Y'all know about Joel Osteen?
Drive I-610 through Houston at night, and you're bound to see a big glowing cross shining out at you from the darkness. That's Joel Osteen's place, Lakewood Church. The sanctuary is the size of a stadium, with 16,800 seats.
It's a rich, rich church. Prosperity gospel, you know the drill.
Back in 2017, Hurricane Harvey came up the Gulf of Mexico and sat itself down on Houston for three days, dumping ungodly amounts of rain on the city the whole time. Let's be clear here--Houston knows flooding. Walk anywhere in Houston and you'll see floodwater channels running for miles, the drainage system is very extensive. Harvey still ruined Houston. Addicks Dam broke! One of my coworkers was in the flood zone--his whole first floor was ruined. It was an awful, awful time.
As the city flooded, people started fleeing their homes, seeking refuge wherever they could. And some of them came running to Lakewood. Makes sense, right? It's a big, sturdy building, and it's a house of God to boot. Taking care of the needy is the sort of thing a church is supposed to do, and people were desperately needy in the face of the storm.
Everyone was struggling to weather the storm, so everyone was reaching out to help each other survive. Most famously, Mattress Mack threw open the doors to his furniture stores to refuges, even sent his moving trucks out to rescue people stranded on the highway or in their homes. But Lakewood Church? Locked tight.
Of course, Joel Osteen was tweeting about how much he was praying for the flood victims. People started tweeting back, asking why his church was closed when refugees needed shelter. He claimed that the church was flooding, too.
(sorry for the Twitter link, not sure how else to show the video)
More callouts ensued. Finally, on August 29th, four days after Harvey made landfall, Lakewood Church opened its doors.
Fuck Joel Osteen, fuck Lakewood, and fuck every single prosperity gospel grifter out there scamming people in the name of Jesus.
blakekathryn
jacobvanloon
theartofmadeline
kianamaiart
