On October 14th, Joel Osteen, the man behind Houston's Lakewood Church, was interviewed on CBS's 60 Minutes. On any given Sunday, over 7 million people worldwide tune in to his sermons to be inspired and motivated to make a change in their lives. Recently, prominent theologians have criticized Osteen's work and have said that he is deluding religion and is making a mockery of Christianity.
Below is a link to the interview:
60 Minutes Interview
After watching the full 11 plus minutes of this interview, I was struck by many things. First of all, the space in which Osteen preaches every week is an old basketball arena which he and his wife spent over $100 million to renovate. One hundred million dollars? Does this not seem a little excessive? I was blown away at what Osteen was willing to shell out for what he calls a life of health, wealth, and happiness. He teaches people to stay positive and to believe in the good Lord, for he will provide if you think happy thoughts. Misleading? I think so. Is he doing a disservice to his followers? He must be doing something right because the church raises over $43 million a year and gets an additional $30 million a year through the mail. But Osteen does draw the line somewhere. He never asks for money on TV. He waits to pass around huge silver buckets when the cameras are off...how Christian of him.
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