Joel Osteen finally opened his Houston church to flood evacuees on Tuesday
I think I should expand my Celebitchy portfolio to more coverage of hypocritical televangelists and their shady dealings. I enjoyed writing yesterday’s story on Joel Osteen, the wealthy “man of God” who refused to open his Houston megachurch to Hurricane Harvey evacuees. Osteen was widely shamed and mocked on Twitter on Monday, with congregants and critics alike all slamming him for doing so little for Houston residents. Osteen has taken millions of dollars in tithes from those same residents, but apparently Prosperity Jesus doesn’t want pastors to get in the habit of sheltering the homeless, aiding the infirm or helping the needy. You’d think there would be some Bible verse about all of that, but Joel Osteen never heard of it.
The few Osteen-defenders out there claimed that the Houston church had been flooded too, and provided evidence in the form of photos of the temporarily flooded underground parking lot. By all accounts, the actual stadium-seating church was unscathed, and despite shady reports to the contrary, there were cars parked in the church’s mostly dry parking lot on Monday. Finally, the social media shaming got to Joel Osteen, and he finally opened up Lakewood Church to evacuees on Tuesday:
Joel Osteen’s church finally opened to Houston evacuees Tuesday morning, but several videos make it seem like they could have provided relief much earlier. A local resident shot a video Monday at 7 AM inside one of Lakewood Church’s underground parking areas … and it’s damn near bone-dry. The resident acknowledges the lot was flooded over the weekend when Hurricane Harvey was at its worst.
On Monday, Lakewood officials said the church was closed due to severe flooding — but fact is there was no outside evidence of that more than 24 hours ago. Plus, witnesses tell us church staffers and security were on the grounds Monday. The church released photos showing flooding on Sunday evening into Monday morning … near the lower level entrances of the building. The question: why the delay in opening the doors? In any event, the first evacuees started arriving at Lakewood Tuesday around 12:30 PM local time.
For let he who has not been shamed on the internet cast the first stone. Honestly though, I didn’t do the chronology correctly: before Osteen finally deigned to allow evacuees into Lakewood, the church issued this statement on Tuesday morning: “We are prepared to shelter people once the cities and county shelters reach capacity. Lakewood will be a value to the community in the aftermath of this storm in helping our fellow citizens rebuild their lives.” That statement got even more backlash, because it made it sound like Osteen would only help out at the last possible moment, after all of the taxpayer-funded remedies had been exhausted. Keep in mind, Joel Osteen’s church has a tax exemption. He doesn’t pay taxes. So, yeah. I guess the only way Joel Osteen could show his face in Houston again was if he just opened up the f–king doors of his church.
Evacuees arrive at Lakewood Church after its pastor, Joel Osteen, received criticism for initial #Harvey response https://t.co/SCGPSqr8Jq pic.twitter.com/MM7YuqquoB
— ABC News (@ABC) August 29, 2017
Photos courtesy of Getty.
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