People Slam Celebrity Preacher Joel Osteen After Seeing His Latest Luxury Purchase

[Demovictory9]

https://www.unilad.co.uk/celebrity/people-slam-celebrity-preacher-joel-osteen-after-seeing-his-latest-luxury-purchase/

People Slam Celebrity Preacher Joel Osteen After Seeing His Latest Luxury Purchase

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People Slam Celebrity Preacher Joel Osteen After Seeing His Latest Luxury Purchase
Celebrity preacher Joel Osteen has come under fire after social media users spotted pictures of his flashy new purchase.

The pastor is known to be one of the wealthiest and most popular in the United States, having claimed on his website to reach as many as 200 million homes across the country through platforms such as broadcasts and podcasts.

Osteen heads the Lakewood Church, a megachurch located in Houston, Texas, after being ‘thrust into full-time leadership’ when his father passed away in 1999.


While pastors are not typically people we associate with flashiness, Osteen’s wealth was made evident in images that showed his new Ferrari which reportedly cost $325,000.


Twitter users were quick to slam the purchase online, with one person claiming the preacher ‘exploits religion and his followers to feed his own gluttony’.


Another Twitter user wrote: ‘Ferrari is trending. That means either someone won a race or Joel Osteen took some of the money Jesus told him to give to the poor and went on another shopping spree.’

[Hugh_Lebowski]

1. I'd say it's far from a perfect argument ... Osteen has sold bajillions of copies of books he wrote

I'm not defending JO in general but he has TONS AND TONS of his 'own' money, he wouldn't need to use church funds.

[Bucky]

3. Might be a good argument for raising his income tax rate, however

[Sherman A1]

5. Agreed

[mopinko]

25. does he pay taxes on "his" money

or does he funnel it through his tax shelter, i mean church.

[Bucky]

2. Osteentatious lifestyle

He's a heroic job creator, that one.

Mostly jobs in the Italian luxury car and tailoring industries, but at heroic levels

[malaise]

16. Nicely played

[Hassin Bin Sober]

26. Supply Side Jesus

[Solly Mack]

4. But god wanted him to have a Ferrari because wealth and luxe items are proof he's a good christian.

The more you have, the more god has blessed you.

Isn't that how prosperity gospel works? That's the selling point anyway.

And how do you show you're a good christian?

By sending money to Osteen so he can be blessed by god with a Ferrari.

Sure, it's disgusting.

But apparently a lot of people have bought into it.

[PortTack]

6. He's makes Jesus weep

[Renew Deal]

7. Taxing churches won't solve his shamelessness.

[Scrivener7]

22. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't do it.

[smirkymonkey]

8. Greed and Gluttony.

These televangelists are all so sickening. I cannot understand for the life of me why people give them money. They are all such hucksters.

[YoshidaYui]

9. HEY! Don't people know?

God himself came down and brought this car for him. It’s a miracle. Imagine that, God himself brought this car for him!

[Tadpole Raisin]

10. Never trust a

televangelist preacher who lives in luxury, lol!!

Did we learn nothing from Jim and Tammy Faye Baker oh so many decades ago?

Don’t answer that…

[TreasonousBastard]

11. Didn't Snopes say it's not his car?

He's still got too much money, though.

[woodsprite]

12. Guess he didn't make/bilk quite enough to build a rocket to get closer to heaven! nt

[Raster]

13. #FalseProfit #LetUsPrey

[Goonch]

14. Joel Osteen's House in Houston, TX

[Vinca]

15. Wow - and to think he's milking a guy who was purportedly born in a manger to buy it.

[Tadpole Raisin]

17. His version

of Hotel California. Greed, gluttony, avarice.

Totally RW

[keithbvadu2]

27. Parsonage

[dalton99a]

32. +1. Obscene.

[Rustyeye77]

39. That is some house.

Damn

[GoCubsGo]

51. Right?

That's no big deal, but they're upset about a damn car? He's been living there for years, and they had no problem forking their money over to him to buy and maintain that spread. Are they finally waking the hell up?

[Champp]

18. Republican religion-for-grifters totally sucks

SAVE ME from Republicans and their vile, fake "christianity"

[Bucky]

47. Far as I know, Osteen is explicitly not political

Trump actively pursued Osteen from the second he entered the race and throughout his four-year train wreck. But Osteen has not shared a venue or hinted at an endorsement of Trump, no matter how slavishly Bone Spurs begged for his endorsement.

They may share a deep devotion to the worship of the Almighty Dollar, but to his credit, Osteen is a relentlessly positive and uplifting figure who would never endorse racial intolerance, denigrate the working poor, or spread malicious lies in an attempt to overturn an election or kill off his enemies.

