An elaborate Internet hoax including fake websites, a Twitter feed and a YouTube video, had many people believing that megachurch pastor Joel Osteen was leaving the Christian faith.
The man behind the hoax explained his motives to NPR. Meanwhile, hoax or not, many Christians chide Osteen for his ‘Christianity Lite’ approach.
On CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight” Joel Osteen spoke about homosexuality and said he believed it to be a sin in his eyes.
The wife of televangelist Joel Osteen thanked and praised God after a jury unanimously decided Thursday that she did not assault a flight attendant during an alleged tirade over a stain on her first-class seat.
“I’m glad it’s over,” Victoria Osteen said afterward. “I expected it because it’s the truth and I know the truth always stands firm.”
A Continental Airlines flight attendant who is suing Lakewood Church co-pastor Victoria Osteen, accusing her of attacking her on a plane, told a jury Tuesday she had once described Osteen and her husband, evangelist Joel Osteen, as the “devil” and their church a “cult,” but has since changed her opinion.
“I don’t believe they’re the devil,” Sharon Brown said near the end of her testimony on Tuesday.
The wife of megachurch evangelist Joel Osteen told jurors Friday she was “dumbfounded” and “shook up” after a flight attendant accused her of assaulting her over a spill on a first-class seat.
Victoria Osteen, in court because the flight attendant is suing her, said she pushed no one and even ended up cleaning the spill that sparked the incident herself.
Osteen and her family were on Brown’s flight from Houston to Vail, Colo., two years ago when, according to court documents, witnesses said Osteen became upset about a spill on the armrest of her first-class seat.
She asked the flight attendants to clean up the spill and when they did not respond quickly enough, Osteen became confrontational, according to documents filed in the civil case that goes to trial today.
Preaching half a gospel message brings Joel Osteen big crowds.
He has not taken a salary from his Houston megachurch for two years. He owns one house — the same one he and his wife, Victoria, have lived in for 13 years — and until recently he drove a 9-year-old car he inherited from his late father. Osteen pays his own hotel bills, and there is no private jet.
Christianity Lite preacher Joel Osteen preaches what people want to hear. The world eats it up.
The popular pastor’s message of prosperity and forgiveness attracts massive crowds. Osteen, who has gained international prominence as a pastor and best-selling author, has turned the church into the country’s largest with more than 40,000 members. His followers flock to hear sermons laced with themes of faith and positivity.