Joel Osteen — senior pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas — is finally agreeing to shelter flood victims in his massive arena-turned-church.
Osteen was initially dragged on Twitter — briefly becoming a nationally trending topic on the social media platform — for not accepting flood victims despite the interior of his building being suitable for shelter. A tweet from author Charles Clymer showed the inside of
Lakewood Church with air mattresses inside of a hallway, implying that the building was being prepared as an emergency shelter for Houstonians who were displaced by Hurricane Harvey:
Lakewood Church with air mattresses inside of a hallway, implying that the building was being prepared as an emergency shelter for Houstonians who were displaced by Hurricane Harvey:
Lakewood Church apparently bought countless air mattresses and are prepping to open their doors. Took a while but good news.#JoelOsteen
Hurricane Harvey is continuing to hover over Southeast Texas, dumping more than 9 trillion gallons of water on the city as of Monday morning, with several more feet of rain expected in the coming days. The resulting flooding may end up displacing as many as 30,000 people, according to FEMA administrator Brock Long. The American Red Cross is operating out of the George R. Brown Convention Center, which they say is equipped to shelter only 5,000 flood victims.
Osteen’s Lakewood Church — which seats 16,000 at a time — is located in the exceedingly wealthy River Oaks neighborhood of Houston, and used to be known as the Compaq Center. When accounting for all weekly services, Osteen’s total congregation amounts to more than 40,000 people, making it the largest Protestant congregation in the United States. Osteen also ranks among the top eight richest pastors in the country, with a net worth of more than $40 million. He and his family live in a $10.5 million home — all made possible by Osteen’s tax-exempt church.
Given Osteen’s tremendous wealth and the size of his church, some Houstonians expected the pastor to open the doors of his facility to some of the thousands of locals whose homes have been submerged under the relentless rain pounding Southeast Texas. Gizmodo writer Matt Novak did some digging and found out that along with Osteen initially not sheltering flood victims, his church wasn’t even flooded.
To underscore this point, he linked to a Houston Chronicle article about a furniture store just down the street from Lakewood Church that is opening its doors to flood victims. Novak also reminded his followers that the IRS code only allows churches to have tax exempt status based on the implication that they’re operating for the good of the public.
Descriptions from the church use strange language and don’t actually say that the church itself has been flooded. pic.twitter.com/TFLP3boTHM
Gallery Furniture just down the street for Osteen’s church opened the doors to its warehouse for use as a shelter http://www.chron.com/news/houston-weather/hurricaneharvey/article/Gallery-Furniture-opening-I-45-North-location-as-12018531.php …
If you have any info on the state of Lakewood Church send it this way https://twitter.com/cmclymer/status/902186214769479680 …
Here’s a photo that’s purports to show the road in front of @JoelOsteen‘s Lakewood Church. Doesn’t look flooded. https://twitter.com/AlleyCat_Allie/status/902207204522172416 …
The people of Osteen’s city are suffering and his doors are closed. His “church” is coordinating nothing. Again, this guy operates tax-free.
The US allows churches tax free status on the understanding that they’re operating for the public good. Hard to make that case here.
Twitter Ads info and privacySeveral Houstonians have allegedly told Novak that Osteen blocked them from his official Twitter account when they asked him why he wasn’t sheltering flood victims. Novak then tweeted that not only does Lakewood Church appear to be safe from the floodwaters, the building’s underground garage is also dry.
I’ve seen two people so far claim that Osteen blocked them for asking about helping Houston. https://twitter.com/facialmerkin/status/902226266773790721 …
People on the ground at Osteen’s Lakewood megachurch claim that even the underground parking isn’t flooded https://twitter.com/cmclymer/status/902254954181775360 …
However, while the pastor of America’s largest Protestant congregation hadn’t yet opened his doors as of Monday evening despite thousands of residents seeking shelter, three of the facilities listed as public shelters for flood victims are Islamic centers:
-gritpost
I made this so the world can see what true Americans look like, and what anti-Americans look like.Retweet if you agree. #HurricaneHarvey pic.twitter.com/3yXXrRtZFF
Three of the dozen or so shelters IN Houston are Muslim community spaces. No word yet from Joel Osteen whether he’l
