Joel Osteen hasn’t opened his Houston megachurch to flooding victims
Throughout Monday, there were some really bad reports about Joel Osteen and his Houston megachurch, Lakewood Church. Osteen is one of those pastors preaching the gospel of wealth – aka, if you’re rich, God wants you to be rich and you don’t necessarily have to care about the poor, just as long as you tithe a lot to Lakewood Church. Lakewood has room for more than 50,000 congregants, plus there are lots of open spaces which could have conceivably been used for cots, sleeping bags, etc, all in the wake of the historic Texas flooding. Lakewood kept its doors closed to people seeking shelter from the storm though. When Osteen was being criticized heavily on social media, he released a statement:
“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.”
[Via USA Today]
The problem was that Osteen and his church initially claimed that Lakewood’s basement/first floor experienced flooding too, and one of Lakewood’s congregants posted these photos of the flooding issue at Lakewood:
Seriously quite sickening when people spread negative news without knowing the situation. This is the situation of our church @lakewoodch pic.twitter.com/0KKBmu6hW8
— Lynne Gabriel (@heyitslynneg) August 28, 2017
As people pointed out in her comments, those are photos of the underground parking garage and basement. The actual “stadium” part of the church is a lot higher. Which brings me to the other photos people posted on social media, about the lack of flooding around the church:
Houston's @indivisible_usa is acquainted with @JoelOsteen's Lakewood Church. They took these pics about an hour ago w/ commentary. pic.twitter.com/YTWrD9UG1z
— Charles Clymer
. It doesn't make sense why you're not opening up your mega church to house Houston citizens, help me understand that. Jesus. pic.twitter.com/CzCiEtbkgY
— Emily Timbol (@EmilyTimbol) August 28, 2017
Even TMZ got in on it, noting that Osteen was merely tweeting about the flood and not doing anything about it. Church officials spoke to TMZ and claimed that even if they wanted to open Lakewood as a shelter, “the streets surrounding the church are already so flooded … Lakewood is inaccessible.” So inaccessible that there were a bunch of cars parked in the parking lot yesterday? It’s also worth noting that Houston’s mosques have all opened their doors for anyone of any religion to seek shelter.
Here’s the chaser: Osteen has a $10 million mansion in Houston’s affluent River Oaks neighborhood, a neighborhood which was affected by flooding, although it seems Osteen’s home was unaffected. And he hasn’t offered his home as a shelter either.
Sending thoughts and prayers to Houston's most famous evangelical preacher, Joel Osteen. Hopefully the Lord will spare his modest home. pic.twitter.com/HbYw59C3Sk
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) August 28, 2017
Photos courtesy of WENN, Backgrid.
Source: Joel Osteen hasn’t opened his Houston megachurch to flooding victims
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