Joel Osteen's megachurch closed to people seeking refuge from Hurricane Harvey

[knapplc]

Televangelist Joel Osteen's megachurch, Lakewood, would make an ideal place for refugees from Hurricane Harvey to seek shelter. As a former NBA arena it has massive capacity to shelter people. As an ostensibly "Christian" organization, it has a moral responsibility to.  But that hasn't happened, and Osteen is catching flak for it online.

 

In response to the shuttered doors and closed hearts, Lakewood released this statement on social media:

 

 

Biggest problem for Osteen?  Other people live in Houston. And they currently have internet access.

 

 

Osteen himself has claimed that he will open his doors once shelters are full.  In a statement to ABC News , Osteen says the church “will continue to be a distribution center for those in need” and is “prepared to house people once shelters reach capacity.”

 

A quick search shows that most shelters are already over capacity.

 

This is a Matthew 23 moment if ever there was one. 

 

[Red Five]

Sean Salisbury (yes, that Sean Salisbury) was on twitter last night ranting about this and showing video from the church.

[BigRedBuster]

 

[NM11046]

What a nozzle. 

 

I recently had a debate with the VP of my company who goes to one of these stadium churches.  He didn't convince me that it's not a scam (and I didn't lose my job, so I guess I stayed on the right side of tactful)

Texas is proud of it's biblical values, I get preached to on FB by folks there daily (cept' I started blocking them during the election) about how its a good place for good christians (vs. my sinning east coast lifestyle).  They better step up vocally against this guy.

[knapplc]

Nothing like a little public shaming to "encourage" this place to do the right thing.

 

 

 

 

[funhusker]

11 minutes ago, knapplc said:

Nothing like a little public shaming to "encourage" this place to do the right thing.

 

 

 

 

Matthew 6:3

 

But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

[zoogs]

My least favorite part of this is the one where they ask for donations and pretend like it's giving to Houston. "Help us help Houston."

[TGHusker]

Not a fan of Osteen - glad he and his church came to their senses and did the right thing. Sorrowful that it took 'shaming' for them to do so. 

[default_28]

In all honesty, it's no real surprise to me that a prosperity gospel church like Lakewood would not be proactive in a situation like this. Unfortunately, too many churches have a hard time seeing even beyond their own doors to what could be a very tangible way to show the love of Christ. It's not just Lakewood that drops the ball with this sort of situation, but hopefully now that they are helping, they'll go above and beyond to be the blessing that they claim God wants for the people of Houston.

[Moiraine]

I don't think Christians on the whole are much better than the general population when it comes to helping people. Saying this as a Christian who has been around a lot of hypocrites.

 

Not saying I'm better than the average person either, but I don't think I'm a hypocrite.

[Elaida]

11 hours ago, Moiraine said:

I don't think Christians on the whole are much better than the general population when it comes to helping people. Saying this as a Christian who has been around a lot of hypocrites.

 

Not saying I'm better than the average person either, but I don't think I'm a hypocrite.

 

Most people don't. 

[suh_fan93]

Joel Osteen.  The simpleton's savior.  I used to actually date a woman who I later found out would watch this guy.  Since he's doing 'God's work' maybe he can open up his house to people there in dire need too.

 

  

[TGHusker]

14 hours ago, Moiraine said:

I don't think Christians on the whole are much better than the general population when it comes to helping people. Saying this as a Christian who has been around a lot of hypocrites.

 

Not saying I'm better than the average person either, but I don't think I'm a hypocrite.

I think you need to go revisit your post..   Start doing a bit of research and you may want to retract that statement.    Look at  all of the giving done by individual Christian churches, Christian based relief agencies (World Vision, Compassion Int'l, Samaritan's purse .. the list could go on and on), Salvation Army, all kinds of  church denominational  based relief agencies, etc - all that respond to a crisis like this much less their day to day outreach to the poor, hurting, homeless, etc.  There would be too many to name here in one post.  Most individual Christians will do their giving through these organizations - because they know where it is going. 

Don't broad-brush all of Christendom by one guy who would be sitting on the wrong side of the 'money changer's table' that Jesus turned over-- or by those hypocrites you many see (news alert - we are all hypocrites one way or another - do we always do the thing we know to do?  That is why we need grace.)   

[RedDenver]

34 minutes ago, TGHusker said:

I think you need to go revisit your post..   Start doing a bit of research and you may want to retract that statement.    Look at  all of the giving done by individual Christian churches, Christian based relief agencies (World Vision, Compassion Int'l, Samaritan's purse .. the list could go on and on), Salvation Army, all kinds of  church denominational  based relief agencies, etc - all that respond to a crisis like this much less their day to day outreach to the poor, hurting, homeless, etc.  There would be too many to name here in one post.  Most individual Christians will do their giving through these organizations - because they know where it is going. 

Don't broad-brush all of Christendom by one guy who would be sitting on the wrong side of the 'money changer's table' that Jesus turned over-- or by those hypocrites you many see (news alert - we are all hypocrites one way or another - do we always do the thing we know to do?  That is why we need grace.)   

Moiraine isn't saying Christians aren't helping others; she's saying they aren't any more likely to do so than the rest of humanity. You'd have to show that those Christian organizations are doing more to help others than non-Christian orgs. I very much doubt that's the case.

[knapplc]

Much publicity was made of the fact that mosques in Houston were among the first to not only open their doors to refugees, but to distribute supplies.

 

Christians have done an excellent job giving to charities.  They are not alone in doing so, and without any kind of data to show that they give at a higher percentage than non-Christians, it's probably best not to make such claims.