Joel Osteen? Well, I don’t know…
As America looks for its successor to Billy Graham, I continue my search for the Evangelical Pussy Wuss of the Century. Perhaps Joel Osteen can be both. He seems a fitting representative of the modern American church. The New York Times (July 18, 2005) reports Mr. Osteen’s church raked in a cool $55 million. Such financial acumen has landed Mr. Osteen on Larry King Live, where the megachurch preacher made himself infamous among certain hardshelled fundamentalists who complained that Mr. Osteen had denied the gospel. Here’s what Mr. Osteen told Larry:
KING: What if you’re Jewish or Muslim, you don’t accept Christ at all?
OSTEEN: You know, I’m very careful about saying who would and wouldn’t go to heaven. I don’t know …
KING: If you believe you have to believe in Christ? They’re wrong, aren’t they?
OSTEEN: Well, I don’t know if I believe they’re wrong. I believe here’s what the Bible teaches and from the Christian faith this is what I believe. But I just think that only God will judge a person’s heart. I spent a lot of time in India with my father. I don’t know all about their religion. But I know they love God. And I don’t know. I’ve seen their sincerity. So I don’t know. I know for me, and what the Bible teaches, I want to have a relationship with Jesus.
KING: What about atheists?
OSTEEN: You know what, I’m going to let someone — I’m going to let God be the judge of who goes to heaven and hell. I just — again, I present the truth, and I say it every week. You know, I believe it’s a relationship with Jesus. But you know what? I’m not going to go around telling everybody else if they don’t want to believe that that’s going to be their choice. God’s got to look at your own heart. God’s got to look at your heart, and only God knows that.
Not satisfied with that virtuoso performance, Mr. Osteen recently returned to Larry King Live, and pronounced that “I see faith in America at an all-time high.” Yes, well I guess making $55,000,000 per year, and being able to sell the gospel at 10$ a ticket, as Mr. Osteen does, would make one somewhat optimistic. Mr. Osteen then went on to say concerning the current Christ-figure in the White House:
It matters to me that I know he [Obama] loves the Lord, and I think it’s important that he has convictions from his faith. So to me, it matters when I’m making my personal decisions.
On June 1, our beloved President, operating from the convictions of his faith, signed a proclamation which contained the following
“LGBT [Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transexual] Americans have made, and continue to make, great and lasting contributions that continue to strengthen the fabric of American society…”
Now, President Obama knows how to act from his Christian convictions, doesn’t he? He apparently is more convinced about the value of sodomy to American society than Mr. Osteen is convinced about the necessity of Jesus for the salvation of Hindus, Jews, and atheists. So, Mr. Osteen, you are hereby nominated for the Evangelical Pussy Wuss of the Month.
Well, Jesus said that he came to us to divide us not unite us. Mr. Osteen by his comments is trying not to unit us all under one God. This way does not offend those outside the Christian church, but he is knowingly offending the true Christian church. I’m guessing like a true Evangelical Pussy Wuss he believes that the true church will forgive him or maybe he believes only God can judge his heart. Like a good businessman, because a mega church is a large business, Osteen must maintain a product that appeals to the masses worldwide. Imagine a product, a distorted version of the Gospel message preached worldwide through ticket sales and books. It’s a true cash machine making money on printed word and spoken word. Not real manufacturing overhead. Better yet it’s not even taxed like a real business. It does not offend and divide like the true Gospel does. Package it all up with a dash of Pussy Wus Mentality and sell the people a “positive non offending mega lie. I nominated Osteen as the Mega Pussy Wus of the month.