I'm no fan of the guy, but he's only shallow and materialistic, not a fascist. It's a mild hypocrisy he espouses and I kind of think in his heart of hearts he really does want everyone to just do well financially. He's not even remotely Christian in any serious theological sense.

[A HERETIC I AM]

19. Google "Kenneth Copeland Home"

That asshole bought a former Marine Corps Air Station so he would have his own runway to land his jets.

Yes…J E T S as in more than one

Tax. The. Fucking. Churches.

[AverageOldGuy]

23. WTF????????

I apologize to A HERETIC I AM for having a bit of doubt about the claim of Kenneth Copeland buying a former Marine Corps Air Station so he could use the runway for his jets.

IT'S TRUE!!!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Copeland_Airport

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Corps_Air_Station_Eagle_Mountain_Lake

https://www.kansascity.com/news/nation-world/article195841759.html


Excuse me while I puke.

[Bucky]

48. Copeland really is a disgusting grifter

Apparently Christians ain't so much with throwing the money changers out of the temple these days.

[blueinredohio]

20. Us "normal" people realize how wrong this is but

when will his followers wake up?

[Bucky]

50. He makes them feel good. He reassures them God wants them to roll in it

He dwells in positivity and material comforts, which while being nearly the exact opposite of Jesus, is not a horrible or dehumanizing doctrine to teach. It's not a Christian doctrine at all, but he's not preaching hate. They are getting something out of his spiritual snake oil.

[tavernier]

21. Jesus is big business.

As a Christian myself I haven’t seen the trickle down because I believe in God but despise organized religion.

It is kind of of interesting to see how much his face resembles that of a camel. Wonder how he will glide through the eye of that old proverbial needle.

[Mysterian]

24. Well, according to many of the Bezos shoe-lickers....

we're just jealous if we condemn Osteen's wealth.

[Corgigal]

28. Needed

Here

[keithbvadu2]

29. CBR - Cash Based Religion is now a major part of organized religion.

Judas was an early, modern-day, conservative disciple.

Judas got 30 pieces of silver, but just once, for selling Christ.

Franklin Graham, Joel Osteen, Pat Robertson, and their ilk get millions of dollars repeatedly for selling Christ.

Judas was a fool for doing a one-time sale.

[Sympthsical]

30. It's a false meme

That's not to say Osteen isn't a snake oiling shit heel, because he is.

But this is what I mean about Twitter. Totally false bit of information. Spreads everywhere. No one checks.

Why? Suits our purposes to pretend it's true.

Social media are the worst.

[Demovictory9]

34. I had assumed that the news sites reporting had vetted the topic

[Sympthsical]

35. Oh, I don't blame you at all

It was everywhere before you ever posted it, and as you said, it was on many reputable websites.

You'd think the websites would've at least checked.

[crickets]

38. Thanks for the heads up.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/joel-osteen-ferrari/

[kcr]

45. But it doesn't suit our purpose. It was a pointless meme.

Whether or not that specific car is his makes not one bit of difference.

[spanone]

31. Fuck this grifter. There are extra hot seats in hell for these tv hucksters

[musette_sf]

33. "'thrust into full-time leadership' when his father passed away in 1999"

I was no fan of the old man, but John Osteen wasn't the one who bought the Summit and turned it into Mondo Jeebus. It seems obvious to me that Joel was champing at the bit to take over "leadership" from Dad. "thrust" my @ss.

[Bucky]

41. I remember John Osteen from back in the day.

I knew he was a nutcase, but I had a lot of respect for him. In the 60s and 70s in Houston he was hated, hated for operating a racially integrated fundamentalist church. He and his daughter were injured when someone mailed him a bomb once.

My recollection is that the article's right. When Osteen senior passed on, everyone was expecting his daughter to pick up the mantle, because she had been working there, had the ministry training, had been preaching behind the pulpit there, and seemed to be the natural heir.

I'd have to look it up, but my impression is that she actually did run the church for a couple months until Joel lept in.

Anyway, I have a Chiti Adagonye moment when someone points out what a sharp hypersuccessful millionaire Joel Osteen is from promoting his unJesus-like Prosperity Gospel message.

[uponit7771]

36. Osteen sold how many best selling books at how many millions each? Not defending Olsteen as a perosn

... but the "Christians gotta be dirt poor" ignorance is gob smacking no?

tia

[Bucky]

42. They don't gotta be poor, they don't gotta wander the desert eating locusts...

Last edited Fri Jul 23, 2021, 07:35 AM - Edit history (1)

But it's a fundamental perversion of Christianity. If you're making millions and buying Italian sports cars to assage your midlife crisis, you're not living your life in an "imitation of Christ."

