decay of American Christianity… well, among a small litany of other things. He amounts to nothing more than a Christian-themed motivational speaker, if that. His emphasis on positive affirmation, absolutely banal and vapid treatment of Scripture, and his emphasis on wealth went from eliciting apathy from me to actual irritation. The themes of his preachings are diametrically opposed to the martyrdom and other suffering that especially the early Christians had undergone; in them are the absolute absence of teaching holy living. Forget mentioning the word "God" enough-- I live in a household and am part of a community that at least looks at him favorably, and I'm not sure if it's ever occurred to any of them that he probably has never preached about the Crucifixion and Resurrection. If he did, it was probably one of those "special sermons" that happen every so often with certain preachers so they can look like they're being subversive and breaking the norm when really they're breaking their own norms, with that speaking more about them than anything else.

(cont.)

4

Astatine, Resident Hijab Enthusiast

Aug 30, 2017 at 11:39PM EDT Astatine, Resident Hijab Enthusiast

(cont.)

I'm almost inclined to call him a heretic, but the actual heretics of old had guts. This isn't heresy… but whatever it is, it sucks.

That's kind of why I kind of lament why I had to defend him on this one.

Before the statement was released that they indeed had incurred flooding in the venue, some bloke had released a video going about the perimeter to show how unflooded the area was, as if the issue wasn't about the inside rather than the outside. Nobody seemed to ask "hey, is this venue actually suitable for shelter? Does it have running water? Can the people in there be fed? Is it Hydrocity Zone in there? After all, the church is in a city that got the most flooding."

(cont.)

2

Astatine, Resident Hijab Enthusiast

Aug 30, 2017 at 11:39PM EDT Astatine, Resident Hijab Enthusiast

(cont.)

It's as if the saying "it's the thought that counts" has been taken to mean "only the thought counts". As in, people were more concerned about the fact that he didn't open the church doors than they were about asking why he didn't or supposing legitimate reasons he would have for not doing so.

And even if we took the most cynical of mindsets, he doesn't stand to lose anything from sheltering these people, and in fact, has more to gain from it. This guy sells his image, so it would stand to reason that he could only better his reputation in letting people in. On the flip side, that reputation gets damaged if he legit decided to close the doors on people, as was demonstrated the past couple of days. It costs him nigh nothing to shelter them, and even it didn't, he's rich.

The reaction, to me, largely seemed like moralizing by people that care more about gestures than the long term logistics of said gestures. I generally can't stand Osteen's teachings, but I can't stand self-righteous posturing, either.

2

Luigifan

Aug 30, 2017 at 09:35PM EDT

As a Christian, my only response to this is "what the fuck is wrong with you?!?"

1

Charles Manson

Aug 30, 2017 at 07:33AM EDT

Fucking hell but that's a big church!

1

Penultimate Keyboard Cat

Aug 29, 2017 at 08:10PM EDT

I'm going to pray so hard for this man

*so hard

0

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