I mean, I'll cut him some slack. He's not preaching hatred and intolerance and contempt for the poor and less fortunate, like other mega church and broadcast "Christian pastors" do.

But he's wasting a prominent platform that can do a lot of good and he's actively distorting the purpose of living a spiritually connected life.

[uponit7771]

43. Who says so? non Christians or even Christians who don't read the bible at all? What in the bible ..

... says he can't own an Italian car company and still be a great believing bishop, pastor etc?

In the bible there were powerful women, rich males, influential children and very well off spiritual leaders and some that weren't well off at all.

JC made the point the material shouldn't own the person, if that's Olsteens life then good if not he has some work to do

Non Christians or Christians who don't read the bible tend to make up boundaries for people that JC didn't claim existed for everyone.

[Bucky]

46. You are correct the Bible does not prohibit Italian sports cars

Although, for the record, Jesus didn't have a lot of nice things to say to most of the Italians he met.

But while Jesus certainly never turned away any wealthy converts--both Lazarus and Mary Magdalene came from well to do families--he is quite explicit in the Bible about the role that the pursuit of wealth plays in our spiritual lives.

There's the camel through the eye of the needle; there's the parable of the widow with the two talents; there's the directive on the "deceitfulness of riches" in Mark. I don't know if Christ talked about anything more often than the corruption that comes with seeking excessive income

But most relevantly, there's the example of Jesus driving out the money lenders from the temple. It's pretty clear where Jesus of Nazareth stood on people leveraging religion to pursue the accumulation of gold.

I don't begrudge Joel Osteen any of the money he earns by running a big church and selling a lot of merch. But I do wish he'd be honest and own up that he's worshiping Mammon and just calling him "Jesus".

[uponit7771]

49. "Pursuit" here is lust after like Trump who errors on the side of doing the wrong thing for money...

"Pursuit" here is lust after like Trump who errors on the side of doing the wrong thing for money every single damn time he can.

One can pen a book in free time and get money and have a balanced life, Obama did it .. if Obama had 23 books he'd have more than Olsteen's money.

There's the camel through the eye of the needle;

That's not a metaphor,

The Eye Of The Needle was an actual gate that camels could EASILY pass through it but the camels baggage had to be separated at night. At first it was a winding passage, to your point being a rich believer is harder but people can strike their own balance.

Again, the point is not to make the possessions own the believer not to have no possessions or even a lot at all.

https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-25583,00.html

When i was at school one of the masters, a devout Christian, was given to explain aspects of the bible to doubters like myself. His explanation of Jesus's parable implied that a rich man wanting to enter the Kingdom of Heaven had to unload a lot of baggage, like a camel going through the "Eye of the Needle" gate in Jerusalem

I think the balance being struck in the preaching of "prosperity gospel" now in the US bears these theme out; some Christian leaders are focusing more on spiritual actualization via purpose and not conflating money with that concept any longer.

There are some rich and listless people who believe in higher beings

[Bucky]

52. Judging from the gospels, Jesus was one clever cookie

The whole point of a parable is to say two things at once and point your audience towards some analytical thought and personal wisdom. So yes, he was making a play on words with "the eye of a0 needle". He was making a social reference to a nearby landmark.

But what he says in Matthew 19 is literally, explicitly, incontrovertibly a metaphor. He was being witty, which is a critical skill in the teachings of the Jewish wisdom literature tradition.

Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

-- Matthew 19:21-24

[twin_ghost]

37. The Church he is pastor of is not paying for this car.

Osteen has made millions of dollars from the sale of books, audios and videos that he made independently of the church he is a pastor of. So he bought the car with his own money.

[Bucky]

40. That's true, kind of

The books he sold was based on him having a congregation and honing his Prosperity Gospel message there. The books were sold to his congregants, both televised and in person. The books he wrote and sold is essentially merchandising his spiritual leadership branch.

Just like the real money in the GI Joe cartoons is not in the audience, it's in the merch they sell. That's where the markup is; that's where the profit is. The Simpsons ratings are pretty weak compared to other shows. They don't command the sort of ad revenues that they could 15 to 20 years ago. But you got to keep putting on the cartoon show to legitimize the merchandise. The Joel Osteen cartoon show is using the same business model.

[onetexan]

44. goes to show organized religion is a scam & a way to manipulate weak-minded people.

These televangelists are scam artists scamming low income & retirees of their money.

[OnDoutside]

53. Contrast this POS to someone of the decency of Rev Barber.